There is not much Jonah Wandela can tell about having a nice comfortable home to live in or what it feels like to have a real family. In fact, life on the streets of Kampala, Uganda is all he knew, until God changed his story.
Jonah, now 28, remembers that he was very young when he was forced to live on the streets. He recalled that he once lived with both his parents in a very good home. To his knowledge, they were a happy family. His family consisted of himself, his younger brother, and their parents. But suddenly — and reasons he still does not know, his father lost everything.
“When my father lost all his wealth and everything he owned, he became useless. He lost hope and never recovered. He never got up to fight again. I heard that mum got married to someone else. I have just started searching for them so I am not so sure of anything about them,” Jonah admitted.
As is still the case in many clans in Uganda, witchcraft and polygamy was prevalent and could destroy families without warning. This, he believes was what happened to his.
“I was born in a well off family,” He explained. “But because of witchcraft and polygamy everything started changing. My parents disappeared from us. We were two boys, me and my brother Joel. But shortly after our parents left, Joel died because of bad conditions that we were not used to at home. Dad used to help some people with things like paying for their school fees, feeding them, and things like that, so one guy returned the favour when he realized our dad had fallen on hard times and left us. He took me in and supported me to some extent, and then he couldn’t continue with me any more since he also had his responsibilities — his own family that was in Mbarara [western Uganda]. He brought me to a taxi park in Kampala [central Uganda], gave me 20,000shillings and told me to start life. He left me there.”
In Uganda 20,000shillings is just enough to feed a child for less than a week on the basics. Thus he was left on the streets to begin life for himself. He was seven years old. Thus as a young child, he had to learn to survive on his own. And with no family, no friends, no adult to provide for him, no clothes — except the one on his back, and no shelter, little Jonah began a very tough life.
“You do and be what the streets want you to be and do,” He explained. “That’s how you really survive. Because there is always group leaders who runs the streets and when they tell you to steal you have to do so. When they tell you to fight, you have to fight. You have to follow the rules of the streets in order to survive,” he recalled sadly.
Jonah said stealing was the most common way to survive, so several times they had to steal to eat. He recalled one of the worst experiences for him was when he stole and ran with a lady’s phone and she screamed and some boda boda guys (men riding bike taxis) chased and caught him at a place called Mandela stadium in Kampala. He was severely beaten and left there on the ground unconscious. He woke up covered in blood and not knowing what had happened. He strongly believed it has always been God who kept him alive. Even now, looking back, he cannot account for how he survived.
Another mean of survival was selling scrap metals. He said many times after a long hard day looking for, and selling scrap metals, there was a group of older boys who would beat them up and take it. This was a repeated situation for Jonah, until he became tired of it and one day decided to fight back in defense. However, the bigger boys beat him so badly that they broke the tooth at the far side corner of his mouth.
But even worse, he said, was when he went with some senior guys to steal at a certain place in Nakawa, Kampala. One of the older boys who had taken him under his wings, looked out for him and loved him as a brother, was shot and killed before his eyes.That is an experience he said he will never forget and the image still taunt him up to this day. That incident made him think about what he really wanted to be and what he wanted to do with his life. But faced with very little options, he didn’t know what to do.
Jonah believed that he was protected by God who had a plan for his life despite his hardships. So when no one was there to look out for him as a child, looking back, he realized God was with him and spared his life many times.
“I have come to believe that I was always covered by God,” he said. “As I got older, I loved being alone, and most of the times I found myself at a certain church alone, or in the forest or hill — somewhere alone and away from the streets. And many times when I went back to the group they would tell me that they went and stole something, or that they went and fought with the gang from another side and a friend lost his life, or a hand, or someone was severely beaten. So going off to be by myself was how I used to survive. I say It was about God.”
On the streets he said survival was not only about stealing and finding scrap metals to sell, but also about selling drugs.
“The streets teach you to survive in any way possible,” the young man explained. “You walk around looking for metals to sell as scrap ,and also dealt in drugs like selling marijuana. That is life on the streets. You don’t do things because you want to. You do things because you have to if you want to eat and live. When you are a street kid people see you as a thug, a thief that nobody wants to associate with. So anyone who comes to you wants to use you or take advantage of you, so yes I was abused mentally and it made me feel worthless and hate myself.”
But even while growing up on the streets, Jonah knew he wanted more for himself. He wanted to feel better. He wanted to go to school and live a normal life of a child who would one day contribute something positive to society.
“I loved music, but mostly dancing. There is a place called Mandela National Stadium in Bweyogerere, Kampala. A lot of youth used to gather there to do dance practices and competitions. I would go there too. While there, I found a friend called Henry, he introduced me to a church in Nakawa. I am naturally a lonely person — like I loved being alone so I used to leave the gang, go to the cinema hall or go to a church — just to be alone. One day there was a man called Pastor Simon who was an administrator of the church, he started talking to me and I shared my story with him. Of course he couldn’t help me much since he was also struggling, but he told me to come to the church. I started sleeping at church and he got me a Bible. He told me to shave off my dreads so I could look responsible. He taught me how to pray and he liked me because I opened up to him about everything I was going through. He gave me a mat and a bed sheet and told me that I could start sleeping at the church. That was how my change started.”
