Stopping child abandonment in Uganda

Since launching the Ewafe project our team has rescued over 100 children from abuse or abandonment, and over 70 of these children have been reintegrated into their families, or like Grace, into a loving foster family. We are family-based care advocates, which means that we try to reintegrate children into their families as we know that is the best environment for children to grow up happy and safe, and feeling like they belong. We are unusual in reintegrating families, as many privately run institutions make no effort to find family members. In Uganda, 85% of children living in institutions have at least one surviving parent, and 52% of institutions have no reintegration or foster care programmes. This means that thousands of families are unnecessarily being forced apart. Chronic poverty, exacerbated by the impact of COVID-19, puts children at risk of abuse and exploitation and families in danger of breaking apart. We are supporting families in crisis, rescuing children who have no safe place to go, helping them to heal, and finding safe families for these children.There are some situations where it is not safe for the child to live with their family members, which is why we launched our foster care program. This is the story of how Gemma came to be the first fostered child with our Ewafe Project.

Gemma* was 8 when her mother became very unwell and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. This meant that Gemma was without any family to take care of her and was at risk of homelessness. The local authorities brought Gemma to our Ewafe Project in 2018, in the hope that Gemma’s Mum would recover.Sadly, after a few months Gemma’s mum had not showed signs of recovery and was still too unwell to look after her. Gemma didn’t have any other family, so we knew the best option for her was to be placed with a loving foster family.

Foster carers are a new concept in Uganda, but with the support of local social services, we were able to bring one loving Ugandan family through the process of becoming approved foster carers. In June 2019, after all the checks had been completed, Gemma went to live with her new family.This family have the ability to provide Gemma with the love and care that she desperately needed, and a sense of belonging that she would not have otherwise had. Gemma has settled in wonderfully, having started school and has the loving care and support from her family.Gemma and her family receive regular visits from our social workers, and we are delighted that Gemma is loving being with her new family.(*name changed)

There are estimated to be over 40,000 children currently in institutional care in Uganda. This is the story of just one. 

Family care is the best possible environment for a child and it’s so important that children of all ages have a loving family to rely on. We advocate for children to be with their families or a foster family because we know that long term institutionalisation can have long term negative effects on a child’s development and well-being. Children need to live in families and should not be separated from them unnecessarily. Kids Club Kampala are working hard to strengthen families and communities and we love to see children going back home to loving families, this case is so special as we have been able to reintegrate a child into a loving foster family for the very first time.We shared the story of Gemma with our team and to our surprise a volunteer who had visited the Ewafe home last year shared that he had been praying for Gemma to find a new family, he was delighted to hear the news that Gemma had been welcomed into a loving family and was a part of our very first foster family placement. It is great to know that we have supporters praying for the children in Uganda and it’s a wonderful reminder that prayer works. We value your prayers for the children and communities we serve in Uganda. 

Our vision of seeing more children reunited into loving families is hugely dependent on people like Gemma’s new foster parents, who are making a true difference by bringing hope to Gemma's situation and providing a family home for her where she is safe. We love to see children leaving our emergency care home and going back to loving families and we hope this is the first of many foster family placements that we help to facilitate. Today we take the time to celebrate and honour foster families and the difference this makes to children like Gemma. Foster care is changing the lives of vulnerable children in Uganda and we are so excited to be a part of this process.