HHC Rwanda staff sharing their experience with the Uganda delegation during the exchange visit, June 2017
Child’s i Foundation is proud to share a new partnership with Hope and Homes for Children or HHC for short! HHC have worked for 20 years across 30 countries helping Governments to transition from the use of orphanages to building a family based care system to eliminate the need for orphanages and have chosen Child’s i Foundation as their partner in Uganda.
We have a big job on our hands as there are over 800 orphanages and 50,000 children living in orphanages in Uganda and we need buy in from the Government. We needed to demonstrate that there is an alternative that is better for children, communities and countries so in June, we took a delegation of 19 CiF staff and Government officials to Rwanda to see the work of HHC and the Rwandan Government to close all orphanages in Rwanda.
Over the past six years in Rwanda, HHC have closed 24 orphanages, moved 2600 children into communities and families and trained 75 Government social workers. There are currently 15 institutions left but by December 2018, the country will be free of institutional care. They have proved the impossible and we want to replicate their programme in Uganda.
The exchange was a real eye opener for CiF staff and the Government officials. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet the children who had been in institutions and hear how they are thriving in families and also showing services which helped support and strengthen families instead of removing children from families and placing them in orphanages.
At the end of the exchange, the Resident District Commissioner for Tororo District (Eastern Uganda) who CiF are partnering with on the first pilot made a commitment for this project to succeed; and together, over the next two, years we will transform a district.
Exciting times and thank you for being part of our community.