Jonah was 11-years-old when he met Pastor Simon, but it took a few years for him to gain enough trust to allow him to sleep in the church. Jonah felt this could have been because they felt that as a street boy by the time they woke up church equipment — like microphones, would be stolen.
At the age of 14 Jonah gave his life to Christ. However, he confessed that he was not really serious about it. How could he? He had no guidance and direction. But as he grew older and after the killing of his ‘brother’, he purposed that he was going to pursue a better life. Though he was homeless, he started saving money from whatever work he found to do and from scrap metal sales, he rented a room and bought a few pieces of furniture. At the age of 22 he heard about an opportunity in Dubai where he could work and earn. He used up all he had saved, sold his furniture and decided to go.
“I remember when I went to Dubai to try and change my life and life become much worse for me,” He said. “Like no job, no visa, no place to stay, no relative or friend. I was completely alone in a strange country. The agency I went through to get there had said they had a work lined up and a place to stay. But when I got there I found out it was a lie. I was so alone. I prayed and fasted, did all I knew to do right, but all became worse. I ended up overstaying my visa. Usually you go to Dubai on a visitor’s visa that is good for three months and by God’s grace if you get a job within those three months the company changes your visa status from ‘visitor visa’ to ’employment visa’. But if the three months visa expired you had to renew it. But to renew it then was 1.3 million Uganda shillings which I didn’t have. Also, I had travelled on a one month visa because the guy who worked on my visa had stolen most of my money, even the ticket was a dummy ticket. A dummy ticket is one which shows a return date yet the return is not in the system. So the one month elapsed and I had no money to renew the visa and no return ticket to go back home. In Dubai you cannot work or look for a job without a visa, and you cannot exit the country without paying the fines for overstaying that visa. So there I was, my visa expired, I had accumulated fines, because every day that you went over the expiration date fines would accumulate. I stayed for two years. Since it’s a 24 hours city — like night time is like day with activities, I used to sleep in chairs at the beach. People who came to the beach sometimes came with food, and after eating they would throw the leftovers in the dust bins. So I would go and pick the left overs in the bins and eat. At least every day God made away that I find some left overs in the dust bins.
There was this girl called Kanyunyuzi Ritah, we still talk up to now — she was in Saudi Arabia working as a maid. We met on Facebook and became friends. After a period of time I told her what was going on with my life and how I was stranded alone in Dubai. I told her how I really wanted to kill myself to end the misery. Because at that time I saw no way out. There was a provision with the immigration in case you have accumulated so much visa fines and couldn’t afford to clear it that you could renew your visa and continue looking for a job . With this provision you pay for an exit permit which was 400dirhams, kind of like 400,000 Ugandan shillings. So she sent me the money for the exit permit and 800,000 shillings for the airArabia one way ticket. I owe that girl so much. She saved me. That’s how I was able to go back to Uganda.”
“I came back to Uganda to completely nothing! Everyone laughing and looking at me as a failure. I went back to using drugs. Once again I had no place to live. I said to myself ‘there is no God. This is all a lie’. Then one day as I was smoking weed in a room with my friend everything started feeling strange. I became short of breath. I lost strength and became so weak and helpless.” This was not his first time smoking and it had never impacted him in any way. He knew this was not a result of the drug. He was dying.
“Then I saw my soul getting out of my body,” he recalls. “It was as if I got to the other side of life, like I was going to a certain place that was so bad. I was in deep pain pleading for God not to take me there. I was pleading that I wanted to have a second chance to life. The voice I was speaking to seems to be coming from behind what sounded like some waterfalls. I realized my own words weren’t making sense. It was as if this person was not accepting what I was saying so I started quoting from the scriptures. Every time I said ‘you said in your word…”, I would see a big Bible opening up and the voice asking me ‘where exactly did I say that?’ But I was in a lot of pain. I was really dying. I could feel my soul leaving and I could also see myself still seated in the chair. As I saw myself leaving my body, out of the blue I started shouting ‘Jesus save my soul!’. The guy who I was with in the house later told me that people gathered to see what was happening. But I remember every time I stopped saying ‘Jesus save my soul’, I was close to death. I started pleading for my life, asking for a second chance, but every time I was reasoning with the voice I was talking to , which was coming from behind a fall of water, the Bible would open up and the voice would ask again ‘where did I say that?’ It would continue until I was honest and said ‘I don’t read the Bible and I don’t pray’. Because what I was saying was things I could remember but it seem they were not in the Bible. So I had to be honest and say I didn’t read the Bible. So much happened in that space of time — like a lot!” Jonah said this encounter went on for about five hours.
“It was like I went to the other side of life. Real story. Within that space of five hours I was not understanding anything in the physical. I remember coming back to my normal senses but I couldn’t see for about two days. I was blinded. When I got my clear sight back my eyes were still hurting.”
But not only was he pleading for his life, God proved Himself to him.
