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Being a Foster Dad Began to Take a Toll on Him. Days Later, He Received a Phone Call That Changed Everything (Exclusive)
Peter Mutabazi grew up in Uganda with a childhood marked by poverty He became a foster dad to help children in need, despite his initial doubts about being a single parent Mutabazi adopted his son, Anthony, who was returned to the hospital at age 11, and has since adopted two siblings, Luke and Isabella, and continues to support foster youthWhen Peter Mutabazi became a foster parent, he never anticipated that his role would evolve into something far deeper. Mutabazi's journey into foster care was driven by the intent to help, offering temporary refuge to children in need. However, his decision was also rooted in his own childhood experiences, which were shaped by poverty and hardship. "I'm from Uganda, so I grew up poor — the poorest of the poorest. No one told me to dream. No one told me to be hopeful," Mutabazi, 51, tells PEOPLE exclusively. As Mutabazi got older, things took a dramatic turn, and he decided to leave his home. He walked for miles until he arrived in the city of Kampala. Having never been outside of Uganda, the unfamiliarity was overwhelming, and Mutabazi quickly realized his only option was to survive on the streets. "As a street kid on the streets of Kampala — in any third world country — you are treated more like a stray animal," the foster dad, who goes by the name @fosterdadflipper on Instagram, says. "The way people viewed you, the way people treated you, everyone who was kind was abusive." This was until Mutabazi met a stranger whom he tried to steal from, desperate for survival. However, instead of responding with anger or punishment, the man asked for his name. The stranger's unexpected kindness sparked a transformation in Mutabazi's own life, leading to a series of events that would take him out of survival mode and open the door to a future he had never imagined. "He offered me [the opportunity] to go to school after a year and a half, [so] I went and excelled in school," he recalls. "I really began to [wonder], if a stranger can see the best in me, what can I do? So then I got a scholarship to come to [the] United States." Mutabazi's early experiences of abandonment left an undeniable mark on him, and he couldn't shake the sense of responsibility he felt for those still suffering, especially children who, like him, were trapped in a cycle of neglect and pain. Initially, he believed that in order to adopt, you had to be married and Caucasian, as he had never seen a person of color adopt children where he came from. So he began exploring the possibility of mentoring teenagers until a social worker asked if he had ever considered foster care. "For the kindness of a stranger who changed my life, I wanted to do the same for kids," he says. "I think understanding kids in foster care, unloved, unwanted, being in homes [and] in places they didn't know, I thought I could give [them] a little glimpse of hope." The initial fostering process was overwhelming for Mutabazi, as the constant cycle of children coming and going left him heartbroken. Each time a child left, the emotional toll was unbearable, and the sadness lingered long after they were gone. 'When kids go, you are left in tears,' he says. 'I was like, 'Man, this job is really hard. I don't want to do this again.' I [eventually] told the social worker that I needed a break for [at least] six months. I needed to heal.' Little did he know, just a few days later, a phone call would change everything for him. 'The kids [I was fostering] had left [on a Monday] and I received a phone call on Friday,' he explains. 'The social worker said, 'Hey, there's a kid that needs a home,' and I said, 'Absolutely not.' But the social worker [proposed] dropping off the child and picking them up on Monday, so I said yes." Mutabazi didn't want to know anything about the child or form any sort of attachment, having just witnessed the departure of 11 children. '[The boy] arrived to my home and the social worker left, so I said, 'This is your bedroom, you can call me Mr. Peter,'' he recalls. He admits he was taken aback when the kid asked if he could instead call him Mutabazi's attempt to keep his distance, something in that moment began to shift. 'This kid had been in my home for only 20 minutes,' he continues. 'So he looks at me again, and says, 'I'm 11. I was told that since I'm 11, I can choose who my father should be. So I'm choosing you.'" When the social worker arrived on Monday to pick up the boy, Mutabazi signed the paperwork, but something compelled him to ask why he had initially been left at the hospital and where he would be going next. "The social worker told me he was adopted [but] the family that adopted him dropped him [off] at the hospital, never said goodbye and never gave a reason why they didn't want him," he explains. "That's when I realized, I've always wanted to be a dad, and this kid somehow knew I [would] be his dad. How did I not see it? That's when it all clicked." Mutabazi immediately took back the papers he had signed and asked the social worker for new paperwork so the boy could attend school. While it was heartbreaking to learn that the boy's family had relinquished their parental rights, it also opened the door for the possibility of boy, Anthony, was 11 when Mutabazi took him in, and since then, they have shared in many milestones, including graduation, visiting Uganda — Mutabazi's native country — for the first time, and attending Mutabazi's younger brother's wedding.'It's one of those things that were always meant to be," he says. "Of course, there is no journey without ups and downs, you're going to have challenges [because] that's life." "At first we had to [spend] almost a year and a half without [fostering] other kids, so we can get used [to each other], but once we got there, I think he knew my heart, and [that] I always want to help other kids who are in the same position,' he adopting Anthony, Mutabazi has fostered over 30 children and adopted two siblings, Luke and Isabella. The two siblings were originally meant to stay with Mutabazi for just the summer, but after being adopted, they've now spent four years together as a family. While Mutabazi has reached many people online, where he has over a million followers on TikTok and Instagram, he knows his work is far from finished and still strives to help others in need. In addition to sharing his experiences as a foster dad, he also actively raises money to help foster children in need of a home on his GoFundMe page.'I didn't sleep on a mattress until I was 16, and as a street kid, I never truly belonged anywhere, and that left me feeling unwanted, unloved, and less than human," he says. "But everything began to change when I finally had a stable place to rest. That simple gift, a safe space to sleep, gave me the sense of belonging I had never known.""That's why I now do room makeovers for foster youth, many of whom have moved through 12 or more homes before they turn 18," he adds. "For the first time, we're giving them dignity. We're reminding them they are seen, valued and worthy of calling a place home." Read the original article on People
Washington Post
14-06-2025
- General
- Washington Post
Peter Mutabazi was homeless as a child. He's now fostered 47 children.
