Malaika Babies Home was a residential babies centre established in Uganda in 2009 and run by Child’s i Foundation. The reason for setting it up was to “rescue”  abandoned and at risk babies and children.

 However, despite all our efforts to ensure that the  children spent as little time in residential care as possible, the Founder and then social  workers started to recognise that even children in high quality residential care facilities can experience developmental delays as a consequence of institutional care.

As a result of this learning and realisation, Child’s i Foundation embarked on the journey to totally transform their model of care.  It was  Initially, decided to pilot a foster care program as an alternative to temporary residential care for children awaiting reunification or adoption. This was aimed at ensuring that children remained in a family their families were being traced or found them a permanent home placement in a loving Ugandan or Ugandan based family.

A number of the resident caregiver staff were consulted and agreed to re-train as “foster carers” to provide alternative families providing care for the children in their own homes rather than at the residential care centre. 

Further Consultations with the government and the community were also carried out to promote, advocate and get a buy-in for the alternative families approach to care. The consultations provided an avenue to address reservations and concerns of the various stakeholders.

After an initial period of piloting the alternative families (foster care) programme and the successes achieved, a decision was made to scale back the residential care facility from 25 beds to 8 beds over a 2-year period. 

With witnessing first-hand, the developmental gains made by children that were placed in foster families and the high cost of running even a small institution, a decision was made to embark on the transition and closure of Malaika Babies Home.

The funds spent on running the facility were then redirected to strengthening the foster care system and families to provide a safe and loving home for children. The social workers then began to reintegrate all children into families to enable the complete closure of the facility.

As the premises were rented, it was also decided that funds spent on rent and upkeep of the facilities could be better invested in foster care and family strengthening.

Staff also realised that, despite the focus on reintegration, the very presence of a residential care facility in the community continued to support the idea of children being referred to residential care. We agreed that we would lead by example. 

In 2017 the last child left Malaika Babies Home and the residential facility was finally completely closed that same year. Most children placed in foster care went into our alternative families (foster care) programme  while their families were being traced by our expert team of social workers.

Upon tracing the families, the social workers supported the family reconnection and connection process until reunification or placement into an adoptive family was done.

With the success of reintegrating its own children back into families, the process provided  the Child’s i social work team with the knowledge, skills and expertise to establish strong reintegration Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and case management systems.

A range of family and community led and based initiatives were launched including a gatekeeping mechanism, to reduce the need for institutionalisation and improve children’s access to quality alternative family-based care in cases where alternative care was genuinely required.

In addition to this, our involvement in a range of family and community-led programs, Child’s i also provided technical support to other institutions to support their transition process.  The supported institutions repurposed into community hubs that aim at prevention of family separation. 

Since the transition of Malaika Babies Home, Child’s i has continued to develop and support innovative locally led initiatives that prioritise the protection and wellbeing of children. We have supported the development of parenting peer and advocacy groups, supported care experienced youth into independent living and championed advocacy efforts for care reform at national, regional and global level.

To advance care reform, we have collaborated with the Government of Uganda at different levels to advocate for progress in care reform policy and inclusion of family-based care practice as opposed to institutionalisation. 

To date, we have successfully transformed care in Tororo district in Uganda and made great progress in other districts like Kampala and Mpigi where Child’s i is currently operating.