On Saturday February 27, 2016, we hosted an information event where individuals interested in emergency foster care came to learn more about why children need to grow up in families. Our social workers were present to explain what it takes to foster, and several wonderful people signed up. Call 0776110304 or to foster a child today. You could also fill in and return the expression of interest form to us via the email [email protected]
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Neil needs a family
Neil needs a loving family. Neil was abandoned at two years old, severely malnourished and not able to walk. With specialised care and then the love of a foster mother, he has recovered, is healthy and can walk well. Neil is four years old now. He loves playing with other children and would make a wonderful sibling. He is a loving and well behaved little boy who needs and deserves a family of his own. Call 0776110304 or email [email protected] if you can give Neil a permanent loving home.
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Baby Praise goes Home
Little Praise was found abandoned in Mulago, a Kampala suburb in February 2015, at one-and-a-half months and placed into emergency care. After our social workers tried in vain to trace her family, she was approved for adoption in August. Luckily for Praise, there was a loving heart waiting to receive her. Her adoptive mother had been undergoing assessment and was approved to adopt by the Government Adoption Panel on the same day! After a successful bonding arrangement with her new family, it was all joy and excitement as the sweet angel finally went home in December 2015! We found a loving family for little Praise and we will for many more, with your help!
Can you provide a loving home for an abandoned child? Contact us today. call +256 (0)776110304 or email us via [email protected]. We believe Ugandan children deserve Ugandan families.
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Meet George’s family
Two weeks after George went home to his new family, social worker Evelyn made a follow up visit on him. Previously a very quiet and withdrawn boy, George was bursting with life and shouting out to his brothers and little cousin when Evelyn arrived. In this video, we document his progress in fitting within his adoptive family. George’s amazing development in two weeks only emphasises the fact that family is the best place for every child!
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For more information on adoption, please call Pamela on 0776110304 or email [email protected] today.
Little George was picked off the streets of Kampala, Uganda after he was found abandoned by his mother. He was homeless, cold and hopeless. After nearly 3 years of unsuccessful tracing of relatives and looking for an adoptive parent thereafter, we were finally able to place George in a loving family hailing from Gulu in Northern Uganda and will continue to monitor his progress as he bonds with his new family. This is George’s journey.
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Give us a call (+256 (0) 776110304) or email us today via [email protected] for more information on adopting a child in Uganda.
Adopting a child is a life-long commitment that raises many questions in the mind, especially for someone that is considering doing it. We are delighted to have a real-life adoptive mother attempt to provide answers to some of these questions from her personal experience.
Nearly three years ago, Ugandan celebrity TV personality Rukh Shana Namuyimba took the first step towards realizing her dream of adopting a child. She was overwhelmed with joy and fulfillment when she finally held her daughter Laura for the very first time, then only four months old. Rukh Shana has confessed that becoming a parent is her greatest achievement in life so far, and her life is evidently transformed daily as she watches her little angel grow. In this video, Rukh Shana answers common questions on the adoption process to give an insight into what it takes.
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You too can transform your life and more importantly, that of a Ugandan child today by opening your heart and home to them. Contact us on email [email protected] or call +256 (0)776110304
Our team crossed paths with London based Erina Nalwoga while working on a joint adoption project. On hearing her amazing story about being raised in foster care, we could not help but ask her to share her life story with our supporters. Below we bring you Erina’s story in her own words:
Who is Erina?
My name is Erina, I am 28 years old and was born in Kampala, Uganda. I came to London at the age of 4 and was in foster care by the age of 5. I remained in long term foster care with the Government holding parental responsibility for me until the age of 23 when I graduated from University. I hold a BA Hons. in Creative Advertising Strategy and am currently studying part time for a Masters degree in Migration and Diaspora Studies at SOAS, University of London.
Since the age of 18, I have been committed to re-shaping the care system for those that follow and not only inspiring other young people to do the same but empowering them to step forward and make a difference. I currently work for the UK’s oldest running children’s charity Coram as a Programme Manager.
Tell us about your childhood
Being only 4 when I came to London, my memory of Kampala as a child is limited. However, I do have vague memories of my grandmother’s blue house where I stayed in Kagoma and the nursery school I went to just a few minutes’ walk from the house. My dad is an aircraft engineer and my birth mum still owns a small shop somewhere in Kampala.
