2022 Spring Impact Report [Digital - High Res]

IMPACT REPORT
September 2021 - February 2022

Foreword
COVID-19 is continuing to raise significant questions
and challenges across all aspects of how we live, and
how our societies function. The socio-economic crisis
that is following in its wake is being experienced in very
different ways by the most vulnerable in the
communities we support. To that effect, our strategy
has been to focus our approach on locally led response
and recovery to ensure that we are prioritising the
community’s ability to withstand the emerging shocks
and to come back stronger as they rebuild for the
future.
In this impact period, we have welcomed a new
investment and mentoring partner Martin James
Foundation. Martin James believes in the power of
locally led solutions and together, over the next two
years, we will work collaboratively identify more
alternative families - foster carers. We will train foster
carers to provide quality alternative family based
placements to children that need it, and prevent them
from spending even one night in an orphanage.
Through this partnership we are also documenting our
learning and the various models from our grassroots
partners. We will submit this as evidence for policy
development and strengthening around family based
options that exist and can be replicated across Uganda.
We are leaving no voice behind as we continue to
amplify the voices of care-experienced youth and
parents, through the youth wellbeing groups and peer
parenting and advocacy groups.
Our participatory approach will continue to ensure that
local communities are leading the solutions to address
emerging challenges, as well as offering their ideas,
experience and perspectives, helping us to respond
quickly as well as leading the long term solutions that
will ensure that children remain in strong and
connected families.
Christopher
Christopher Muwanguzi
Chief Executive
Child's i Foundation
2

Keeping families
together
We have emerged out of the 3rd wave of the Covid-
19 pandemic, which impacted many families and
communities in various ways. At Child's i, we have
continued to ensure children are not separated from
their families. We are continuing to skill up community
champions as volunteers to direct families in need to
relevant emergency and specialist services. Together
with our social work team, community volunteers visit
and provide psychosocial support to families facing
isolation; delivering food and medical packages to
families facing economic hardship, whilst supporting
their recovery through small business and education
grants.
Our cycle volunteers project, piloted in 2020 with the
Rocket Foundation with 15 bicycles to overcome
vehicle restriction during lockdown, has now been
scaled to equip 236 community volunteers with
bicycles, PPE and mobile phones with support from
Oak Foundation and UKAid Direct.
A special thank you goes to the Oak Foundation for
providing a 6-month emergency grant to support
hundreds of families with food and basic supplies,
through our well established community volunteer
network.
We made great strides with our mental wellbeing
initiative supported by Grand Challenges Canada. We
continue to document important lessons and best
practice to inform our strategies in supporting young
people with lived experience of care. We are proud of
the progress made, with the manual developed and
videos produced to serve as learning and capacity
building resources in all our programming.
A key lesson during this period has been to prioritise
the wellbeing out of teams. We continue to ensure
staff respite and ongoing mental wellbeing support.
Susan
Susan Ajok
Country Director
Child's i Foundation
Our Impact
87
1,996
children supported with food parcels,
medical care, education and other
assistance to ensure they stay together
61
children reintegrated
from orphanages into
safe and loving
families
102
approved as prospective
foster carers
trained to
provide a safe
and loving home
for children
22 foster parents
young people were
supported to build
their capacity in life
skills by trained peer
wellbeing champions
parents of children with
disabilities were trained
on parenting, child rights
and child protection
peer parenting and
advocacy groups
created as a space
for parents to share
3advice and guidance
532
The above figures include our achievements between September
and February 2022
3

The Power of a
Community
At Child’s i, we believe the power lies in our
community. We empower local activists to become
the eyes in their local communities to ensure every
child is growing up in a safe and loving family home.
It is important that every community volunteer is
prepared to safeguard children. We train each
volunteer in case management, child protection,
alternative care, deinstitutionalisation and parenting
and assess them to ensure they are fully equipped
and empowered to protect and support vulnerable
children, families and young people.
The role of a community volunteer is, firstly, to identify
vulnerable families. They work very closely with police,
local government officials and community structures,
such as Community Development Networks, for a well
coordinated and informed intervention.
Community volunteers also monitor and deliver
support to families to keep them together. They visit
families door-to-door every single day to make sure
children are safe and loved and that families have
food, hygiene products and enough money to pay
rent. Community volunteers give families small
business start-up support to help them earn an
income. They also refer families to local services for
medical, education and housing support.
Our network of
community
volunteers supports
over
625
11,000
What is a
Community
Development
Network?
Community Development Networks (or so
called CDNs) are groups of non-technical
government and community volunteers
who come together with common interest
and passion for the welfare of children.
The CDNs comprise of government officials
- health officers, secretary in-charge of
education, sub county councillor in charge
of children affairs, Chairperson
Headteacher’s Association, Agriculture
extension worker, representatives from
faith-based organisations and private
sector, NGOs and community based
organisations and para social workers in
the sub county.
The CDNs are responsible for ensuring that
children in the sub-counties are realising
their rights to protection from violence,
exploitation and neglect. They provide
community solutions and assistance to
children who are experiencing or are at risk
of child protection violations.
children every year.
4

