Joyce Mary is an Itesot girl born in 2007 with her ancestral home in Pallisa district in Eastern Uganda and the only child to her mother who died in 2009 when she was only 2 years old.
After the demise of her mother, she was abandoned by her father as he could not take care of such a little child. She was rescued by her paternal aunt who rents in Namatala slum in Mbale where she has stayed to-date.
Her stay with her auntie has been filled with ups and downs since the aunt had no stable job hence could not finance her education. All she could do was to fetch water for people operating local kiosks in Bugwere market. As Joyce grew up, she eventually joined her auntie’s job of fetching water.
One impressive morning, as CRO social workers were conducting a day survey, they came across this young girl carrying two Jerry cans of water, a 10litre on the head and a 5Ltr in her right hand as she struggled to cross the road. She was interviewed and brought to CRO. During that brief period, a lot was observed in her, she was reserved, looked malnourished and traumatized as well, and she could not even play with colleagues. So a home visit was conducted, counseling was done to both Joyce and the care giver. And to help Joyce overcome the trauma and torture, she was enrolled for rehabilitation class in March 2016 so that she would continue receiving the Psychosocial Support.
While in this rehabilitation, Joyce has become hardworking, friendly and jolly, enjoys eating posho and beans, playing games especially; “hide and seek”. Besides that, she loves singing.
She verily thanks CRO and she says “may God bless CRO. When I grow up, I would like to be nurse. So that I can treat people and they don’t die the way my mum died”.