Meet Pius, he’s a very busy guy. During the day he heads up our welfare team and in his spare time he is caretaker of the boys section of our expanding children’s home, currently with 19 lads.
He began his affiliation with CoH four years ago when he was sent to do an internship at the school looking after children. He would walk younger children to school, serve them porridge and oversee their playtimes. He was delighted that CoH paid his study fees for his last year of University which helped him to obtain a Diploma in Social Work, after which he worked at CoH without pay for a while to refund the money.
Since becoming employed by CoH, Pius has become an extremely useful staff member and this year was promoted to Welfare Team manager, with four staff in his team. This team plays a vital role in the life of CoH and does pretty ground-breaking work, bearing in mind that Uganda does not have an effective welfare system, especially in the Namatala slum. These five people are regularly saving young children from abuse, sickness and death.
For the past four years Pius has been running the boys department of our children's home. He’s a christian and says his love for God is his motivation for all the wonderful work he does. Caring for 19 boys in the home is a very demanding job and he finds little or no time off for socialising… although, at least, all the boys are very involved in the running of the home, helping with cooking, washing clothes and keeping the home clean.
He has four brothers and three of his five sisters are still alive. One of his sisters was a teacher at CoH school but died two years ago of complications in pregnancy. He now pays school fees for his orphaned nephew as well as his younger sister and brother. He has rented a house for them in Mbale and also visits his mother as often as possible.