Home is where the heart is.

“My name is Nabyoloola Victoria, I used to live with jjajja (Grandmother) in Salaama but I now live at Foodstep Uganda in Entebbe. I am not certain of how old I am because I have never celebrated a birthday in my entire life, but jjajja says I am about 11 years old, that is what she thinks. She never tells when I was born.”says Victoria. Victoria says”Jjajja and I did not have enough food, and we did not have a balanced diet, all we ate was posho with beans or silverfish “mukene” which was never sufficient. Sometimes we went hungry for days and yet we were both on daily medication. I did not like it very much. This caused my Viral load to increase causing so many illnesses and infections because I was not suppressed. In July 2020, I was not doing okay which led to my admission for over two weeks. I thought I was going to die. The health workers at the clinic got curious as to why I was not getting better since the admission. Winnie (pharmacy technician) and Peace (a peer educator) wanted to understand why my medication was not working. We had a number of conversations and they realised that it stemmed from lack of enough food, therefore I wasn’t able to take all my medication in time, hence affecting my adherence.” AMS realised that Victoria needed more psychosocial support and reached out to a partner, Foodstep Uganda that provides psychosocial support and believed Victoria would be a good candidate to join the program. Food steps Uganda enrolled her in the program. Since the grandmother knew she would not be able to take care of her she accepted the offer of guardianship on 30th July 2020 and moved to Entebbe to Foodstep Uganda. “At Foodstep Uganda, I met so many people, aunty Aisha, aunty Annette, papa, mama, everyone was nice, friendly. To top it off the food was amazing much better than what I had been feeding on. My favourite meals are matooke and rice. My best part about Foodstep Uganda is the home-schooling. This has been new to me and I love it a lot. I look forward to when school begins. I will be able to join school since I can write my name now.” Says Victoria Ever since Victoria joined Foodstep Uganda, she is happier and healthy. She takes her medication without any fear of hunger. She has since come back to the clinic and there is a significant change in her health and aura. From a girl who could barely respond to any question to a bubblier girl with a warm smile.