Raising Hope for Anyait

I first saw Anyait in 2021, right after the second lockdown at the Kanyumu weekly market in Kumi, where I sell dry food to fend for my family. The little girl had a small polythene bag into which she was placing mukene/omena (silver cyprinid) and other discarded food she could find on the market floor. 

Visibly sickly and uncared for, it broke my heart to learn that she was collecting the discarded food because she and her siblings had nothing to eat. I had barely made any sales that day, and yet I could not bear to see this young girl pick food others had thrown away. I offered Anyait and her siblings food from my stock and money so they could put together a meal. I also told them they could come to me anytime they needed something to eat. They disclosed that their mother is married elsewhere, and their father practically abandoned them.

I needed a few weeks before I decided I would bring Anyait to live with me till she got better. I was drawn to Anyait partly because she struggles with the same condition as my 14-year-old son Abdul: Sickle cell disease. 

I am a simple market vendor, and I do not have much, but I felt Anyait's blood would be on my hands if I didn’t do something to save her. Anyait has been living with me for the past three years. When I brought her home, my neighbours worried I risked getting into trouble with the law in the event Anyait died, so I tracked down her father, who gave me his blessings. Once every month, I hire a boda-boda that rides Anyait and her brother to the Sicklecell Clinic at Atutur General Hospital in Kumi for medication. The hospital is about three kilometres from here. My children walk when I do not have money. 

 I still send salt, sugar, flour, beans and even money to Anyait’s siblings whenever I can because they don’t have anywhere to go. My husband opened his heart to Anyait. He treats her as his daughter. When the two children require blood transfusions, he boards a taxi and goes along with them to the government hospital in Mbale. 

Ategei Safia, 47. Market vendor. Mother. 

USU 2024