Together with VIVA Crane and The Ministry of Gender,Labor and social development,Child’s i Foundation held a two day Conference at Namirembe Resource Center on 28th -29th March 2013.
The conference that was themed “Working together for vulnerable children” drew various Ugandan key stake holders working in child protection .
This is what the Ugandan leading daily,The New Vision had to say about this conference.
We recently caught up with the lovely Christine an adoptive parent since April 2011. During our conversation,she offered some tips to others thinking of adopting a child.This is what she had to say:
Prepare yourself for the new child and prepare your family and your friends. Go into it wholeheartedly just as you do when you give birth to a child. This child may be adopted but she is the same in your family as a child that you give birth to.
When I gave birth to my first child, my mother told me that this child is totally dependent on me for everything. When you adopt a child know that the child is totally dependent on you for everything and they are yours for ever just like the children you give birth to.
It is important to remember that children are a gift from God and that we have a responsibility to God to take care of them and give them the best foundation that we are able to, so that they can have a bright and productive future.
Children are a blessing and little angels in our homes.
To read the full interview with Christine, please go to our section of Real life Stories.
Last week the Adoption Panel met to vet prospective Ugandan adoptive families. The panel comprises of Nandi Ketty from the Ugandan Police Child Protection Unit, Caroline Bankusha, consultant, Rogers Mbazira from Families For Children, Christine Sempebwa , an adoptive parent, Ruth Matoya, a child psychologist from Healing Talk, Stella Ogwang and Mark Riley from the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development and Sue Allan from Child’s i Foundation. Jenette Davies, an experienced adoption panelist from Cumbria, UK came to observe the session.
Currently at Malaika Babies Home we have 21 children in our care out of which one baby boy is available for adoption . The social work team are in the process of working with families to resettle or find permanent foster care families for the rest of the children.
We are reaching out to other childcare institutions in Uganda to invite them to attend Panel if they have children who are available for adoption so the Panel can match them with our waiting list of Ugandan adoptive parents. Please contact [email protected]if you would like further information.
Together we can place more children into loving families in Uganda.
Katie is a very special child, her will to stay alive despite being abandoned just a few hours after birth is inspiring. However what is more inspiring is the instant bond that she developed with her adoptive mother, Namara.
Namara opened up not just her heart but also her home to this special child by choosing to adopt and love Katie like her own. What Namara has given Katie is much more than just love and a home, she has given her an identity because adoption by Ugandan families ensures that the children preserve their culture and grow up in a setting they can identify with.
Research has clearly shown that institutions like orphanages are not the right environment to raise a child. According to the Working Paper publication;Families not Orphanages by John Williamson and Aaron Greenberg, Orphanages are especially damaging to a child because the young children do not experience the continuity of care needed to form lasting attachments, hence these children have difficulty forming and maintaining relationships throughout their childhood, adolescence and adult lives. In addition for every three months that a young child resides in an institution, they lose one month of development, how disturbing.
That is why at Malaika Babies Home our priority is family, when an abandoned baby is brought to us. The first thing we do is search for the mother or relatives, while the baby is being given the best possible medical and general care at Malaika Babies home. The home is a transitional home and is equipped to offer temporal shelter and care for a maximum of 25 babies as we aim to re-unite them with their family and in the event that this is not accomplished, then we proceed with domestic adoption just like we did with Katie.
The first media campaign that we ran in 2011 resulted in over 150 potential adoptive parents making contact and to date 30 of our children have now been adopted by Ugandan families. We are hopeful that this year 2013 more Ugandan families are going to open up their hearts and homes to the children currently resident at Malaika Babies Home.
” For there are no unwanted children, just unfound families”
To watch Katies’ story please view the video below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kda-EoQOs4U&feature=youtu.be
Although adoption is slowly becoming more common in Uganda, there is still a great need for new foster and adoptive parents, especially for older children and boys.
The aim of 2012 media campaign was to increase our number of potential adoptive parents, as well as introducing the concept of short and long term foster care to Ugandans with the hope that we would be able to recruit 2 long term foster carers for children who have outgrown Malaika Babies Home.
I came out from the UK for 6 weeks to produce this campaign, and started negotiating with companies as soon as I landed, trying to ensure that we could agree advertising deals as soon as possible.
We were lucky enough to have the amazing Limehouse Creative team on board for this campaign. They designed both of our billboards free of charge, and did a great job. We organised a photo shoot with Kampala based photographer Anne Ackermann, and spent a stressful few hours on the roof of a local shopping centre trying to capture images that would work for our campaign.
For the first time we decided to advertise on digital billboard screens – one at the large Oasis shopping mall, and one in one of Kampala’s busiest taxi parks.
We also produced a television advert to run on NTV, featuring family support worker Lydia and her family. Lydia has adopted her two youngest children, and the whole family got involved in the filming of our advert, with the youngest two boys fascinated by our camera equipment!
[youtube=http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aVjqnxiCZc]
Although most of the content for our media campaign was produced in English, we decided to run a series of adverts in the local Luganda language on Radio Simba. We’re grateful to Rogers Mugerwa and his team for their continued support of the work that we’re doing.
