Child Protection Programme
​In response to increased cases of child abandonment, abuse and neglect, our Child Protection Programme combines a range of targeted activities for children and teenagers, a community-based abuse prevention approach, support with social justice cases and an emergency response to safeguard children in imminent danger including alternative care provision.
The context
Working in slum communities for over a decade, we’ve seen a significant increase in cases of child abuse and neglect since the pandemic, and community leaders and many parents have specifically requested further safeguarding support.
More than 8 million children in Uganda are considered to be vulnerable to harm, and over 5 million live in the slum communities. Our projects focus on keeping children and young people safe and protecting their childhoods. Through extensive community and beneficiary consultation, we have become aware of the unique issues that these communities face.
The challenges include financial difficulties, lack of access to safe housing and services, exposure to alcohol abuse, and the absence of extended family support.
Ewafe project
Ewafe means ‘Where We Belong’ in Luganda, and our Ewafe project does just that. The project supports abandoned and at-risk children in the slums of Kampala, with the aim of reuniting children with their relatives and reintegrating them with loving families.
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Our Ewafe project has a model of Rescue, Rehabilitate and Reintegrate with an underlying ethos of finding family care for children. As soon as a child is referred to this project, our team of social workers begin searching for immediate and extended family members, and where possible, put in place reintegration plans to bring these children home. In cases where children are not able to be reunited with their own immediate or extended families, we place them with assessed and trained foster families.
Social justice
We are committed to protecting the rights of every child, and advocating for children living in vulnerable situations who are unable to advocate for themselves.
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Our team of trained safeguarding officers work across Kampala's slum communities, and respond to child protection cases. Each case is then assessed and the child and their family are provided with the support they need, whether that is a safe place for the child to stay, counselling, food support, or setting up a source of income.
Saturday kids clubs
Our Saturday Kids Clubs provide children with a safe space and the chance to play and enjoy being children, away from the challenges and struggles of their everyday lives. Every Saturday throughout the year, up to 1,000 children gather together across 10 different slum communities to play, be cared for and to just enjoy being children.
Each Kids Club is run by a team of local volunteers who give up their time each week to organise games and sports; sing songs; share teaching, dramas and stories; facilitate counselling sessions and serve the children a snack and a drink. Through running these clubs, our volunteers are able to identify children who are at-risk or in need of emergency help.
Girls support groups
We run Girls Support Groups to provide safe spaces, tailored counselling and guidance, peer support and community outreach and education for teenage girls. Groups focus on discussing issues such as early and forced marriage, teenage pregnancy, health and sex education, menstrual hygiene and personal security, alongside many other issues.
We also offer individual counselling for girls who have been abused, neglected or need support in any way, and we support hundreds of teenage girls to access period products each month.
Football project
Our Football project for teenage boys provides a safe space to belong and support each other, while being mentored both on and off the pitch. Boys are supported to improve their confidence, self-esteem, football skills, teamwork and discipline. We also provide counselling for boys who have been abused, neglected or need support in any way.
In 2023, 64 boys attended this project every weekend across 2 slums communities; Naguru and Namuwongo. With training taking place every weekend, boys also receive a nutritious snack and a drink to keep them fuelled throughout the session. All of our coaches here are volunteers, who dedicate their time to mentoring young boys through the challenges they face.
Our impact in 2024 ...
14
child protection cases were responded to.
9
children were rescued from abandonment and/or abuse.
84
children are currently staying at the Ewafe project.
14
children were reintegrated into families through kinship care.
861
children regularly attended our Saturday kids clubs across 10 communities.
64
boys regularly attended our football project every week.
696
girls in vulnerable situations attended our counselling sessions.
2,386
period products were distributed to girls who would otherwise go without.
What next?
In 2022, to assess the effectiveness of our projects, we commissioned Vashi Impact Group (VIG) to undertake a comprehensive independent evaluation. Out of our programme areas, our Child Protection Programme was found to be the most important. The evaluation highlighted we are one of the only organisations in Uganda taking this approach to protect at-risk children. Not only this, we are also providing systematic support to local authorities and holding them accountable to advocate for children at risk of abuse and mistreatment. Most importantly, it flagged the need to scale up our Child Protection Programme to reach more children.
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Over the long term, the Child Protection Programme will reduce overall incidences of child abuse, and create safer communities for children and young people.