Day in the Life of a
community volunteer
Angella
Tell us a bit about yourself
My name is Angella and I am 28 years old. I am a
single mother of two children, pursuing a degree in
Social Work. I work as a Manager in a Community
Learning Centre. I am also a Community Facilitator and
a teacher of Adult Education.
Why did you decide to become a community
volunteer?
Before becoming a Community Volunteer at Child's i
Foundation, I was volunteering at a government
development project and acted as a youth
representative. With this background, I observed how
children’s affairs were reported and handled and I
wanted to be part of it.
There were very many cases of child abuse in my
community and an increased vulnerability of children.
In addition, parents and the community were not
aware of the reporting structures. With this
background, I wanted to change the way people
treated children in my community. Most children were
abused by their parents, others were not in school. I
love children and I wanted to make a difference in my
community.
What is your biggest achievement as a
Community Volunteer?
I have worked together with parents to help them
learn more about child abuse and its implications.
In some cases, I had to get authorities involved when
parents failed to comply with the law. As a member of
a Community Development Network, I have mobilised
support for parents who could not afford scholastic
materials for their children's education.
What motivates you the most?
My personal life motivates me. I’m a single parent and
I had a challenging childhood. I don't want to see
other children experience what I experienced and this
drives my zeal every day to work hard and have a
favourable environment where children grow and
I don't want to see other
children experience what I
experienced and this drives
my zeal every day to work
hard and have a favourable
environment where children
grow and learn as children.
- Angella, Community Volunteer
learn as children.
Volunteering is very rewarding. Many organisations
have picked me up to run other projects. The trust
they have in me makes me achieve personal and work
goals. I have learnt a lot from different people and I
will not stop.
What's the most interesting part of your role?
It's associating with people from different levels. This
has helped me learn from society and has improved
my skills in counselling and guidance, the elderly have
also guided me in life skills that have been
implemented in my personal life.
If you could say something to all parents, what
would it be?
Fellow parents, love your children beyond anything
else. Stand and be a decision-maker and be confident
that you can provide everything your child needs. In
addition, do not take your children to institutions
because you do not know what they are trained to
adopt in institutions. Let a child adopt your values and
culture to have a sense of belonging.
Parents of children living with disabilities, you should
love and treat all children equally because disability is
not a bad omen.
What are your future aspirations as a Community
Volunteer?
Looking forward, with support from Child’s i
Foundation, I would love to address the harm of child
labour and the importance of education for children.
I appeal to all parents to work hard and have their
children in school.
Children are a community’s responsibility, let’s all
stand together and advocate for children’s rights.
It is everyone’s responsibility in the community to
control child abuse. It’s a collective effort. It may not
be the ultimate solution but it is a step towards equal
rights for children.
All children belong to the community.
5

Creating community led
alternatives to
orphanages
Project Goals
Overall Goal
develop and recommend models of
best practice across Masaka, Mpigi
and Wakiso that will serve as learning
resources be used to raise national
awareness of alternative care in
Uganda and the region.
6civil society
organisations
supported to document
and demonstrate their
alternative family
models.
identify, and
120
assess potential
foster carers
90
prepare prospective
foster carers for
approval, in partnership
with ditrict probation
and social welfare officer
and the local alternative
care panel
In the last 6 months, our locally led community
networks have reached 1,996 children in 449
households.
We have also established 3 peer support groups, led
by parents with lived experience of raising children
with disabilities, fostering parents, adoptive parents,
and youth with lived experience of care.
Parents and youth are trained to set up the groups,
once established they are self run and provide
ongoing peer support to existing and new members.
Some have gone onto set up additional functions like
savings and micro-finance initiatives, allowing the
members to save and borrow. They also act as
advocacy groups providing a community led voice and
champions who advocate for inclusion, access to
services and family based care.
Similarly with local delivery partners, our approach has
been to identify and collaborate with civil society and
grassroots organisations, implementing closest to the
community and sometimes with additional expertise.
In Masaka, a district neighbouring Mpigi, one of Child’s
i Foundations districts of operations, we have
established a training and mentoring partnership with
Home Free.
With support from UBS Optimus Foundation Child’s i
is working with with community based organisations
and local champions to build on existing peer,
advocacy and community groups to train 240
community volunteers and parents with lived
experience in leadership and community mobilisation
to support recruitment of alternative families.
Through this work, we aim to promote family based
care over residential care and to advocate from a
rights based position on issues relating to inclusion of
children with disabilities, adoption, and child family
separation.
6

