Who We Are - Child's i Foundation

Who We Are

A small non-profit with a big impact, we work with governments, national partners and our worldwide network of supporters to highlight the harm and cost of orphanages in Uganda and globally.

Our Mission

To bring African
practice-based evidence
to the movement for
global care reform.

Our Vision

One day every child will thrive in a safe and loving family.

Our Beginning

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.

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.

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.

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.

So that this time, really, every child in Uganda has the opportunity to grow up in a family, not an orphanage.

Our Values

In everything we do, we prioritise children. We only do what’s in their best interest, we stand up for them and challenge practices that are harmful to them.

We believe and we invest in the power that comes when we collaborate and are driven by the collective wisdom that emerges when communities lead.

We are evidence-led. We capture data on all aspects of our work and use this information to refine and improve outcomes for children. It is the evidence that has led to this strategy.

We innovate by reimagining solutions and alternatives to ensure that children always grow up in families.