Child Protection Uganda Project #14034

Stopping child abandonment in Uganda

by Kids Club Kampala

Summary

Ewafe means 'Where We Belong' in Luganda. This project supports abandoned and at risk children in the slums of Kampala. The project offers emergency help and a safe place to live, while also working towards reuniting children with their relatives and reintegrating them with loving families where possible. Our model of Rescue, Rehabilitate, Reintegrate has an underlying ethos of finding family care for children.

$24,200
total goal

$11,170
remaining

144
donors

0
monthly donors

5
fundraisers

9
years

Challenge

Uganda has limited social welfare resources and children unfortunately suffer as a result. Due to a lack of suitable placements for orphaned and abandoned children, they are often housed in juvenile detention centres or independently run orphanages and the majority of these make no effort to search for the children's families or to investigate their stories, meaning that the children who do have surviving family members have no opportunity to be reunited with them.

Solution

All children have a right to shelter and our transitional home provides this, however we know the best long-term care plan for these children is to grow up in a family. Thus, whilst the children receive counselling and support our social workers search for immediate and extended family members and where possible put in place reintegration plans to bring these children home. In cases where children are not able to be reunited with their own families we aim to provide community foster families.

Long-Term Impact

Through placing children who have been abandoned in loving and caring families, their needs are taken care of and they can have a bright and hopeful future, receive an education and escape the cycle of poverty. By engaging with struggling parents and working to reduce poverty levels within the slum communities of Kampala, we hope to see families who are better able to cope with adversity and ultimately reduce the number of children being abandoned in the communities within which we work.