Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) has commenced the process of resettling homeless people to their respective homes. Western Uganda’s biggest health facility has been stranded with at least 16 persons who had turned it into a home away from homes.
Maria Naturinda aged 21, is one of the abandoned persons who has been resettled.
She came to the hospital as a patient and supposed to return home after discharge but she didn’t.
The hospital administration through Social Work Department had spent some time tracing for the relatives in vain.
However, she was taken by Kkottongnea an organization that focuses on welfare, happiness, education and love for the less unfortunate.
Kkottongnea is a Korean international organization founded by Father John Oh, a Korean devoted priest in 1976.
The organization also has a branch in Kiruhura and according to Alex Mbabazi, the hospital Social Worker; since 2018 taken over 30 homeless people and four children.
Halson Kagure the Public Relations Officer Mbarara Referral Hospital revealed that handing over unclaimed people to well-wishers follows established procedures.
Another homeless man who was delivered to the relatives yesterday is identified as Muhirwa Muhammed.
A resident of Sheema district western Uganda, Muhirwa is said to have been dumped by their own family members under the pretext of land wrangles.
He accused relatives of mistreating him adding that the action of abandoning him in the hospital was brought about by his illness.
He has been staying on the veranda of the Community Health Department under the guava tree where he was abandoned with all his belongings such as mattresses, blankets and a few utensils.
Mbabazi says he was handed over to some family members at Mile 2 along Kampala Masaka highway.
A follow-up visit to the hospital showed a reduction but fourteen people have not been picked.
The Hospital Public Relations Officer Kagure further told the media that the resettlement exercise will go on until the hospital is free from the destitute.
Kagure has also urged nongovernmental organizations, churches, governmental institutions, and leaders at various levels to double up efforts in sensitizing communities about human rights.
Some homeless people not only pose a security threat but also tiresome to those still on treatment since they need caretakers.
Recently, detectives rounded one Ronald Ahuriire an escaped prisoner who has been on the run for the past three years. He was taken back to Kakiika prisons where he had been sentenced on counts of theft before he escaped.
It is said that the convict was shot at in a robbery attempt in Mbarara city before he was taken to the hospital’s Accident and Emergency Ward for proper management.
Even after he was managed and discharged, Kagure said he was among the homeless in the hospital vicinity. the administration profiled them and published them in anticipation of attracting the attention of the relatives and that’s how he was identified as a prison breaker.
The hospital social workers say that they also face the challenge of burial arrangements in case one dies without established residency.
For now, fourteen homeless people who either came in as patients, treated and discharged or deliberately abandoned by own relatives are yet to be picked.
The hospital PRO Kagure said the majority of these people live by begging as he appeals to the individual(s) with complaints of missing persons to contact the Administration for more information.
