Child Protection Uganda Project #26217

Supporting vulnerable children in Uganda's slums

by Kids Club Kampala

Supporting vulnerable children in Uganda's slums

Project Report | Feb 5, 2019
It's 2019! A quick review of the best bits of 2018

By Olivia Barker | UK Director

With 2019 now in full swing, we thought we would take a little time to look back on some of our projects and how they got on in 2018. Our work falls into 4 main areas: Access to Education, Keeping Children Safe, Meeting Basic Needs and Transforming Communities. In this blog we will review some of the highlights from each of these areas from last year.

Access to Education

At the beginning of 2018 Kids Club Kampala was supporting 120 children through the Sponsorship Programme to go to good schools with the help of their sponsors. By the end of the year another 30 children had been added to this number making the total number of children sponsored to 150. That’s 150 children who had no way of being education but now have a bright future thanks to the generosity of individuals. We want to say a huge thank you to all of you who sponsor a child whether you have been sponsoring for many years or you have just joined in 2018.

Keeping Children Safe

This year our Ewafe Project has been continuing to support abandoned children and to reunite them with their families where safe and possible. In 2018 we rescued 11 new children and admitted them to our transitional home. Throughout the year we managed to safely and successfully reintegrate 10 children with loving families and we currently have 17 children in our care. The home itself was blessed with a new kitchen, a new staff cottage and a brand new paint job which has significantly improved the standard of living for all the children. Thank you to all those who have supported this project in 2018.

Meeting Basic Needs

The children we work with regularly go without the basic necessities of life and our Meeting Basic Needs programme aims over to tackle this. Over the year of 2018 along with providing over 1,000 nutritious meals each week Kids Club Kampala has also provided other basic necessities to children living in the slums. Thanks to one amazing supporter and volunteer Sharon Holloway, this year 200 children received life saving mosquito nets and over 600 children received vital dental hygiene kits. When growing up in chronic poverty these basic items make such a huge difference. Not only do they save lives but they also come with a message of hope which says ‘you are worth something’ and this the reason we exist, to bring hope and love to these children.

Transforming Communities.

Along with bringing hope and love to the children of the slum communities we work in, Kids Club Kampala believes that transforming their communities is vital to breaking the cycle of poverty. In 2018 we continued to bring free carpentry training to young men to give them a skill for life. With the help of SIIDshare we also helped a community to construct an eco-friendly composting toilet for the communities use. Our tailoring and knitting training programme was probably the biggest of all the projects we undertook in community transformation in 2018. Three courses were run back to back throughout the year providing a total of 45 women with a skill for life which will help them to break the cycle of poverty for their family.

As we head into 2019 we are looking forward to bringing more hope and love to vulnerable children and communities. We need your help to do this. If you would like to help us change lives please donate today. For more information about Kids Club Kampala please get in touch with us at info@kidsclubkampala.org all of your support makes these projects possible.

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Oct 25, 2018
Hope Never Fades Away: Jacob*s Journey.

By Olivia Barker | UK Director

Teenager, Jacob*’s future looked uncertain when his single mother became sick and lost her job at a tailoring company. Jacob had already dropped out of school and they didn’t know how they would pay the rent on their little place in the slum. When Jacob’s little brother began coming along to Kids Club Kampala’s Encouraging Education Project, Jacob would walk with him to and from the classroom every day. It was around this time that some of the staff at the project told him about Kids Club Kampala’s carpentry training programme. Here Jacob tells his story in his own words:

*name changed.

‘My name is Jacob*, I live in Kampala and I am very happy to be a Carpenter.

Before I joined the Kids Club Kampala Carpentry project I used to just stay at home doing nothing. I had dropped out of school in Primary 5 at age 13 because I had no money for school fees. I did not feel good being idle at home. At that time I felt so hopeless. At the same time my mother had fallen sick and lost her job with a tailoring company, she had been replaced by someone else and we had no hope of her getting her job back. We felt so hopeless. In 2016, I heard about the Kids Club Kampala carpentry project. My little brother was going to Kids Club Kampala’s Encouraging Education Project every day and I used to walk to collect him. That’s when one of the social workers told me that they were enrolling at the Carpentry Project.

After I started at the Carpentry Project I felt so good. I felt like I could be in charge of my future and work hard, I now had hope. And by that time my mother had started recovering from sickness too. I gained hope again. I felt so good that I was not only studying but I knew that because I was learning something practical I would be able to get a job after I finish. Even before I started training at the carpentry project I used to be so interested in carpentry. I would practice at home making small boxes. Carpentry is an ancient tradition, even Jesus was a carpenter. So when I started learning at the project I was excited to expand my skills.

The moment I got my graduation certificate I felt great. Having an official certificate made me feel proud and meant that I could go out and show this certificate to employers in order to get a job. It didn’t take me too long to get a job afterwards at a carpentry workshop. I have now been working there since December 2018. At work I now spend my time making bunk beds, closets, stools and double beds. At my work station I work together with Caleb* who is also a graduate from the KCK Carpentry Project. We take orders from the boss at the workshop and we also take our own orders from individual customers.

Jacob* (far right) on his graduation day in 2017.

Having this job has really changed my life, at times it means that I can help my family and help my mother with the rent and also help my brother to pay his school fees. The good news is that my mum also recovered and is well again and she even got her job back at the tailoring company! As I look to the future I am looking forward to becoming an even better carpenter. I love carpentry and I want to become even more skilled. This is what I want to do!

When I think about what Hope means to me it is something that never fades away. Today you might feel very weary and feel like giving up but God can perform something even at the last minute for you.

God bless Kids Club Kampala, because of them a lot has been added to my life.’

At his place of work.

We love to share stories of change like Jacob's, and we are working hard to help more young guys change their futures through the Carpentry Project. We have just begun enrolling for a new intake of students from Kampala’s slums. Each of them are coming from situations just like Jacobs. We don’t have the complete secured funding to make sure this next course goes ahead. We need your help and we are fundraising now. Please donate today to our campaign. Thank you.

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Jun 27, 2018
New Horizons for Carpentry Graduates

By Corrie fraser | Director

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