Supporting vulnerable children in Uganda's slums

In March 2020, Kids Club Kampala had to make some pretty big changes to accommodate for the curve-ball that was COVID-19.

Alongside the schools in Uganda, our Encouraging Education project, women’s projects, and carpentry projects all had to be put on hold and we started running our food banks which has so far served over 1.5 million food parcels to over 32,000 families.

However, February 2021 is bringing big changes in Uganda, with schools reopening for all students as of the 25th January after, for many children, a 10-month gap from education.

For us, this means that we can finally restart our Encouraging Education project. Encouraging Education allows children, who would otherwise have no access to education, to have the opportunity to learn through taking part in free education classes. We won’t be able to run the project at its pre-COVID capacity, and will prioritise according to age (3-6 years), and those who have not taken part in the program previously. A needs assessment will also help us to make sure we are providing education for those who need it most. For children who cannot attend the project, we are still delivering home education packs put together by our teachers.

For the first time since March for the majority of our sponsored school children, they will be back in the classroom. All students will be going back to school over the next week, which our students are delighted about.

We are also able to get our women’s projects back underway this month, and our first tailoring course of 2021 has already resumed. We have 36 women enrolled in the first course which will run for 4 months, followed by two more courses throughout 2021. Empowering women and achieving gender equality is vital to breaking the cycle of poverty, and our women’s initiatives aim to provide a ‘hand-up’ to women living in poverty in the slums of Kampala.

Our carpentry project has also resumed, and will run for 6 months. This project helps give disadvantaged men and teenage boys in Kampala’s slums the opportunity to learn and practice a new trade, with the aim of seeing a reduction in unemployment, violent crime and drug and alcohol abuse.

Our food banks are also still running across the slums, and our team have built an incredible network of support for the most vulnerable in the communities across the slums, delivering food twice a week to those who need it.