A DARK THURSDAY TO FOREVER HAUNT US

I share this story with to much pain in my heart , it was around 12 am Thursday 16th and I was set to sleep , that's when I had the area microphone testing 1, 2 . My heart skipped because in most cases the night announcements are always about death announcements . It is our way of communication within the neighbourhood it is loud enough to reach almost everyone In the area .

I learnt that the announcement was about school children from the neighbourhood who got an accident while coming back from a 3 days trip , the school is known as KIND DAVID PRIMARY SCHOOL the bus contained 107 pupils and the number of the dead pupils is still confusing up to now , i hard about 46 and 53 it is yet to be confirmed , the accident happened upcountry many where seriously injured and hospitalized . The cause of the accident is that the bus had mechanical faults with the breaks https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSX5C6Bmn/ This post is shared via TikTok Lite. Download TikTok Lite to enjoy more posts: https://www.tiktok.com/tiktoklite.

The news was so sad , I felt so bad imagining how the parents would feel losing a child is the worst expirence ever , I was so disturbed and decided to join the parents who were at school , it was so heartbreaking seeing parents struggling to find out whether each ones child is dead or alive , thank God the minister and his team made it to the scene on time , making sure every child got medical help , they divided them into 2 the critical ones were sent to the referral hospital of Mbale district and those who sustained minor injuries were treated in Kapchora hospital . From kampala where we are to the accident scene it is a 5 to 6 hours drive , so you can imagine the tension the parents had , those who received bad news could not bear , we all cried , a moment of grief , there is a parent who lost 3 children at ago she could not hundle she fainted and was rushed to the hospital , another one lost 2 https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSX5uJyLV/ This post is shared via TikTok Lite. Download TikTok Lite to enjoy more posts: https://www.tiktok.com/tiktoklite

There was a couple who struggled for 10 good years to get a child then God blessed them with 1 child who Did not make it , I was almost drowning in my own tears , though I tried hard not to show the parents my aim was to comfort them , another parent ( woman ) was crying stating that " his father refused him from going I paid from my up keep money , how will I break the news ? " . Another parent did not pay for the trip and asked his son to stay after all he has been going for the past years , and the school offered to take him free of charge since it was his last year in primary he also died , every case renewed our crying up to now I have failed to stabilize , the dead bodies where taken to the mortuary the injured ones are being transported to the main hospital atleast now every parent knows the statuses of their children . We have lost around 3 children at the near by neighbour hood , it is so sad that they had to die at such a young age they where ful of joy and hopes , May the Almighty God receive their innocent souls in heaven , and comfort their relatives and loved ones give them strength to over come . Even the school director and 5 teachers lost their lives .https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSX5x23sB/ This post is shared via TikTok Lite. Download TikTok Lite to enjoy more posts: https://www.tiktok.com/tiktoklite

All in all , I am pleased with the minister of education stoping school trips , I think it is with in the school curriculum for Ugandan schools to have school trips in second term , this should be the 3rd case of school children accident with in the shortest period of time though the first ones were not severe . I would raise negligence as an issue , imagine the bus was faulty , to the extent of removing all the pupils for sometime and was attended by mechanics it happened twice that was reason enough to change the bus , the driver insisted that it will take them . And another point goes to my fellow parents why accept long trips when we can settle for trips within Kampala ? sincerely a primary 4 child who is around 8 to 9 years taking a 16 hour trip ? too and from ? Where do you get the courage from ? Even if it is a p.7 child who is around 12 to 13 years if it is not a study tour it is not safe , 3 days trip for what ? First of all the discomfort of long journey makes them tired how will they enjoy with all the tiredness No not me , let's learn to avoid risks when we can I am not blaming or judging any one but let's take precautions , my 2 children were supposed to go today for a school trip within Kampala but I had not paid for them because I was not financially stable , I promised to make it up for them when I get money , I will take them to freedom city which is a children's park among the places others visited . Let's learn to share with our children what is not healthy should be discouraged , in most schools it is not a must to attend trips unless it is a study tour . For instance there is a parent who had paid for his 2 children then he had some instincts , he drove to the school the buses where already in the compound and asked the administration to stop his children from going and forward the payment to next terms fees , the children were unhappy , cried and he told them he could not let them go they happened to be his only family and his heart was heavy , they did not go and survived .