Mulungi is a happy, eight year old boy. We have known him since he was ten months old when he was admitted to a babies home.
The social workers traced for Mulungi’s birth family and extended family members but their efforts were fruitless. During the tracing, social workers placed adverts in Bukedde Newspaper and on Radio Simba; both media houses are local and adverts were run in Luganda to ensure that the targeted population could understand the message.
After fruitless tracing, Mulungi was presented to the National Alternative Care Panel for approval to be placed in a fostering to adopt family. Mulungi was approved but finding him a family was not easy as all family he was initially matched with turned him down because some were afraid of his medical history and others because he was older .
A loving family was eventually found for Mulungi and they underwent a successful bonding process. Mulungi was placed by the Probation and Social Welfare Officer in June of 2012 in his adoptive family after staying at the babies’ home for one year and ten months. Mulungi was placed with Jane a single whom he brought so much joy to because he was the child she never had. Mulungi’s adoptive extended family all grew in love with him and often during the Social Work visits the family would inform the Social Worker how they are fond of Mulungi.
Shortly after Mulungi’s placement, Jane moved in with her older sister in Kitintale where she stayed until she passed away on the 2nd of August 2014. Jane was left with ten months to foster before she could apply for Mulungi’s adoption. Mulungi’s care was taken up by Jackie- Jane’s sister who also accepted to be assessed since Jane hadn’t completed the adoption of Mulungi. Jackie was presented before the Alternative Care Panel on the 18th of December 2014 and was approved to foster Mulungi for adoption. Mulungi is attending school and he performs well. Jackie says he is a great child and he makes their family very happy.The social worker is currently working with the Probation and Social Welfare Officer of Nakawa Division to support the family to apply for Mulungi’s adoption.
The Adoptive Families Association (AFA) of Uganda in partnership with Child’s i Foundation will be hosting a gathering for prospective and adoptive families and all those interested in learning more about adoption on Saturday 9th March 2019 at Lugogo Baptist Church from 10:00-12:00 pm.
The AFA which was launched on November 10th 2018 is a diverse community of families from all over Uganda and around the world who have adopted or are interested in adoption in Uganda. The AFA is made up of families, prospective parents, single parents and more. The AFA offers a safe space to ask adoption-related questions, connect with like-minded people and offers encouragement to those on their adoption journey. At any stage of adoption, the AFA strives to offer the support both prospective and adoptive parents need.
You are welcome to join and learn more about the adoption process in Uganda, meet other adoptive families, sit down with experts and most importantly make friends and join the AFA community.
For more information call +256766110304, email [email protected] or send us a message on Facebook.
Some of the prospective and adoptive families who attended the launch
On November 10th in commemoration of World Adoption day, the Adoptive Parents Association launched at Child’s i Foundation’s offices in Bukasa, Muyenga. Prospective and adoptive parents gathered together to share their experiences and discuss the issues surrounding the adoption process.According to the Chairman Kristian Sekyanzi, the main aim of the Association is to provide a platform for experience sharing, networking and peer support for adoptive parents and children.“The formation of the Association has become relevant as parents have been going through different experiences on their adoption journeys, dealing with unfamiliar processes and delays that often get frustrating,” noted Sekyanzi. “The Association will serve as an advocacy platform to push for better streamlining of the adoption process in Uganda, to make it less strenuous for the adoptive families,” he added.
‘’I cannot remember life before my daughter, my life is so full,’’ Astrid- Adoptive Parent
“My daughter has changed my life, I don’t a remember a life where I don’t get up every day and I see this huge toothy grin that welcomes me and welcomes the day. She has taught me so much; she has taught me to appreciate the small things in life,” says Astrid, one of the adoptive parents with a smile on her face.“ She adds that “The adoption process is not the easiest process, but it is extremely rewarding when you meet your child for the first time and embark on the journey together”.She is encouraging anyone who is considering adoption to contact the Association for assistance.
35 parents and 22 children attended the meeting. While the parents, at different stages of the adoption journey, shared their experiences and challenges, the children got spend time together and play in the bouncy castle.The meeting also served as an informative Q&A session for the prospective adoptive parents.
Carol Bankusha (R), listens to Amelo an adoptive parent at the launch.
Carol Bankusha, a member of the Alternative Care Panel at the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development, shared tips on how to prepare for the final step of the adoption process. She advised against changing children’s names until after the adoption is approved. She explained that changing a child’s name had the potential of affecting court procedures which could unnecessarily complicate the process.
The Association seeks to provide guidance not only to the prospective parents, but also to the social workers and government officials. It aims to normalise adoption in Uganda by advocating for abandoned children to combat myths and misconceptions in Uganda and Greater East Africa, and encourage other families to adopt.Adoptive Parents Association will create a support network for adoptive families and those interested in adopting, as well as the adopted children. The Association is currently obtaining legal status as a not for profit organisation.
The video below bring you highlights from the Association launch event. To those who are thinking about providing a loving home for a vulnerable child in Uganda, you are welcome to join the Association. Feel free to contact us today +25676110304 or send us an email to [email protected] for more info on how!