Community led
alternatives to
orphanages
Together with the Martin James Foundation, we are
strengthening our foster care work by creating a
professional community of organisations in Uganda
that support and promote foster care and kinship care
in the districts of Masaka, Mpigi and Wakiso.
Our next milestone is to document the models
through the voices of the parents and to develop
foster care training and resources as well as raise
national awareness of alternative care in Uganda and
the region.
Wakiso district will be our first local government
partner whose capacity we will build to deliver their
own foster care programme. The first of its kind, led
by a local government in partnership with local
parents.
We are supporting parents and guardians of children
as well as peer educators and community leaders to
establish thriving networks, focusing on promoting
foster care and kinship care in Uganda.
In the last 6 months:
Together with the local community and the
local government we identified, assessed
and trained 102 potential foster carers.
We have trained and up-skilled our
partner Home Free to deliver a foster care
model that has identified and trained 83
foster parents to provide loving and safe
families for children at risk of separation.
Scaling for Impact:
Home Free
Home Free is a community based organisation
that believes that children belong in families.
They keep families together, make families for
children through reunification and foster care
and are transforming the child welfare system
to one that relies on families, and not
orphanages to care for vulnerable children.
We are proud to have provided Home Free
with training and the tools to deliver
deinstitutionalisation and alternative care work
in Uganda. We have trained and mentored
Home Free’s social workers and supported
them with case management guidance.
Home Free is amongst the first organisations
to receive technical training. We are providing
training and guidance to other organisations
as we scale our work in partnership with
grassroots and local organisations aligned
with our vision and values.
Tororo district is still free of orphanages.
The district is taking the lead in delivering
their foster care work. We will be leaving
the district at the end of the year with
community led child protection services
and alternatives to orphanages.
7

Piloting mental
health peer support
for young people in
Uganda​
With the support from our technical partner, Hope
and Homes for Children, in 2019 we started the
journey of transitioning the children and young adults
in St Michael’s Children’s Home back to their families.
Fast forward to today, and in partnership with the
Archdiocese, and Help Uganda Trust (HUT), we have
transitioned all 37 young people out of the children's
home. HUT has supported their education up to
secondary level and tertiary level whilst our role has
been to prepare the young people with life and social
skills to help them thrive in their new world: business
set up, budgeting, cooking, relationship and sex
education, and more.
Together with Help Uganda Trust, we continue to
work with the young people providing ongoing
psychosocial support, mentorship, and financial
assistance to ensure their personal and professional
development.
Listening to the young adults helped us realise that a
peer support network would be key in helping build
their confidence to navigate their new course of life.
Following their lead, we launched a learning
partnership between youth with lived experience of
care and final year social work students from
Makerere University to develop a youth peer led
innovation to address well-being and trauma amongst
young people.
The innovation “Breaking the Cycle” is made up of
training videos, and accompanying guidebook,
focusing on four key areas: Trauma and Stress,
Depression and Suicidal Thoughts and Feelings,
Anxiety, and Loss and Grief. Together, they will
address the gap in integrated mental health and wellbeing
support for children at risk and vulnerable
youth.
Working in
partnership to create
youth wellbeing
champions
The project is powered with support from
Grand Challenges Canada. We want to give
young people the skills and platform to
advocate for a world where children do not
experience the trauma of growing up in an
orphanage.
In partnership with Makerere University,
leading the research aspect, the project will
also provide much needed evidence to
enable us to scale the wellbeing project and
provide a community based approach to
building awareness of mental health and
wellbeing, through the voices of youth with
lived experience of care.
Through this project, we hope to empower young
people with lived experience of care and others that
have experienced trauma through a compassionate
approach.
8

