It’s been an honor to witness the birth of a comprehensive social servie for the vulnerable children of Uganda. At the heart of every useful child safety tool is a secure family unit. We owe every child we encoutner an opportunity to belong to a stable and loving gropu of people whome they can call their own.
That’s why I am passionately committed to giving Uganda’s most vulnerable children what every child needs – a healthy childhood within a healthy family, regardless of where they began or find themselves in life, with opportunities to learn and contribute to their communities.
My sincere thanks go out to you our fantastic supporters who have joined us on this journey. We’re moving closer to securing a stable structure for our child saftey network.We are building relationships, testing out new ideas, reviving lost customs and together we are creating replicable solutions for attainting and maintaining healthy childhoods.
I invite you to take this opportunity to review the impact on these children and the families that you helped make possible. This annual report tells a story of our first year of existence and what we have accomplished together for Uganda’s most vulnerable children. Yes, funder were received and utilized, but this story is about our resporing the spirit of “UBUNTU”.
Blessings,
Allen Kakooza
President & Founder
Child Registration
Physical Exams
Deworming & Cleaning
Mental Health Care
Search & Unite
Child Counseling
Child Placement
District FIlings
Children come to us from various sources. Eleven children were referred to us by community leaders. Six children were gradual entries through our library and soccer progra, while four children were high-risk emergency child protection entries due to severe trauma, abandonment and severe neglect.
In this first year of existence, your gifts have rescued 20 children from dangerous living conditions and placed them with foster families. Your donations also reunited 15 unattached children with extended family members and continued to monitor and support them.
Thanks to your generousity CNFOUG registered and trained 50 foster parents, and 30 of them are still waiting for resources to welcome children into their homes.
Trauma Management
Family Strengthening
Placement Stabilization
Foster families provided much needed stability and safety for traumatized children. 15 children reunited with their extended family members. Community support has helped us develop non-institutionalized alternatives and unique child rearing practices similar to those in nuclear families.
Orphaned at only 7 years old. Serunjogi was abandoned and forced to beg for food on the streets of Mukono before he was rescued and placed with his CNFOUG foster mother, Kamiyat.
Serunjogi is adjusted to regular house routines after living unsupervised on the streets for two years.
He needs tuition to complete his transition to a normal childhood. When he grows up he wants to be a teacher.
“It took him a while to settle into our family routines.” Serunjogi was used to his way of life and resisted discipline, especially bed time. It has been a joy to watch him soften and bond with his foster siblings. It took everyone in the family to get him to this point. Today he loves his elder brother role and protects his little sisters fiercely. It took him a while to accept that we won’t throw him out when he messed up.”
The first two weeks are always the hardest. Kamiyat(foster mother) called me almost every other day to speak to Serunjogi over the phone. He needed reassurance that I wasn’t coming back to remove him. My response each time was, you are stuck, you new mummy loves you too much to throw you out.” He chuckled each time, no one had ever told him they loved him.
Our most fun programs happen through the Kyanja Community Library. Two volunteer retired teachers run it with the help of teen reading mentors. The library is free to every child, or adult who needs literacy support. It offers age appropriate reading books, reading tablets, syllabus support books as well as fun art and craft activities.
The library also offers free tutor sessions for children who are lagging behind in school, especially the girl child.
This library is a safe child entry point for children suffering abuse and neglect within their homes. As the tutors interact with the children, they ear their trust and respect.
Tutors work with caseworkers to offer additional support services to children, and families in need.
Sessions from before school, after school, weekends and during school breaks.
Lydia has 14 siblings all from one mother. Her father died from heart complications four years ago, 5 of her teenage sisters have run off into marriage.
Without intervention, Lydia was at high risk of following the same pattern. She had been out of school for two years before she came to our library outreach program.
Although she is 14 years old, Lydia is in 3rd grade. She returned to school after getting an education scholarship from You, our generous contributors.
Thanks to YOU she is also receiving free tutor sessions to help her catch up with her peers.
“Lydia loves dancing, and she always has a smile on her face despite her circumstances. It’s an honor to be her assigned mentor. I don’t take this position for granted. I know she’s watching me and looking at me for guidance and encouragement.”
One hundred children and youth have received a healthy snack and hot nutritious meal through the Kyanja library feeding program. For some of these children, this was their only meal that day.
Hot meals are served on each library day and during spring breaks. A hungry child finds it hard to concentrate and interact with peers. The feeding program has been most valuable during school breaks when most children stay home alone without adult supervison or meals.
“Uganda is a developing country where stunted growth rate due to malnutrition is a significant public concern”, John Bukusuba Makerere University.
Interns offered 300 hours of music as therapy to traumatized children both off the street and children in our foster care system. Singing and dancing have been a valuable tool in reviving these children’s broken spirits.
Sometimes a parent or guardian caring for an ill child may start to feel stress get to them or they may run out of funds and options for medical care.
Guardian angel teams provide short-term respite car to let carers of ill children to rest or take time off so that they can work on their personal health. This team is a crucial tool in preventing child abandonment, abuse, and neglect of ill children or those suffering from sever behavior issues.
The team also offer grief counseling and assist with funeral arrangements for overwhelming guardians.
Albert William Opio
Allen Kakooza
Coley Gallagher
David Pascal
Denis Mugnwa
Diana Janefrances Namiwanda
Kaitlyn Kmetty
Florence Kakooza
Flavia Nanyondo
Ibrahim Sekagya
Emily N.
Hood Kiyimba
Matha O’Carroll
Mapke Kenyi
Michelle Thomas
Michaela K. Sternstein
Oliva Mirembe
Proscovia Nakate
Rachel Kibaya
Richard Bell
Shamim Nampala
Simon Njuneki Ahikiriza
Going forward, we’ll focus on strengthening our foster families – both financially and economically. We’ll provide more skills training, personal financial management, budgeting and marketing of their products and services. We’ll also expand access to diverse skills training by recruiting diverse business mentors.
Finally, we’ll extend in-home services to those foster parents who cannot otherwise attend group training.