In response to increased cases of child abandonment, abuse and neglect in the slums of Kampala, we provide a range of targeted activities for children, teenage girls and boys, a community-based abuse prevention approach and an emergency response to safeguard children in imminent danger. Our emergency response is the Ewafe Project which is a transitional home based in Luwero District.
Poverty and financial pressure puts children at very high risk of violence, physical or sexual abuse, child labour, prostitution or early marriage, or total abandonment. Working in Uganda’s 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 - so our work to keep children safe is vital.
At the Ewafe Project, which has been running since 2013, at-risk children are supported with a safe place to stay, medical care, counselling and social work support - whilst our social workers attempt to find their family members to reunite children into family based care, or alternatively, where possible, into loving foster families. Our Ewafe Project promotes family based care and is against institutions, as we know that institutions can have lasting negative effects upon children who are there long term.
Meet Beatrice - our Project Coordinator at Ewafe
Our UK and Ugandan team recently came together in Kampala and we chatted to Beatrice Logose, our Project Coordinator of the Ewafe Project.
Beatrice has been a part of the Kids Club Kampala family from day one. In the early days, Beatrice, (or Beatu to her friends), cooked meals for the team at the office. Inspired by her faith and the work of the team, which she saw firsthand, she began studying for a BA in Social Development at Makerere University, Uganda’s largest and oldest university.
Beatu’s passion for seeing children thrive in loving families meant that when we opened our Ewafe Project Home for Abandoned Children in 2013, she was the perfect person to manage the project and oversee the care of the children as the Project Coordinator. 10 years later, we are incredibly fortunate that she is still with us.
The Ewafe Project is located about an hour outside of the city of Kampala. When the UK team visited Kampala, Beatu drove the team there and expertly managed the traffic and bumpy roads (with the help of our new van). When the team arrived, Beatu showed us around the home, the gardens and proudly introduced us to the children. In stark contrast to the bustle of the city, Beatu and the Ewafe team have nurtured a quiet, peaceful home for the children who stay there.
Beatu talks us through her role in relocating lost and abandoned children. At times, this is simple - a child is lost in the city, they are found by the local police and referred to the Ewafe home. Beatu, with the help of the child, authorities and local leaders is then able to locate the area they are from and return the child to their family. But it is not always this simple.
Some of the children at our Ewafe home come from far away. They may not know where they are from or speak their own local language. They may have faced trauma or abuse and are frightened. At this time, Beatu’s job becomes much harder.
““At Kids Club Kampala I get to play games with my friends and have a good meal. One day, I talked to one of the safeguarding officers and asked them to help me with my home situation. The safeguarding officers still visit us with clothes and food to help my family. Today, I am so happy."”
- Owen*, 12 years old was rescued from child labour.
From listening to her stories, we learnt how it takes incredible patience and faith to relocate some of the children at the Ewafe home. It often takes time to build trust with the child, and guide them through their counselling in order for them to open up about their past. Beatu follow every lead and use her decade of experience to trace the child’s family and, if appropriate, reunite the child back into family based care. .
It is almost impossible to think how resilient Beatu and the Ewafe team must be. In some cases, it can take years to find a living relative to a child. But each day they pray that today we will find a child’s family and return them safely home, or alternatively, find them a foster family to care for them and love them.
Beatrice and the Ewafe team have created a loving home for the children who stay at the home. They have created a family, whether a child stays for days, weeks, or years.
£50 provides an emergency care package for a child at Ewafe.
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