Kampala, Uganda: On Saturday, November 10, The Adoptive Families Association of Uganda will host their first gathering for adoptive families. The Association is pleased to invite any family interested in learning more about adoption or who’ve already completed the process of adoption to join this informal celebration of friends and family.The program will include a brief introduction of the Association and its goals for the next year. This is the first organization of its kind in Uganda. Members are thrilled to encourage a thriving peer support network for adopted children and their families; as well as to better understand and assess institutional care in Uganda and help improve the quality and re-purpose the nature of services offered by residential child-care organizations through the support of adoption and fostering of abandoned children.
About the Adoptive Families Association of Uganda: The new association seeks to help all stakeholders understand the process of adoption in Uganda following best practices; to normalise adoption, encouraging other families to adopt, and advocate for abandoned children; to combat myths and misconceptions about adoption in Uganda and Greater East Africa; and to create a supportive network for adoptive families and prospective adoptive parents and their children. The Association is in the process of obtaining legal status and will be a not for profit, charitable organization.
According to Child’s i Foundation’s Country Director, Fred Mukholi, many Ugandans would love to adopt a child and give them a loving family to belong to, but they still lack guidance and information on how to do this. We are excited about the Adoptive Families’ Association because it presents a uniting platform for like-minded people. “We believe the Association will enable its members to share ideas and advocate collectively for the benefit of vulnerable children in Uganda who do not have a chance to grow up in loving and safe families”, Fred notes.
The brief morning program will take place at the Child’s i Foundation office in Muyenga.
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.
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
Pastor Peter Kasisrivu of Gaba Community Church preaching.
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.
“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?”, Pastor Peter Kasirivu, Gaba Community 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
Congregation of Gaba Community Church
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.
Meet the KR Family! As ministers within Uganda, this family had long worked with Loving Hearts Babies Home , helping to volunteer their time and effort to make Loving Hearts a great place for babies. Loving Hearts Babies Home provides babies short term temporary care while we look for permanent, loving homes for them. Permanent homes include:reunification of the baby with its birth family if it is safe,Short and long term foster care within Uganda and adoption.
After more than a year of volunteering almost every day, Mrs. KR fell in love with one of the babies at our home. As newly-weds with a new baby already on the way, the KR Family started praying about adding a second baby to its quickly growing family.Shortly after giving birth, they adopted Baby K, who gained not only a family, but a younger sister as well. To watch this beautiful story, click on the link below:
Rukh-shana serves Twinkle toes cake on her third birthday
We asked Rukh-Shana, adoptive mother and Ugandans Adopt heroine, to give us an update on her adoption journey. In her own words, she tells us how Twinkletoes is keeping her on her toes:
KEEPING UP WITH MY TWINKLETOES-RUKH-SHANA
Rukh-Shana serves Twinkletoes cake on her third birthday at the Babies Home where her birthday was celebrated. .Photo courtsey of Ugandans Adopt
The date is 30th March 2015. It’s 10:30am and I should be dashing for my morning cup of tea but I am stuck at my desk neck deep in routine stuff attempting to pull together a report that should have been submitted the night before. Even as I am propped up behind my desk, my mind racing a mile a minute with all the things I need to get done before the new month, my mind wanders off to a happy place. It is my little girl’s birthday today and we had a tantrum-free morning, can’t quite recall what that felt like, so I am delighted with her. My mind wanders further off to what seems like a distant time. A time when I prided myself in being nimble and swift on my feet, a busy body with never a dull moment in my life, always colliding with time…then came Twinkletoes, and in the blink of an eye I was a snail dragging my shell on the race track of life alongside this toddler who was suddenly in an insane rush to go places; to see the big beautiful world through her twinkling eyes. I have since then been trying to keep up with my Twinkletoes.
And speaking of the world, my rather controlled world has never been the same since she flung the doors wide open and came waltzing in. Twinkletoes was just four months when we met on that beautiful Monday evening. Well I think it was a Monday because on a Friday I dressed up for my big day with the adoption panel-all butterflies in my belly and with knees of jelly. My prayer was simple that morning, “Lord may Your will be done!” I still muse at just how our plans can take a twist for the better. Now, when I set on out on my adoption journey in 2012, I had it all figured out. She had to be between 8 and 12months old – young enough to bond quite easily and old enough to fit it into my crazy work schedule. My life needed to maintain a semblance of sane balance as I knew it…I suppose I was simply being ME – in control. But in came Twinkletoes, a sparkly sunshine, a voluble wind turning my structured world sweetly topsy-turvy. One moment I was grounded and the next, I was knocked off- balance falling flat on my face in a fit of joy with outbursts of tears and the momentary tittering on the brink of insanity.
Twinkletoes with Mum. Photo courtesy of Rukh-Shana Namuyimba.
