Ashiraf’s Story

Ashiraf’s mother passed away when he was just 6 years old and he was left in the hands of his father. His father did not seem to love or support him at all, and due to his father’s unwillingness to pay school fees, Ashiraf had to drop out of school. While living with his father, Ashiraf was subjected to physical abuse, deliberate starvation and other forms of neglect. In order to save himself, Ashiraf ran away and found himself living on the street both day and night for five years. While there, Ashiraf would eat from trash bins, beg for money during the day and sleep on the hard ground at night. When he was caught stealing food out of desperation, Ashiraf recounts the beatings he would be subjected to from the police. Ashiraf and his friends tell the story of how the police would find the young boys sleeping on the street, and as a game to entertain themselves, would wake the children up and force the boys to fight each other or they would “face the batons”. To escape from the anguish of this mental and physical abuse, and the physical pain from hunger, Ashiraf began huffing jet fuel oil- as many street children in Jinja do. The drugs numbed his pain and allowed him to sleep at night, but they affected his physical and mental state. As a result of this difficult life, AShiraf began to fall sick and his health deteriorated. He started to lose hope for his life and for his future.

In May of 2021, Ashiraf was one of 6 young children who were found living on the streets of Jinja and who volunteered to play a role in the PFP video filming project. As it soon became clear that Ashiraf had a desire to return to school and to move away from street life, PFP helped to make that dream a reality. Ashiraf has now been welcomed into our full program and school fees, a loving home and financial support will be provided indefinitely. Ashiraf will reside at PFP’s Hope Home while we search for a safe and loving family member that he may be reunited with. Should we not be able to find a safe place for him, Ashiraf will have a home with PFP. He will now be able to look toward his future with hope and the goal will remain to see him find joy in life and to be empowered to rise up out of the poverty he was born into.