My dad came to London first and I followed with my uncle maybe a year or so after that, leaving my mum in Kampala. Due to ongoing incidents, I was placed with a foster family from the Caribbean in East London. Although this was initially meant to be a short term (interim) placement that was only supposed to last up to five weeks, I ended up staying with this family for five years. Many of my morals and values which I carry today were formed whilst with this family.
Although I lived with other families thereafter, the upbringing from that first family always stayed with me.
How has growing up in foster care shaped your life and career?
Being fostered allowed me to experience the love of a stable, well-functioning family, along with other families that did not work so well – which I learnt so much from also. Growing up in family care has given me a very balanced view of life and what can be achieved, no matter what your start in life was like.
Tell us about your work
Whilst I was at university I started working with the international charity Barnardos in their Children’s Rights Department along with some other young people and for the first time, I noticed the solidarity, perseverance, resilience and power that care-experienced young people have and how that can be used to advocate for change within the system.
So, since the age of about 20, I have been committed to making a difference in the lives of children and young people coming in after fostering and adoption. All the work that I do is to show that these young people are inspired, ambitious, determined, intelligent, and hardworking and have the fact that they were raised in foster care only as an addition to their profile; not the opening line.
Why do think it is important for children to grow up in families?
I think it is extremely important for children to grow up in families. Children need to feel loved, they need attention, they need stability and they need to have a sense of belonging. Growing up in an orphanage with many other children, each with different individual needs does not echo how the majority of their peers grow up, nor does it give them a well-rounded, balanced upbringing. Not every child is the same, and that statement shouldn’t be taken lightly. However, should there be a choice of whether to raise a child in an orphanage or in a committed and loving family, I would choose the latter every time.
Any last words for the Ugandans Adopt supporter who is thinking about taking that first step towards foster care or adoption?
If you’re thinking about it, your heart is already there. Take the leap and make a difference to a child who is unable to speak up for what they really want.
GABA COMMUNITY CHURCH ANSWERS THE CALL TO PLACE CHILDREN IN FAMILIES.
Why we place children in Families.
We’ve always known that children thrive in a loving family, be that with their own relatives, traced, resettled and supported by our social workers, or with a new adoptive family. At Ugandans Adopt , we’re ambitious, and we believe family care is all a child should ever know. Through the love of a parent, a child learns to form bonds and healthy attachments. The amazing thing is that if a child learns this with a foster carer, this bond can be passed on to a mother or father when reunited, or to an adoptive parent. What’s important is that the child hasn’t missed out on learning this, which can happen as the result of time spend in institutional care during the formative months and years.
Gaba Community Church
We’ve just launched an exciting partnership with Gaba Community Church in Uganda. This partnership is a result of the Pastors’ Conference that we co-organised with Gaba Community Church, CARNAC , and Lifeline Children’s Service on February 19th 2015.
As a result the church community have made a commitment to foster abandoned children while we trace for their families. The children will experience the love of a family, as well as the community support of the extended family of the church.
On Sunday 28th June , the church organised a Children’s Sunday themed ‘Children in families’ to encourage the congregation to open their hearts and their homes. Pastor Peter Kasirivu the Senior pastor at Gaba Community Church, a part of African Renewal Ministries and a strong advocate of children in loving families asked his congregation: “Some of you are the fathers these children need, some of you are the mothers these children need. Are you willing to open your home to life?”
He later explained his commitment to family care for children:
“As a Christian, I know I was adopted by God. Because I was helped, I want to help. Institutions cannot provide what a family can. There are thousands of children who need help, so I hope that my congregation open up. But I also hope that other churches see what we have done, that they may also up. I believe what we have done here can be done by many churches. I feel like we can be an example, a catalyst for what can be done amongst other church bodies in the country of Uganda. I really believe that with the families we have in this country, there is no reason why a child should be on the street.”
One lady in the congregation was very moved by the call to action and said that she often cares for
children within the church community on an ad hoc basis, and sees fostering as an extension of the way that the church community already works: “The children I have been looking after have parents who can afford to care for them, I am definitely happy to foster a child who has no family”.
At the end of the service, the congregation was encouraged to visit the information point which they did in big numbers. A number of families and individuals filled out Expressions of interest forms to either foster or adopt the children from Loving Hearts’ Babies Home, a home run by the church.
We are proud of the great start to our pilot partnership with Gaba Community Church. We look forward to partnering with more Ugandan churches. If you or your church is interested in having us present or partnering with us on a similar project please call us on 0776110304 or email us at [email protected] . We look forward to hearing from you.
