Protecting Programme
The Protecting Programme combines a community-based abuse prevention approach with emergency responses to safeguard children in imminent danger within 10 slum communities in Kampala. This is driven by the urgent need to respond to the increased cases of child abandonment, abuse and neglect in Ugandan slums. ​
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.
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.
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 four programme areas, our Protecting 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 Protecting Programme to reach more children.
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Over the long term, the Protecting Programme will reduce overall incidences of child abuse, and create safer communities for children and young people.
