Child’s i Foundation was established in 2009 with dreams of setting up the best orphanage in Uganda. Our Founder Lucy Buck had volunteered in orphanages across Uganda, witnessing first hand how children could so easily get caught up in the system and forgotten.
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So Lucy set up a babies’ home and called it Malaika, meaning angel in Swahili, to prove that children could leave an orphanage, that every child can grow up in a family. Through Malaika, Child’s i supported families, reunited families and found adoptive families for hundreds of children.
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But as soon as one child left us, their bed was soon filled with another. It grew clearer and clearer – orphanages are not the answer. Not even while children wait for families. Not ever. 
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We learned. And in 2017, we completely pivoted our organisation. We closed Malaika Babies’ Home, and started working to address the root causes of why children end up up in orphanages in the first place. Now we train foster carers as the alternative to look after children,  we partner with the Government to help build community structures for child protection, and we work alongside orphanages who want to repurpose their operations into community hubs. 
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So that this time, really, every child in Uganda has the opportunity to grow up in a family, not an orphanage.