Three years on, ours has been a beautiful journey of watching her grow from this shy, thumb- sucking child to a very persuasive, independent and absolutely crazy thumb-sucking toddler who decided at the age of two that she mostly preferred to wear little dresses instead of the shorts and tees her over bearing mother had filled her closet with. Yes, I was a tom boy after all and I didn’t quite have the luxury of defiantly pouting at my mother if she suggested I wear some hand-me-down boyish shorts. So I was quite taken aback when my Twinkletoes proved to be tenacious in getting what she wanted. My mother says I may not have been a tenacious tot but I most definitely turned out to be as tenacious as they come later in life so I should cut Twinkle some slack. So for the most part I have cut her some slack, perhaps too much, and as a result she does mostly get what she wants. I suppose she has found a soft spot and is quite intent on milking it for what it’s worth.
Speaking of soft spots Ma Petite, as I sometimes refer to her has a soft spot for hurting people. I have watched as she has, through the years, blossomed into an expressive and caring little girl especially around other children; quick to offer hugs if that is what it takes to make someone else feel better.
On motherhood Rukh-Shana says,”And speaking of the world, my rather controlled world has never been the same since she flung the doors wide open and came waltzing in”. Photo courtesy of Rukh-Shana NamuyimbaT
This morning, as I reflect on the year gone by, my heart swells with pride at the little milestones of awesomeness we have reached together. The day we went shopping for nursery schools and when we finally settled for her current school she was a fit of delight. Every day till the first day of term we fought over her insistence that she wear her uniform at home and carry her little rucksack to the door as I left for work. This would almost always end with a tantrum that quietened down with me promising she would start school the next day (yes I lied but what do you do with a tenacious 2 plus year old who will not take ‘wait a little longer’ for an answer?) …and when we finally showed up on the first day of school, I was a weeping mess and she was only too delighted to mix and mingle with the other little kids. Then came the first time she randomly said, “I love you mummy”. We had just had a ‘fight’ so that totally threw me off balance and I could not hold back the tears, her response was a shocker: “Mummy you’re kwaying (read crying) for nothing.” That was the beginning of my transformation into a crying mummy.
I have since shed a tear or two during her first swimming lesson; her first mumbled prayer with a resounding AMEN; her first Sunday school session; her first attempt at brushing her own teeth; her first bicycle ride. But the most treasured of our milestones is her learning my full name, probably from watching TV and her daddy’s name. She still cannot say her daddy’s without almost biting her tongue but whenever she does it is with such a sweetness like nothing else really matters in her little world. And perhaps nothing really does to my Twinkletoes and many like her. Nothing really matters but that they have unconditional love and a family to call their own.
The end.
To wrap up this heart warming story, Rukh-Shana talks about her adoption experience and why more Ugandans should consider opening their hearts and homes to Ugandan children in the video below:
Could you be the next Rukh-shana? We would love to hear from yo. Call us on 0776110304/0776110316 or send us an email @ [email protected]
On Thursday 19th February, Church leaders and faith based Child Care Institutions were hosted to a one day Christian Childcare Conference at Gaba Community with the theme: “Take this child and nurse him for me”.
The Conference, drew a cross section of church leaders, Directors and Staff from different Churches and Child Care institutions across Kampala and Jinja. The conference was organised by the church as a platform for the Government to talk about the developments in childcare especially in terms of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children(OVC) situation, legal framework and Alternative Care Framework and the operational plan to mobilize the Framework. It also a forum for the churches and faith based organisations to give their views on the Alternative Care framework.
Stella Ogwang Principal Probation Officer at Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in her presentation urged the participants to focus on family based solutions for children based in institutions and orphanages . Other key note speakers included Jack Matsiko former Director of Compassion Uganda, Gad Mfitundinda a Police representative who discussed on Child protection and trafficking and the Host Pastor Peter Kasirivu of Gab Community Chuch. The conference also included a panel session with the members sharing personal experiences of success stories and challenges in adoption, running homes and from a donor perspective.
The Panel Session from Left to Right: Immaculate Atwine (Home Manager, Malaika Babies Home), Josh Caldwell (with microphone, Linelife Ministries USA, Donor representative and International Adopteer), Sarah Kigozi (Head Child Welfare, Watoto), Pastor Mark Kigozi ( Domestic adopter ) and Fred (Moderator, Uganda Christian University )
“We have the heart, we have the people. It is our job, so then what do we need to do? We have the largest network on the earth. “ said Host, Pastor Peter Kasirivu speaking about the Church’s ability to in offer community based solutions as regards to childcare in his closing speech.
The Conference was organized by Gaba Community Church, Africa Renewal Ministries, CARNACC, Child’s i Foundation and Lifeline Ministries. The Conference is planned to become an annual event.
In the video below, Pastor Peter talks about the importance of family from the Church’s perspective:
The Adoptive Families Association (AFA) of Uganda in partnership with Child’s i Foundation will be hosting a gathering for prospective and adoptive families and all those interested in learning more about adoption on Saturday 9th March 2019 at Lugogo Baptist Church from 10:00-12:00 pm.
