Whisper. Altogether making a difference to children in Uganda: Meet Diana's father

BABY DIANA - STORY CONTINUE

Baby Diana has grown into a happy, smiley and beautiful little lady for the last 9 Months since she is in our care.

About three weeks ago she could stand by herself and she appeared incredibly happy every time she achieved standing without any support.

Last week, Diana made her first 7 steps on her own, it was the moment when I felt very proud of this little fighter. Such moments bring the tears of joy into ones eyes.

Whisper decided to take the first steps in applying for her passports last week, and since things are complicated in Uganda because of child trafficking we needed to get a concern of her immediate family.

This is when we decided to track down her real father.

Two weeks before that we visited her step grandmother and aunties, informing them about Diana and they all refused to neither speak to the father or guide us where he stays.

So we just took the name and decided to drive to the far village on our own along with Diana.

After about an hour and half long drive, we stopped at the training centre and asked locals for a gentleman called Isabiry Livingstone.

Two gentlemens would guide us to the deep village, where Diana's father should be staying.

We drove the car through a small muddy road, surrounded by mud houses.

When we reached a small mudhouse on a nice and cleaned compound , we noticed an older man, standing there. When I looked at him, all energy around me was telling me "it must be him".

He appeared very tiny with only 5 teeth remaining in his mouth. His eyes said it all, it was Diana's father.

After questioning him, he looked at Diana, he said: " this is my child."

I could already feel sadness in my heart. Without much explanation I could already feel what the situation must have been like when Diana's mother was still alive. From the fathers body language which appeared very calm and humble.

When he took Diana to his arms, he just smiled and could not believe how beautiful she looked. Suddenly all neighbours were around Diana wanted to see how she looked like. Actually nobody could believe it was her when they saw her.

At this point I stopped believing that Diana's father would be ever able to kill her. We could see that he just simply was not that kind of man.

We took Livingstone to Jinja to meet with the probation officer and get to see our orphanage where Diana's stays. When he said he has to change into his best clothes, and instead of putting on some decent trousers and shirt, he came out with a very old pair of trousers full of holes and marks, some old shirt and vest and with one of the worst pair of shoes I have ever seen...

We also got to see Diana's aunties and uncles from the fathers side and it appeared that even the students from nearby primary school knew this family and Diana's story. They all came by the car appreciating Diana's appearance with comments full of wonder.

It was a very emotional experience for me, because being with Diana from the very beginning, seeing her so small, malnourished. Her story also inspired a New Vision Papers, and they mentioned about this and our work on the 23th of April 2013. You can read the online version here: http://www.newvision.co.ug/news/642026-whisper-resuscitates-hope-for-children-in-jigger-infested-communities.html

A journalist used Diana's story for an article
about Whisper.

As soon as we arrived to Jinja city, we had some nice dinner, we took Livingstone to the market and got him two pairs of new trousers, two shirts, new shoes, socks (his socks were full of BIG holes), underwear. He was incredibly happy and so proud!!

We accommodated him next to my home for around £2.50 a night for the weekend, we took him to the orphanage home and as soon as he saw the kids coming up to us, happy and jolly, his eyes only shined!

When he entered the class and saw all the kids sitting there and being so content, he just shined in disbelief. We could all sense the energy of his appreciation to help the children as well as Diana.

There is nothing that would tell us he is a bad man ready to kill his own daughter.

He began to tell us his story about his life with his beloved wife - the mother of Diana.

Livingstone with his new shirt & trouses

He said: "the life was a struggle. I simply cannot manage to care for the children. My wife had other 3 children which died. One of them had epilepsy and there were other twins who could not survive the harsh living conditions in the village - they were 4 years old." Diana would have been another child, if Whisper didn't come along to rescue her."

"I feel bad every time I think of my wife. Sometimes I can not eat. I am very sad".

Diana's father now lives on his own, and he said "I don't eat, it is only here when I have meals, but I can just cook a tea for myself and have some chapatti".

Every morning he goes to milk a cow, in return he takes 2l of milk which he then sells. So his monthly income is around 30.000 Ugandan Shillings a month, which is around £7.50.

Every day he would welcome us with a huge smile on his face and he would never ask for anything more other than small money for chapati and water. (yet of course we would always buy him some meat).

He is now co-operating with us on further documents. He loves to hold Diana, and look at her. He always smiles at her with a big joy.

We will be observing him and if all goes well and will prove to be someone else than previously described by Diana's aunties, we will be assisting him to easy his life.