Joyce Wasira - a sad story of grandmother of Derick - our Whisper child

Derick - a child who joined our school in May 2011, he used to have severe active skin infection on his head and body. He was very low in confidence and spoke no word in English. All has changed now!

There is a little boy who comes to school at Whisper. His name is Derick. Up until a couple of months ago, he was living across the road from us in a house with his grandmother; Joyce Wasira. One day in February,  he said that he couldn't go home. I was skeptical and asked him why. He said there was no one there. His grandmother had been thrown in jail and his brothers were not home to look after him. 

Always loving and helpful lady Joyce,
who would donate to us fruits from her garden

Back on New Year's day, there was a big commotion coming from their house. I went to the gate to see what was going on…of course I didn't understand a word that was being said. Through Baba William I learned that the owner of the land was back and unhappy with that his land had been rented out to a sugar cane company. The owner was Joyce's estranged husband who had left back in 2011, leaving Joyce with children and grandchildren to provide for and absolutely no means. 

I started walking to get a matatu to take into Jinja soon after and as I was on the road, Joyce comes running up beside me. She is running to get the police. "They have beaten me" she says, very upset and out of breath. She gestures to her forehead and there is a swelling red bump. I try to get to her to explain further what has happened, but she is overwhelmed. So instead I do what I can and give her money for a boda boda to the police and back. 

Jump forward about 3 weeks, during which time I had been very sick with malaria and then busy with the children's return to school. Then in February, Derick comes to me and tells me there is no one at his home. I thought at first that he was just saying it so that he could stay, because he likes it at Whisper. But then I learned that Joyce had been thrown in jail and was under court order to repay one million shillings upon release. And his brothers were not around to care for him.

Lisa Lai in May 2012 with Derick, beside smiling grandmother Joyce

Side note: The resiliency of children never ceases to amaze me. Derick has been one of the most loving, caring little boys I have met out here. He has such a gentle spirit that belies his situation and lack of steady parental figure in his life. Just this past week I was woken up in the middle of the night by screaming coming from across the road. Evidently one of the brothers had come home staggering drunk and had kept Derick out and the women were just enraged. There is the pull to just go in there and pull the child out. But Derick came to school the next day, I asked him how he was, he said "I'm fine auntie".  

So we took Derick in and it was refreshing to be able to care for him beyond school hours. He has such a quiet creativity and playfulness. And he is such a good listener! But as is the program at Whisper, it came the time, when his brothers came back; we took Derick back. They invited us to sit down and I asked to know more about what their current situation was. Then we got the whole story. 

Back in 2011, Joyce's husband left her and took his two daughters from another marriage to live in Kampala. Joyce had many people to support and zero means to do so. So she made an agreement with a sugar cane grower to rent a portion of her land out and in return was compensated with one million shillings. Word ended up getting back to the estranged husband and he came back; very upset that she would do this. Though Joyce has been married to him for twenty years, the wife he had before her was married to him for forty years and thereby her daughters had more claim to the land than Joyce did. The husband said she had no right to make that sort of decision. There was a big fight (New Year's Day) and he had the sugar cane removed and the grower demanded the compensation back. Obviously the money was not there any longer and the grower took Joyce to court. They found her guilty and put her in prison for one year and commanded she pay the grower back the one million upon her release. 

All of this is very distressing to hear. Joyce is being completely railroaded and the people in her corner do not have the resources to help her. They have enlisted a lawyer who is confident they could fight these charges, but they do not have the full two hundred thousand shillings necessary to retain him. When Joyce gets out, they are going to sort out a payment plan for her to pay the one million shillings back, but with no income and resources, how will she possibly be able to? 

I don't even know what to say. I have seen so many countless women mistreated in a variety of ways. It is heartbreaking every time. They have no education, they have numerous generations of people to support and often, they are abandoned by the person who promised to travel this life with them.

We are still researching the situation and will do whatever possible for Joyce Wasira, but the road for her will continue to be an uphill one. 

Blog written by volunteer Sienna Holden