What We Do
Maria Robert
Maria can usually be found under the shade of a large tree outside Mpapua dormitory, along with the other ladies who are part of her Bukumbi family. She stands out from the others as she sits in her dilapidated wheelchair observing the nearby children or preparing spinach leaves for dinner. When she was younger she lived an outdoor life looking after her father’s cows, not minding that she didn’t go to school, after all, she said, what good would it do her to read and write when the cows can’t! She got married young and had 2 children, a boy that died before he was weaned and a girl who survived into adulthood now with children of her own. She said that her daughter sometimes visits, when asked how frequently she replied that the last time she came to see her was 10 years ago.
While her children were still young Maria stood on a tree root and it punctured her foot, with only village medicine to rely on the foot quickly became infected and swollen, and eventually the foot was amputated high above the knee. After staying sometime in hospital she realised that no-one was going to come to fetch her and the Government took her to the newly opened Bukumbi Care Centre in 1974, and from them on it was her home. After living at BCC for so long she has seen many people come and go, she would not like to leave as this is her home.