We produced a Talk Show to run on national tv station NTV, and our amazing panel of guests, James Kaboggoza the Assistant Commissioner for Children, social worker Barbra and adoptive parent Christina Sempebwa debated issues connected to foster care and adoption as well as taking viewers calls. Presenter Ben Mwine did a great job, and the whole team felt extremely proud once the programme came off air.
Early in this trip I was asked to produce a documentary for the Ugandan government exploring Alternative Care. Myself and media volunteer Emma Hegarty spent a week working flat out on this projec
t and the finished documentary aired immediately after the Talk Show.
The first media campaign that we ran in 2011 resulted in over 150 potential adoptive parents contacting us, and to date 30 of our children have now been adopted. They are enjoying the chance to grow up in loving supportive families and we very much hope that this year’s campaign will result in similar outcomes for more of the children currently resident at Malaika Babies Home.
The Ugandan government believes that it is best for all children to grow up in families. Assistant Commissioner for Children James Kaboggoza explains why…
“We believe that the best place for a child to grow up is in a family, in a community setting. Too many children are growing up separated from their families or orphaned, living in child care institutions.
If children grow up in institutions, they lose the meaning in their life. If they grow up in a family they learn how to love, they learn how to live with one another, they learn their duties and become responsible citizens of tomorrow. They have a sense of belonging.
Families for Children hold regular coffee mornings and training session for adoptive and prospective adoptive parents. This is usually a moment where parents who are adopting or thinking about adoption, meet together for a cup of coffee to share experiences, challenges, common issues on adoption and gain support from each other.
Adoptive and prospective adoptive parents listen to the main speaker of the day during the last coffee morning get together.
A big number of Adoptive and prospective adoptive parents showed up at the last Coffee Morning that was held on 23rd March 2013 s at CRANE/VIVA Offices in Namirembe.We had a great time getting to know each other, sharing experiences and laughing over our cups of coffee.
Please mark 20th April 2013 on your calendars. It will be the day when a one day adoptive and prospective adoptive parents training will be conducted from 9:00am to 3:30pm .A contribution by each parent attending of 20,000 shillings only goes towards their break tea, Lunch and certificates at the end of the training.
You are also encouraged to inform other prospective and adoptive parents and fostering parents about these events or forward these dates to them and encourage them to attend as well.
For more information: Email Roger Mbazira at [email protected]
Formal adoption is becoming more and more common in Uganda. If you are considering becoming an adoptive parent, or are interested in short or long term foster care please visit our Facebook Page and join the debate!
If you would like more information or to speak to a social worker about becoming a foster or adoptive parent please call 0791777319 or email [email protected]
Child’s i Foundation recently launched a new media campaign to recruit adoptive and foster families in Uganda.
What will the next 50 years bring for the country’s youngest and most vulnerable citizens?
As Uganda marks 50 years of independence, not everyone is sharing in the celebrations. There are thousands of children in Uganda currently residing in institutions. Each year hundreds of children are abandoned, and their futures often look very bleak. The charity Child’s i Foundation is launching a mass media campaign to try and find foster and adoptive families to care for children who have no family of their own.
From Monday 8th October, adverts will run on television, radio, print and billboard platforms to encourage Ugandans to open their hearts and homes to a child who desperately needs a new family. A 60 minute Talk Show will also run prime time on NTV where Ugandans will be invited to join the debate. This unique media campaign is the second to be run by Child’s i Foundation, following the success of their Ugandans Adopt campaign last year. With this new campaign, in addition to finding new adoptive families, the charity is hoping to recruit short and long term foster carers to prevent the need for children to spend time in institutional care.
Last year’s campaign found adoptive families for a large number of children, with 30 abandoned babies now enjoying life with their new families. It is hoped that this year’s media campaign will continue to build on that success.
Child’s i Foundation General Manager Susan Allan said:-
“We’re launching a campaign to recruit foster carers and adoptive parents for many of the babies currently residing at Malaika Babies Home. “We’ve proved that there are families willing to care for children and we are now looking for more people to consider foster care and adoption. We need families who may wish to adopt a child and offer them a lifelong commitment, or families who can offer foster care on a temporary basis for a period of months or even years.”
Parents who have adopted children from Malaika Babies Home are in full support of this new campaign.
Adoptive parent Amelo Ejalu said:-
“It is seven months since the adoption process and my daughter is now ten months! She is a bundle of joy to my family, friends and myself, and living up to her name Mayowale – which means, ‘you bring joy to the home’. She’s a great blessing.
“There are very many children in Ugandan institutions who need a family. Do take the time learn about fostering and adoption and if you can, or know someone who can, put a smile in a child’s heart and on their face”.
Deciding to adopt a child is a huge decision and life time commitment, but it is a positive and life changing experience for both parent and child. If successful this media campaign will help ensure that the next 50 years are brighter for Uganda’s children.
For more information about foster care and adoption please call 0791777319 or email [email protected]. If you are a journalist who would like to feature Malaika Babies Home in any stories about foster care or adoption please email [email protected]
Adopting a child is a hugely rewarding experience for all involved.
Adoptive mother Amelo shares the story of how baby Mary came to be part of her family.
This is an adoptive parent’s perspective of the adoption process from beginning to end…