“Within that time that I was fighting for my life, I saw things, l saw lives of people clearly,” he said. “I remember there was a guy that I knew who had a sick wife for a long time, the voice said ‘to show you that this is real, the woman is getting healed’. Today she is fine. Even now, sometimes I come across things and remember seeing it during those five hours and it has happened in the physical. Of course not all things have happened but many has so far. I remember the encounter started about 7:00 pm and I never understood anything up to like 11:00 pm. It was when I came back to my senses — very very tired and still seated in the chair, the guy I was with in the room called Joshua, was so scared. People gathered all over outside thinking I was dead.
Jonah said this was the scariest thing he has ever experienced.
“When I came back to normal I had never been so scared in my life! I came so close to death and God gave me a second chance to live. Of course I was doubting about God’s existence because of what I was going through so it was a moment of God showing Himself that He’s God and He exists.
As I was pleading for a second chance to live I made a vow that if He gives me a chance to live am going to serve Him like I used to, because there was a point in my life when I used to lead worship and got so deep in it that when I opened my eyes people would be on their knees crying.
Jonah said even now, when it comes to fulfilling his purpose, not everything has been revealed clearly to him, but as life goes on, he’s doing what he can and finding new directions for the tasks laid out before him.
“One of the things I was complaining about was ‘God I can’t serve you by worshipping a great God when I am starving; when I don’t have where to stay, and don’t have clothes to put on.”
But after that encounter, Jonah said life became even worse. Things toughened up, seemingly even worse than before.
“Like I expected after that moment life would change in my favour immediately,” he smiled. “But things become much worse. A few years later, God sent me a mother who has been a blessing to me. I never had a mother before. Now I know that God has not forgotten about me.”
Over the years Jonah had learnt to play the guitar and keyboard and as often as he can now, meets with some street kids teaching them music and having discussions with them based on his own experience. His desire is to be able to start an organization that will feed, shelter and teach them the Godly way of life. He desires to be a pastor so he can be better equipped to guide their lives back into their real destinies. Where they can feel valued instead of like outcasts.
He said, having been a street kid himself, he is fully aware of how life can be and the hardship they go through daily. He knows that once a child ends up on the street they are likely to do anything to survive — anything! He explained that it is no wonder persons see kids snatching phones from cars; others growing up to become real robbers; getting addicted to drugs, etc, because the streets have taught them that those are the only way to survive. Many children, even as young as six-years-old live on the streets in Uganda and other African nations.
Some of these children can be seen walking around with a plastic drink/water bottle with gasoline that they sniff constantly — their alternative to hard drugs. This gets them high while numbing their brains in the process. Medical reports say this can be extremely dangerous and can cause severe short-term and long-term health problems, including death. The primary dangers in sniffing gasoline include the immediate effects of Euphoria and hallucinations, which is a brief “high” or dizziness, often sought by users; Nausea and vomiting – irritation of the stomach and digestive system; Loss of coordination – impaired motor skills and balance; Confusion or fainting – can lead to accidents or injuries; Sudden sniffing death syndrome (SSDS) – gasoline can trigger fatal heart arrhythmias. Long- term physical effects include brain damage. Prolonged sniffing leads to cognitive impairments, memory loss, and reduced problem-solving ability; Lung and liver damage; Kidney failure; Neuropathy, which is numbness, weakness, or muscle control issues from nerve damage. In fact, while these children are using gasoline to feel better, researchers have discovered that it can make their situation worse and can result in mental health effects. These mental effects can include depression and anxiety; mental instability and addiction
“So my dream is to get as many of these young kids as possible off streets,” Jonah said. “To find them a home were we can provide them with the basic care, teach them about God and the purpose God has for each of them. Like show them love; provide them with skills and education that they can use to serve in order to make a living for themselves. Some of these kids have families, but for whatever reason they are on the streets. Connecting these ones back to their families as improved individuals is the aim. And as for me, life has given me an opportunity amidst all the challenges and downfalls I have faced. God has given me a second chance. I do not wake up each day to chase wealth, so that is why I do not end up in drugs or illegal behaviours. I want these children to see that it’s possible to rise again. I want to be an inspiration to the young boys and girls in drugs and prostitutions that it is possible with God to become whatever you dream. I have asked God to use me to help these young boys and girls to realize that they have a purpose in life.”
Jonah said many people look at street kids as wasted human beings that persons should not associate with, but at they end of the day they too were created by God and unless you speak with them you will not realize that like himself, some are on the streets not by choice but by circumstance that as a child they have no control over. Some are on the streets because they ran away from an abusive home; some have escaped cannibalism and human sacrifices; some because their parents cannot afford to take care of them or has chased them out; some because they have been abandoned; some because their parents have died; while some may have chosen this kind of life because they see it as freedom. This has put them in the danger of being physically abused; sexually abused, taken for human sacrifices, used for drug trafficking and all sorts of demonic rituals.
“Street kids are treated as a group of young thugs, thieves, gangsters, wasted human beings who shouldn’t be associated with, but I believe given an opportunity to tell their stories and be shown love, you will find that they are amazing human beings with big dreams.”
Just remember, THE STRONGEST AND MOST POWERFUL SOLDIERS ARE THE ONE’S WITH THE DEEPEST SCARS!
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