WHY WE SHOULD ALL FOSTER UGANDA’S ABANDONED CHILDREN.
At her home in the suburbs of Wakiso, Doreen Kyomugisha cuddles and rocks four months old Anita who is making innocent baby noises without a care in the world. Before long, she is asleep and is taken to bed. 8 months old Peter wakes up almost immediately, “that is their sleeping sequence,” Kyomugisha says while emerging from the bedroom with him. Peter is a very bubbly baby who doesn’t cry for all the time I am there.
The social worker who I go with to Kyomugisha’s home is surprised that Peter no longer cries, “he used to cry a lot, I’m surprised he is calm now,” she quips.
Looking at these two babies, you could think they are Kyomugisha’s children, until you hear their plight, a plight no one would want to have.
Anita’s mother left her at a witch doctor’s home, she came on a boda boda, entered the house and asked for 5,000/= to pay the boda boda cyclist, the witch doctor’s daughter who was home told her she didn’t have money, Anita’s mum then asked to leave Anita with her for a short time so that she could go to her friend who lived in the neighbourhood and get money to pay. She told the same story to the cyclist, Anita’s mother never returned. Peter was left at a verandah in Wakiso at 10:00p.m in the night. Peter is believed to have been five days old because his umbilical cord hadn’t fallen off yet.
Whereas the babies thrived health wise when they were brought, they were not coping up socially, Peter would throw a lot of tantrums while Anita was too withdrawn. Kyomugisha took them on under the short term foster care programme that was being piloted at Ugandans Adopt.
Short term foster care
For years Ugandans have Many abandoned babies end up in institutional care and orphanages which are potentially harmful to the mental and physical development of such children.
According to UNICEF statistics, as many as eight million children are spending their precious and irreplaceable childhood in institutions. In most cases, the children are receive food, clothes, a cot or bed, an education and a roof over their heads but they never get the love, support and sense of identity that only a loving family can give. Family life is critical to a child’s healthy development. Without it, children suffer great harm and are deeply damaged.
According to Immaculate Atwine Byaruhanga, a Transitional Care Manager, short term foster care or emergency foster care is where abandoned children are placed with loving families who provide temporary care in a real home and family. “The organization continues providing for the child’s basic needs like education and health, all one has to do is provide a home and love for the child, so that they don’t have delayed milestones,” she adds.
While a child is being cared for in this way, social workers will try and trace their relatives and reunite the child with their family, if those attempts are unsuccessful, a child can go on to be placed permanently with loving Ugandan adoptive parents. Whatever the outcome, whether resettlement or adoption, in the meantime the child will have been loved, supported and nurtured in a real family. The child will have started to form secure attachments which they can continue to develop when placed with a permanent family.
Where as Long-term foster care is when neither family resettlement nor adoption are a viable option, long-term fostering gives a child the chance to grow up loved in a family until they reach the age of 18. In some cases, children have family but, due to child protection issues, cannot be resettled with them. In this instance, the next best option is finding an alternative family to bring them up as their own
According to James Kaboggoza Ssembatya, the Assistant Commissioner of Children’s Affairs at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development the concept of Short Term Foster Care ensures children are not subjected to institutional care. This enables the child the child to grow up in a family setting. ”It also provides an opportunity for foster parents considering adoption to stay with a child and see if they are compatible”, he adds.
Could you provide a loving home?
Ugandans Adopt is piloting a short term foster care programme. Though abandoned, these children deserve to grow up in a family setting, rather than be raised in an institution without a family. Short term foster care makes a significant and lasting difference to a child’s health and happiness, giving them the best possible start in life and a happy yet healthy future.
You can give an abandoned child the love and care they need until a loving family is found for them. If you have room in your heart and home to provide an abandoned baby with a loving family, Ugandans Adopt would love to hear from you.Ugandans Adopt is calling upon all Ugandan families and individuals who are able and willing to care for abandoned Ugandan children for short term foster care to reach them.
Who can foster?
Almost any adult over 21 can apply to be a Foster Carer, but as with any career, some people will be more suited than others. You do not need any formal qualifications to become a Foster Carer. However, you do need skills and experience that will enable you to meet the needs of a child. You can apply to foster regardless of your marital or residential status. Your suitability will be independently assessed and vetted by a Government panel.
Below is a video that sheds light on Short Term Foster Care
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJRVjqbgyJE
For more information contact us on:
Contact them on; Phone: 0776110304 or 0776110303
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://ugandansadopt.ug
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