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Warning: Distressing content
It’s a game of chase enjoyed by children around the world.
But for seven-year-old Jessy his childhood was almost stolen, when he was taken by a witch doctor from a village in Uganda in 2020.
This is Peter Sewakiryanga, one of those who found him.
“I received a call from the police in Kampala, to provide a car for us to go searching for boy that went missing. It was a neighbour who had kidnapped him and through the searches we found him stuffed in a drum. They had stabbed the machete through his neck, possibly to drain blood and they cut off his hand.”
Advocates say child sacrifice is a modern crime that witch doctors legitimise under the guise of traditional medicine.
90 per cent of children taken are killed, with those who survive living with scars and trauma.
In 2009, Sewakiryanga opened Kyampisi Childcare Ministries in what he calls ‘the epicentre of child sacrifice’ to fight this statistic.
With funding from Australian charity, Droplets in a Stream, co-founded by Brisbane-based Rodney Callanan, it provides rehabilitation and medical attention, also raising awareness and working with authorities to bring witch doctors to justice.
“Witch doctors claim to treat all sorts of different diseases, witch doctors claim to bring wealth or solve people’s poverty issues, witch doctors claim to give you blessings. It doesn’t matter what you believe, killing a child is unacceptable.”
In 2011, a BBC team posed as businessmen in Uganda and asked a witch doctor to bring wealth to their local construction project.
“There are two ways of doing this, we can bury the child alive on your construction site, or we cut the child and put their blood in a bottle of spiritual medicine. If it’s a male, the whole head is cut off and his genitals.”
This is Rodney Callanan, co-founder of Droplets in a Stream.
“The actual scale of this atrocity of these attacks by witchdoctors on children will probably never be known because there are so many unknown missing children cases in Uganda and nobody is recording those statistics. From what we know, and what we’ve seen and what evidence shows is that its hundreds per year.”
Jessy is lucky to have survived – his father, Godfrey Ochwo, is haunted by the ordeal.
“From that day it has been tragic. When he survived, we took him to the hospital. It torments me a lot every day, but he survived.”
17-year-old George Mukisa is another survivor of child sacrifice.
“Child sacrifice should be stopped or should end, because it has hurt many people, it has damaged many poor souls.”
George was attacked by a witch doctor in Uganda when he was just three and a half years old.
Sewakiryanga took him into his care at Kyampisi Childcare Ministries.
“The witch doctor, who was a neighbour, lured him into the bush, gave him a sweet, and mutilated his genitals. He knew him, he was a friend of the family and he’s one of the first kids that survived with such horrible trauma.
After children like Jessy and George survive child-sacrifice attempts, the charity accesses specialist medical treatment, often unattainable in Uganda.
For both boys, this lifechanging support has been offered by a specialist in Brisbane, Australia.
“When I think of what has happened to me, I feel traumatised sometimes, but I think of one thing, what happened, happened but I have to move on, it’s not the end of life, that can’t stop my destination. I have a goal in front of me.”
He says he is inspired by the doctors who saved his life.
“I want to be a doctor and help so many people out there.”
So far, five children, including George and Jessy, have made the trip to Australia for treatment,
Their travel expenses covered by charitable donations.
But there are many other children, supported by Kyampisi Childcare Ministries in Uganda also waiting for their chance.
“Unfortunately, in Uganda, some of the medical interventions and surgeries and needs that some of the survivors need require aren’t available to them. The amazing thing that we have been able to do through Droplets in a Stream, our organisation is connected with a couple of surgeons in around Australia, ranging from Sydney, Newcastle, and Brisbane.”
For George, this is a critical and urgent second surgery – and for Jessy, an important check-up – also receiving attention for profound hearing loss, specialists suspect could have been acquired from his injuries.
This is urologist, Doctor David Winkle.
“Both young men have problems associated with their urinary tract, I’m a urologist. Everybody deserves to live the best life that they can.”
Though nervous – George says he is feeling hopeful.
“It’s going to help me being here, it’s going to help me get what I never had through the surgery.”
It’s a long road ahead for both boys, support staff from Kyampsi Childcare Ministries looking after them during their Australian stay.
This is Peter Waisawa who is looking after George:
“George is a very humble young man. I can see he was so eager to come. You can see that he has the complete belief that finally something is going to be done about his condition.”
And this is Sam Karugaba who is looking after Jessy:
“So you have to heal the physical injury and then take them through the counselling. Seeing them smile after the trauma, child protection is a global issue.”
For George, this experience has made him a keen advocate.
“I can’t wake up one morning and find one child not having an ear, but he was born with it. One, not having an arm, not having a leg just because someone got it for his own benefit. For the future I hope and I pray that child sacrifice ends in Uganda.”
He hopes raising awareness about the crimes of witch doctors will help to make Uganda a safer place to be a child.
