Supporting vulnerable children in Uganda's slums

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO SUPPORTED OUR FEEDING FAMILIES: COVID-19 EMERGENCY APPEAL

This has not only saved thousands of people from starvation, it has also reduced pressure for families, provided social connection during a crisis and helped to build a sustained sense of community.

Something we’re really proud of at Kids Club Kampala is that we’re a truly community-led organisation. That means that we always take the time to consult with our communities and their leaders to see how we can best serve them.

We’re not a top-down, bureaucratic organisation where we decide what’s needed and when. We’re constantly adapting our approach because we’re constantly reacting to changing circumstances and different feedback from our beneficiaries, our communities and their leaders.

So when lock down hit on 31st March, we ran consultations with beneficiaries, volunteers and community leaders to help us plan our response to the crisis.

Overwhelmingly, food access came out as the most pressing concern. With many families unable to go out to work, they are in desperate need of assistance to meet their basic needs, like food and hygiene. We adapted our education classrooms into food banks, and started delivering food to the elderly or disabled who couldn’t leave their homes. 

We also managed to improve sanitation in the slums by installing 14 hand-washing stations and building a toilet block in Katanga slum - vital in preventing the spread of the virus. 

We’ve had to deal with crises before, such as the emergency appeal we ran last year to rebuild one of our classrooms, which was severely damaged due to extensive flooding in the Katanga slum. A tragedy for the hundreds of children who relied on the Education Project as somewhere for them to go each day to receive a free education, a hot meal, hope and love.

However, given the unprecedented nature and scale of the COVID-19 crisis, that has seen countries around the world struggle to protect their citizens and healthcare systems against the spread of the virus, this has proved to be our biggest challenge to date.

I’m delighted to say that, so far, throughout this emergency we have been able to respond quickly, appropriately and guided completely by the community.

Our vital work providing food for vulnerable people during the COVID-19 crisis has strengthened our recognition, reputation and trust within Kampala’s slums both during this time and for the future.

The Chairman of Katanga slum recognised this in saying:

The local authorities in Uganda have seen our response and have started relying on our services as a trusted and respected partner. Leaders of neighbouring slums have also approached us to ask if we can help their communities too, so the number of people we serve has increased during this time.

We take this responsibility very seriously and we are already thinking ahead to how we’re going to rebuild these communities once this crisis has passed.

Because despite all of Uganda’s progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030, devastatingly, much of this will be undone and poverty rates will increase due to COVID-19. Lockdown has already caused a further 3.5 million Ugandans to fall into poverty - the vast majority of these being slum dwellers.

Apart from access to food, when money is scarce, there are increases in domestic violence, family breakdown and child abandonment. We have increased the capacity of our Ewafe transitional children’s home already to account for this rise. 

Ultimately, it is our aim to bring hope and love to children and their families in the slums of Kampala, whatever that looks like, and long-term, we aim for the positive transformation and empowerment of these communities.

We’re grateful to all of you, our supporters, who have helped us to continue providing much-needed support during this difficult time.

Together, we have a lot of work to do to help our communities regain what has been lost, but we believe that together, we can make it happen and bring back joy and love to the slums of Kampala.

To help our communities rebuild, we’ve created a plan on how we’re going to get there. You can read about this here, I will also shortly be submitting a further brief report which will provide an update on our new vision.