By Olivia Barker White | CEO
The Saturday Kids Clubs was how Kids Club Kampala began and continues to be an important project for the charity. However, it is no longer one of our core offerings and since COVID-19 the project has had to be suspended due to restrictions on large gatherings. We do plan to restart it once restrictions are eased but we have taken the decision to deactivate it on GlobalGiving so we can focus more on our two active projects. Below is a summary of our Saturday Kids Clubs and why they have been and will continue to be an important:
Kampala’s slums are notorious for drug and alcohol abuse and violent crime, poor sanitation and abject poverty. Children are often left unsupervised during the day whilst their parents try to make a living, and without a daily purpose or safe space to go these children become even more at risk.
Our Saturday Kids Clubs provide children with a safe space and the chance to play and enjoy being children, away from the challenges and struggles of their everyday lives. Here children can come and have fun, talk about their struggles or worries and receive love and attention. Having the opportunity just to play and have fun is so important. Play is incredibly therapeutic for young children who have experienced trauma, abuse or other challenges in their lives.
Each Kids Club is run by a team of local volunteers who have a desire to see the lives of children in their community change for the better. These volunteers give up their time each week to organise games and sports, sing songs, lead Bible teaching, dramas and stories, facilitate counselling sessions and serve the children a meal. This weekly club is so important to the children who attend. For many this is their only opportunity to attend an organised activity with other children their age since many do not have the opportunity to go to school. For others it may be the only chance they have to express themselves and feel secure and listened to by Kids Club Kampala’s volunteers.
Through running these clubs our volunteers are also able to identify children who are at risk or in need of emergency help. Whether this is because of abandonment, lack of education or food insecurity, our volunteers can raise these issues to the staff of Kids Club Kampala and the child at risk and their family can be supported through the other projects that Kids Club Kampala runs.
That’s why our Saturday Kids Clubs are so important. And that is why our Saturday Kids Clubs are still at the heart of what we do. Every Saturday throughout the year, up to 4000 children gather together in 18 different slum communities across Uganda to take play, be cared for and to just enjoy being children.
Thank you so much for supporting our Saturday Kids Clubs and I hope you will continue to support us through our two other projects on GlobalGiving.
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