Meet Charles
Charles was placed in an orphanage when he was just 7
years old. This is where he spent the next 17 years of his
life. “I have grown up in the children's home,” he shared
with us. “When my friends would go back to their homes
during the school holidays, I would go back to the
children's home, it was my home.”
Charles is one of the 37 young adults that has been
supported to transition into independent living.
At the height of the Covid19 pandemic, Charles left the
orphanage to start his new life in independent living.
Once set up in his new accommodation, we provided
Charles with with rent and food packages to help him
get through the pandemic.
Charles loves to bake, a passion he turned into his
business. “My passion for baking started when I was in
high school, during the holidays I would volunteer at a
restaurant near the orphanage. That’s where my passion
for cooking was born.” At the university, Charles chose to
study Hotel Management and Institutional Catering.
During the long holidays while at the University, Charles
would go back to the orphanage and intern at a local
hotel to learn how to bake.
“I spend most of my time baking and perfecting my
recipes by watching YouTube videos,” he tells us
laughing.
“I want to expand and have a wide variety of baked
goods.” Charles shared with us.
Child's i has helped Charles grow his business and fulfil
his dream by buying him an industrial oven. “Now I do
not have to worry about burning my cakes,” he laughed
heartily. “I will scale up my business. The baking
equipment is expensive, I hope to save and buy more
equipment.”
Charles shares that his life experience is his inspiration.
He would like to have a brighter future and have
connections with bigger bakery brands that can provide
him with advice on how to run a successful bakery.
9

We are an Award
Winning Charity
Winners of the FiRe award, again!
Child's i Foundation has just been announced the
winner of the FiRE award for Small and Medium-sized
enterprises.
We are excited and honoured to become two-time
recipients of the 2020 and 2021 Annual Financial
Reporting Awards (FiRe), under the International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for SMEs.
The FiRe Awards are an annual ceremony through
which excellence in financial reporting is recognised
and rewarded. Organisations in the private, public and
non-profit sectors participate by submission of their
annual reports for the year under review.
Winners of the Best Partnership award!
Child's i Foundation together with St James's Place
Wealth Management has won the award for BEST
Partnership with an international Charity, in the 7th
Annual Better Society Awards!
The award recognises the focused partnership
between Child's i and St James's Place that has
leveraged skills and resources of the financial
institution to create an international blueprint for
support.
Winning this award means so much to
us. It confirms that our small social
impact organisation can have a big
footprint and that our work is being
noticed. We are extremely grateful for
the support and mentorship from St
James’s Place Charitable Foundation.
Their investment, encouragement and
belief in our vision has brought us this
far.
Christopher Muwanguzi
CEO
10

Take Action
You can make a change
Join in the efforts to make sure every child in Uganda
grows up in a safe and loving family.
One small act of generosity can make a world of
difference in the lives of children growing up
separated from their families. From organising a
running challenge with your friends, donating for free
while you shop online, to engaging in our work
through philanthropy, there are plenty of ways you
can help change the way we care for children in
Uganda.
FIND OUT MORE
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Become a monthly supporter to transform the way we
care for children in Uganda. Your monthly gift will
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sure every child grows up in a safe and loving family.
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Be a part of a community
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like-minded and committed individuals who understand the importance
and lasting impact of children growing up in families, not orphanages.
Secure a safe future for children in Uganda
Monthly gifts enable us to invest in specific areas of our work, expand our
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11

Thank you to the families, community volunteers,
government officials, partners, staff, volunteers, and
supporters for making our work possible.
Goodwill Ambassador in Uganda
Lucy Bunyenyezi
Our Ambassadors in the UK
Richard Osman
Tamara Box
Sam Rowe-Beddoe
Greg Nasmyth
Mary O'Connor
Andy Ash
Deborah Francis-White
Nicola Horlick
Natascha Lander
Irem Yerdelen
Special thank you to our photographers Benjamin
Nsubaga and Mark Andrew Nsubuga.
Address in the UK: Child's i Foundation, Abbots Rift,
Monastery Gardens, Rotherfield, TN6 3NB
Address in Uganda: Bukasa Rd, Kampala, Uganda
supportercare@childsifoundation.org
www.childsifoundation.org
Registered charity number: 1126212
Mission
Our mission is to enable Uganda to fully commit
as a nation to curb the spread of orphanages,
repurposing the orphanages that exist and
reimagining the way it cares for vulnerable
children and young people.
Vision
One day, in a Uganda free of
orphanages, all children will
belong and grow up in safe
and loving families.