Peter Mutabazi does not have happy memories of Father's Day from when he was a child. 'Celebrating Father's Day wasn't even in the cards,' he said. At 10, he ran away from his parents' home in Uganda to escape a difficult childhood, he said. He was homeless for five years. His described his childhood as being defined by hunger, poverty, loneliness and survival. 'I felt unloved and unwanted,' he said. Now, at age 51, Father's Day looks very different for Mutabazi. He's a dad of six — three adopted children and three more he is in the process of adopting. He has fostered 47 children since 2017, and he has done it as a single father. 'I knew I could understand them and their trauma, because I had walked that journey,' said Mutabazi, who lives in Charlotte. Mutabazi was born in a village at the border of Uganda and Rwanda. 'Life was really miserable because of poverty,' he said. 'I didn't feel hope. I didn't see it. For me, hoping was lying to myself.' 'I became a street kid,' Mutabazi said. 'Think of a stray animal, how stray animals are treated in some countries. That's how they treated street kids in Uganda.' He said he learned to survive by helping people carry their groceries to their cars in exchange for food. One day, he tried helping a man with his groceries, and 'that was the only day where someone didn't treat me like an animal,' Mutabazi said. From then on, whenever the man went shopping for food, he gave Mutabazi something to eat. After a year and a half, the man offered to send Mutabazi to boarding school. 'That changed my life forever,' Mutabazi said. He went on to earn a bachelor's degree at Makerere University in Kampala and later moved to London to study crisis management at Oak Hill College. He moved to the United States in 2002 to study theology at the Master's University in Santa Clarita, California. 'I wanted to learn new things,' Mutabazi said. He has since dedicated his career to child advocacy organizations. He started at Compassion International in 2006 and now works at World Vision as a senior advocate. 'I have always worked for charities that help children,' Mutabazi said. But he wanted to do more. 'When I came to the United States, I really struggled seeing how much food was thrown away when I lost members of my family for a lack of beans and potatoes,' Mutabazi said. 'This person shared with me that there are kids in the United States that had no food, and he explained more about fostering.' 'I was like, wait a minute, I feel like I can relate to these kids,' he said. 'I thought I ought to do something for others.' Initially, though, 'I thought I wasn't qualified because I was single,' Mutabazi said, adding that he started researching and learned that wasn't true. He enrolled in a licensing class for foster parents and fostered his first child in 2017. Mutabazi said his goal with foster care is for the children to ultimately go back to their families. 'You're giving an opportunity for the parents to go through whatever they need to, and my belief is that the kids should go back to their parents,' he said. 'I will foster until the child has somewhere to go. If there is no one else, I want to be their final dad.' Mutabazi adopted his first child, Anthony, in 2019. Anthony came to him in 2018 as an 11-year-old and was supposed to stay for only one weekend. The first weekend they spent together, 'he looked at me and said, 'Can I call you my dad?' and I said, 'No, you can't call me dad because you're leaving on Monday,' Mutabazi recalled. 'He said, 'I'm 11 and I was told I could choose who my father is and I'm choosing you.'' Before long, 'I came to find he didn't have anywhere to go,' Mutabazi said. 'After knowing I was going to be his dad, his life really changed.' Anthony Mutabazi, now 19, said he knew right away he wanted Mutabazi to be his father. 'I just had this gut feeling,' Anthony Mutabazi said. 'He has just been there by my side, helping to support me in finding myself.' 'Ultimately I want to follow in his footsteps and help others,' he said, adding that he also hopes to become an advocate for foster children. 'It's just amazing that he cares so much when some people care so little. … My dad has been a great influence.' Mutabazi went on to adopt Luke and Isabella, biological siblings, in 2023. He started fostering them in 2020, when they were 5 and 6, after their grandparents could no longer care for them. Mutabazi is currently fostering three other children — Bella, 3, Zay, 21, and Jacob, 10 — and he is adopting all three. Bella is the biological sister of Luke and Isabella. 'I always want to keep siblings together,' he said. 'It lessens the trauma.' Jacob is Mutabazi's most recent foster child. He arrived at his home about three months ago. Although it was initially an adjustment when his father adopted more children, Anthony Mutabazi said he loves gaining new siblings. 'I have all these people that I can call family,' he said. 'It's been wonderful.' Mutabazi said raising six children is challenging, to be sure. He also has two dogs — Simba, a 4-year-old goldendoodle, and Rafiki, a 3-year-old labradoodle. 