Child's i Foundation

We have worked with grassroots organisations, community leaders and the government of Uganda to develop the practice, the policy and the guidance  that tackles the causes of family separation including; poverty, abuse, domestic violence and disability discrimination, and reunites children placed in orphanages with their families through a demonstrated community led Child protection model.

In doing this, we have developed the blue print for sustainable alternatives to orphanages (also known as institutions, children's villages or children's homes). 

The elevate prize, would help us move to the next stage, so that we can scale our model, and become an organisation that is training and nurturing grass root organisations to adapt our model, whilst maintaining a strong arm that is innovating and developing practice to be shared outside Uganda.

I'm a father.  My proudest moment, was delivering our daughter (now 3 years) in our living room. I'm also CEO of Child's i Foundation, based in Uganda with a proven model, highlighting the harm and cost of orphanages in Uganda and globally. I provide strategic, and fiscal oversight to our programme. 

I work work with a team of social work practitioners and public health speacislists to provide communities and governments with suitable solutions to respond to children's needs and circumstances so that we can replace orphanages with suitable child protection systems. 

We base our approach on the evidence of what is best for children. We demonstrate with our partners how it is possible for every child, including those who cannot return home and those children with disabilities or other challenges, to live in care and protection of a family in inclusive and safe communities. 

My passion and long term vision is in developing innovative, replicable interventions, with long term, sustainable solutions for children, and families at risk of social exclusion especially those deprived of family care or institutionalised. My goal is to end the institutionalisation of children to ensure that no child is left behind. 

Poverty, discrimination, access to social care, are some of the key drivers to children growing up in Institutionalisation. It remains a global problem – with a median estimate of 5.4million children living in institutions worldwide – but a hidden one, as so many of them currently go uncounted (Lancet, 2020)

High levels of neglect, abuse and mortality have also been widely documented, in particular with Children with disabilities (Bowlby 1940, Browne 2009, Science 2007, Lancet 2020). This is an acute issue in Uganda, which has the highest number of children in institutions in East Africa estimated to be 50,000 ( Government baseline measure, 2012), of which 5% are Children with disabilities

We work with communities, local authorities, the national government and donors to replace orphanages with suitable child protection systems. We help communities prevent children from being separated from their families unnecessarily, and support the safe return of children into their families and comunities. We also help young adults that have grown up in institutional care to leave and make the transition into independent life a success. 

Humanitarian and development initiatives tend to be project focused – very specific objectives that are time bound. Our approach is about systems development which is longer term, more impactful and far more sustainable. It requires systems strengthening and the linking of systems that are already in place, and developing new ones within that in ways that is more cost-effective and enabling of wider development efforts.

Child care reform/protection is a cost-effective entry point and platform upon which other interventions (health, education etc) will have improved chances of success eg. improved child care leads to better educational outcomes and better educational outcomes are linked to improved earning potential

 It’s certainly disruptive because it is challenging long-held perceptions that orphanages are required and actually an appropriate way of caring for children, when in fact in Uganda those perceptions are being used to cloak a growing economy that commodifies children for the benefit of those running orphanages as private enterprises – the scale of this is at national crisis levels

(1) Political will - We work alongside government policy makers across the political spectrum to ensure the interests of children are put first. Our long-term vision goes beyond party politics and the electoral cycle to achieve comprehensive child care reform. 

(2) Know how - Our projects demonstrate how children’s lives can be transformed by closing orphanages and supporting children into stable, loving families and family-like environments. We show how, by developing community-based support systems, governments can tackle the root causes of family breakdown.  

(3) Capacity to deliver - Drawing on experience of transitioning our own orphanage model and our blueprint, we build the capacity of government and civil society to have a well trained, supported, professional child protection workforce. 

(4) Funding the transition - Orphanages are not cost effective! Part of the “new” approach is in recognising that funding (circa $250 million pa) is already being leveraged/mobilised by a nationwide orphanage economy in Uganda, and so relatively little additional support is required to cover our costs over the long term to engineer the redirection of that funding to children, families and their communities in ways that enable them to better care for and protect them.