Mother relieved to finally get her kids from Uganda
News
JOSEPHINE LIM – Herald-Tribune staff
Posted 1 month ago
Florence Nabawanuka
Josephine Lim |
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Three years ago, Florence Nabawanuka escaped to Canada from Uganda, but she wasn't just forced to leave her home.
Nabawanuka was separated from her three sons.
The mother was notified about two weeks ago that she will finally be reunited with her kids in Edmonton on Wednesday.
"It wasn't easy at all being away from them. I could just break in the middle of the day or the night and I'd just cry," she said.
"It's a very big relief to us (her and her husband)."
Nabawanuka, who came to Canada with refugee status, said she couldn't bring them with her.
"Every parent would want to see their children grow and walk them through their hard times," she said.
"There was a situation going on that I had to escape. There was no way I could have carried them with me."
She declined to give details, but the ex-journalist left her three-year-old, 11-year-old, and 13-year-old sons in her mother's care.
"It was so hard for me. It was so hard for the children because I remember when I told them … I'll just be going for a short time," she said. "I'm away for only two weeks and I said I'll be back.
"I couldn't really tell them that I was going for long and forever … but then they just kept waiting and waiting."
Her kids were taken care of until her mother died of a heart attack in February.
"Initially, we had no way out to leave them with my mom, but after she is gone who else do you grab," she said. "Who else do you tell to take care of these kids?
"Nobody. Everybody has their own problems and their issues."
That's when Nabawanuka knew she needed to bring her kids to Canada.
"My heart was hurt. I was bleeding inside from my loss of my mom and I was thinking of my children," she said.
"How are they going to live? How are they going to survive? How are they going to stay without anybody taking care of them?"
Luckily for her, her friends advocated on her behalf and wrote letters to the MP's office.
Chris Warkentin, Peace River MP, said normally the process could take years, depending on the situation.
"We just felt it was absolutely imperative that we do everything that we can to reunite Florence and her kids," Warkentin said. "We've done everything that we possibly could do to expedite the reunification especially when we heard that Florence's mom had passed away and that's who the kids were being cared for.
"It was up to us to … ensure the kids weren't put into any undue, unnecessary risk of harm by being separated any longer."
Nabawanuka is especially glad to have her kids come to Canada because of many ongoing issues in Uganda like high rates of HIV, AIDS, malaria and the ongoing civil war, she said.
"Many of those children around that age are being abducted and recruited into rebel activities," she said. "The kids are really in so much danger because they're always kidnapped and sacrificed."
While she waited for her kids' immigration approval, they stayed in a Uganda boarding school. But this didn't stop Nabawanuka's worries.
"Everywhere they are, you feel they're not safe. You can only feel safe if they're with you," she said.
Getting the kids here is only half the battle.
"When I got the news … I got so excited and now I'm a bit nervous," she said. "Having been away from them for three years I keep imagining when we look at each other, what shall we say to each other? What will they say? What will my reaction be? What will their reaction be?
"There are lots of those thoughts that come in."
She is especially worried since she left one of her sons at such a young age.
"I don't know if he remembers much about me," Nabawanuka confessed. "I tried to beckon him on the phone all the time."
She's glad to see her kids again, but it'll be a challenge to keep the family financially sound, she said.
Her husband, Lawrence Lweera, works with the County of Grande Prairie and takes shifts at Safeway, while she works at the Heritage Discovery Centre.
But she is getting help.
Shirley Fredrickson, the co-ordinator of the Heritage Discovery Centre, said she's received furniture and some monetary donations for the children.
Fredrickson decided to help after hearing her story.
"She (Nabawanuka) is the most positive person I have ever met in my whole life," Fredrickson said. "Her story has been so hard to describe … but she never, ever is sad.
"She portrays a most positive attitude to customers, to people to everyone."
But there's a lot to be done when her sons arrive.
"I need to know where to go to school, how to get to school. The nitty gritty, all those details, that I must look into," she said. "I'm still struggling with that."
Along with that, she needs to move to a bigger home, get summer gear and winter clothing for her kids, she added.
Nabawanuka knows it'll take some time for her kids to adjust to things like the late sunsets and making friends, she said, but she's confident they'll adapt.
"Being children they really cope with a situation very fast," she said. "When they start school they'll find many youths and people their age and they will know how to relate.
"It's easier for the children to adjust than adults. They'll thrive."
Warkentin is just glad to hear that the kids are on their way.
"We're just very happy see that it's come to a conclusion," he said.
"We can't wait to see them reunited and know the work we've done to make it happen and we feel connected."
josephine@dailyheraldtribune.com