'As a single dad, it's hard,' he said. 'Your whole life is about your kids, from when they wake up to when they go to bed.' 'Also, you're parenting kids with trauma, so you've got to learn how to truly be there for them,' he said. Plus, as a Black man parenting White children, Mutabazi said he ha been stopped by police 11 times. He carries his foster and adoption papers with him. People ask questions and make comments 'every day, everywhere we go,' Mutabazi said, adding that he takes in children of all races and ethnicities. 'They always say, 'Can you prove to us you're the father?' I've learned to not let that bother me.' His focus is on the kids. 'I really feel it's a calling,' Mutabazi said. Mutabazi has written two books — one about his life story and another about lessons he has learned as a foster dad — and his fostering efforts have been covered widely in the news media, including in local and national publications. He has amassed a large following on social media, where he shares snippets of his daily life with his children in the hope of educating and inspiring prospective foster parents, and reducing the stigma surrounding foster children. 'The best way I could do that was to truly be open about it and share it,' he said. 'I wanted to show the positive side about how we can be there for kids who need us the most.' Ken Maxwell, executive director of Seven Homes — the foster care agency that places children with Mutabazi — said Mutabazi has touched the lives of many children. 'I've had kids that Peter is probably the only person that could reach this child,' Maxwell said. 'He seems to have a knack for getting kids, figuring out what they need and then providing that … it's a life passion for Peter, and you can see that in his work.' Maxwell said he appreciates that Mutabazi always prioritizes reuniting his foster children with their families. 'I've had him drive clear across the state multiple times so that a sibling group he had could see their mom, and that turned into a reunification,' he said. Maxwell believes Mutabazi's childhood challenges shaped his approach to fatherhood. 'It gives him compassion for kids in similar situations, and kids that are in trouble, because he lived it and someone helped him,' Maxwell said. 'It's probably what has motivated him to continue to do this for many years.' Holidays like Father's Day and Mother's Day can be tough for his children, Mutabazi said, so he does what he can to brighten an otherwise difficult day. 'We are going to go out and have fun,' he said. 'I'm going to take them to an amusement park.' Mutabazi plans to broaden his advocacy work by training foster parents and working to improve the foster-care system. 'Those are the things I am passionate about that I would love to impart in the future,' he said. He is raising funds to do bedroom makeovers for foster children to make them feel more at home. Mutabazi said his life is proof that a painful past doesn't always determine the future. 'I know there's hope because I am the example,' he said. 'I overcame.'
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
How an immigrant is thanking America through foster care
(NewsNation) — A Ugandan immigrant who arrived in the United States at age 27 has fostered nearly 50 children and adopted three, driven by his own experience of being helped by a stranger as a homeless child. Peter Mutabazi, a single father, began fostering children at age 40 after learning about the number of children in the foster care system. His decision to help was inspired by a man who showed him kindness when he was a child, surviving on the streets by stealing food. 'He said, 'Hey, what's your name?' You know, he didn't say, 'Go away.' He didn't say, 'You thief,'' Mutabazi told NewsNation's 'CUOMO' on Friday. 'That rattled me, because no one human being had ever called me or asked me what my name was.' VIDEO: Retiring UT Police K-9 surprised with tennis ball sendoff The stranger not only fed Mutabazi but also offered to send him to school, seeing potential in the boy when others saw only bad behavior. 'My dad said I will never mount anything. And I believed that. But this man saw the best in me when nobody saw that,' Mutabazi shared. Initially, Mutabazi signed up to foster just one child, uncertain whether he would be accepted as a single Black man. He had never seen anyone like himself in the foster care system, he said. 'Little did I know that truly, I would have as many as almost 50 that have come through my family,' Mutabazi said. His approach focuses on creating a safe space where children can heal from trauma rather than trying to erase their past experiences. He also works to support the biological parents, viewing them not as villains but as people who may lack resources or support. 'My job is not take away their trauma, but create a space where they feel they can thrive, where they feel they can overcome what they've gone through,' he said. Mutabazi, founder of the Now I Am Known Foundation, has a GoFundMe page to raise money for 20 full-room makeovers for foster youth across the country. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
