Episode 34: Peter Mutabazi from Uganda | From Street Kid to Foster Dad

And like they have been saved.

And I think that's, it's much harder said than done, especially in rural Uganda, right? Where people don't have much, right? But at least, they can invite someone else into their home and or they can do what they have you know resources they have to be able to help that person to make a different decision and to live differently with their life so how do you say like what are some of the challenges you face as a foster dad like now in the us and if someone's interested in fostering but they're concerned about maybe someone with trauma or someone who acts up how would you encourage them to be able to to love well

Well, you know, it's given.

Like, every kid in the foster care has trauma, so it's more like something you come prepared for, you know? But we never know the magnitude on how it affects these kids.

You know, but also, too, to be in that place and say, this child did not choose to be born in that family, you know? It happened to me.

But should it be, is it their fault that we should just let them kind of live that way? Or is it our responsibility to change the cycle, to change the world that they come from, you know? The other part, too, I think, for me, I...

I want to do what someone did for me.

You know, my mom, I was in the streets of Kampala, and I would hear people say, like, what a mother would let their kids be on the streets.

But my mother was receiving the same abuse that I was receiving.

Like, there was no way she can protect me.

The same attitude that I have towards moms who lose their kids into false care.

Like, it's easy to see them as bad.

It's easy to see them as, like, how dare them.

You know, they're the wrong moms and all that.

But until you walk their shoes, into their shoes, or understand the world they come from, that once you get that, the empathy you have towards moms who are losing their kids is different, you know? That you are in a place where you say, some people have done things, but no one called them, you know? But for them, something happened and, you know, someone called them or someone reported them.

That we all do things, but God hasn't come and struck each one of us.

But somehow, graciously, he's loved us and been there for us.

The same attitude that I have towards moms who are struggling.

I don't know how you can take care of five kids when you have no net people around you to really encourage you.

You have no job.

You have no resources.

I don't know what you do with the stress.

And most of them, we get to find out that because of the stress, these people are looking for something to numb their minds.

and then at the end of the day they find they can't live without that thing they're trying to numb their mind and their world so do they love their kids absolutely but do they end up in the wrong place for some wrong reasons absolutely you know so in some way to really not always judge you know but be in a place of empathy on understanding how people got there rather than say how dare them but ask them why why did that happen to them And I think that really helps me as well.

You know, even my kids as well.