Emmanuel Oboro
Update 
Emmanuel lives at Abaana's New Life Caleb home. Emmanuel has to have his wounds dressed every two days and a nurse goes to the homes to do this. He is still in severe pain and the heat troubles him. Emmanuel's neck is more visible and he has got movement back in it. Over time Emmanuel may need further operations and treatment to repair his skin as best as possible.
In February Emmanuel had several operations to repair his skin and the damage caused by severe burns. In the initial operation Emmanuel had skin grafted from his thighs to his neck. Unfortunately the veins were not able to transmit blood for this to work and so Emmanuel had to have a further operation. This operation grafted skin from his lower abdomen to his neck and was successful. He is still in pain and receiving treatment to recover from his wounds.
Emmanuel's Story 
Emmanuel is 16 years old and is an Acholi. He is an orphan who lost his parents in the war that has taken the lives of many living in Northern Uganda. Emmanuel lived with his Uncle who was extremely poor and could not afford to feed or educate him. Emmanuel used to starve for days because they had no food.
Emmanuel and his friend Julius had heard of opportunities to make money in Kampala. They decided to travel there and soon realised that that there were no jobs for them. Emmanuel and Julius became street children and have survived in the streets for 5 years.One day a friend gave him stolen clothes and asked him to look after them. Emmanuel fell asleep and woke to find the stolen goods gone. His friend was so angry he poured aviation fuel over Emmanuel and set him on fire.
Shortly after this, Emmanuel came to the Abaana Street Reach Program for help. Emmanuel’s entire upper body was covered in burns and his hands were skinless and raw from trying to put out the flames. His face was disfigured, part of his ear was missing and he couldn’t talk or move his mouth due to the severity of his wounds.
The team immediately took Emmanuel to the Nsyambia hospital. The doctors were given instructions to treat him. Emmanuel had his wounds dressed and was moved to Abaana’s Kyanja Medical Centre for treatment to continue. He is currently at the medical centre and will be moved to Abaana’s New Life Homes when stable.
Every week hundreds of children attend our street reach program with similar stories. You can help these children get off the street and into homes where people care about what happens to them. Our long term goal is to get as many of these children off the streets as possible and into good homes but until this happens we want to make sure that we provide help and support to these children while on the street.
Date Added: Wednesday February 10th 2010