Reunifications During Lockdown: Charity and Chris

Chris and Charity at home.

Amid the pandemic and lockdown in Uganda, many orphanages have taken an unusual step; to send children home to their families. Orphanages are cash strapped, and with schools closed, the scores of children who are in orphanages to access free education, no longer have a reason to stay.

This situation is playing out in Uganda and around the world. In Ukraine, nearly 40,000 children (almost half those living in orphanages) were sent home to their families over two days, and we are hearing similar reports around the world.

For many children, these are happy reunions. But with no safety checks and little to no support, this sudden move has put children at risk, and placed an incredible strain on impoverished families in a time of crisis.

In this time of need, we're working to assess families, and support safe and successful reunifications.

Two children we are helping are Charity and Chris, whose orphanage sent them home to their family. They've lived in an orphanage for nearly five years due to the crushing poverty at home. The conditions are so terrible in the institution that Charity has routinely run away, running across several kilometers to be with her mother. But as bad as it is in the orphanage, there is no way for Charity to go to school and get other necessities at home.

Charity and Chris's mom is homeless. She lost her house and land when her husband died, and she and her other children live in a corrugated iron shelter in exchange for guarding the property. The children don't go to school and instead live and work on the streets to earn a few coins to feed the family. It's a dire situation, but not hopeless.

Charity and Chris's mom is committed to caring for her children and has stood by them, doing her best against incredible odds. And she and Charity and Chris want to live together as a family.

With your support, we're providing emergency food and medical care to Charity, Chris, and their mom and siblings. We're beginning to plan for a new home, a business, and emergency scholarships when schools reopen. With support, Charity and Chris can remain with the mother, and look forward to growing up in a safe and loving family even after the pandemic is over.

Home For the Holidays: Henry and Eddy's Story

Henry and Eddy used to live with their mom and dad and little sister in a rural village in Uganda. Their parents were not wealthy, but they had enough to send the boys to school and give them a happy childhood.

Then, three years ago, their father died suddenly. Without her husband to support the family, their mom struggled to keep the boys in school. With nowhere else to turn for help, she felt the only thing she could do was to send them to an orphanage.

Henry and Eddy were taken to an orphanage when they were seven and five-years-old. They spent two years there, fending for themselves in poor conditions alongside forty other children. Their mother visited whenever she could but worried about their future.

Last December, the authorities closed the children's orphanage for operating illegally and failing to safeguard children. 

With limited resources to support the children, our team stepped in to help the local district to reunite the children with their parents or other close relatives.

Henry and Eddy were reunited with their mother, little sister, and grandmother. Joseph, the children's social worker, helped the children with their transition home. He provided counseling and the support their mother needed to care for the children long-term: clothing and bedding, a business grant, and school scholarships for both children.

Joseph continues to monitor the children and make sure they stay safe and happy. So far, he's delighted with the way that they have adjusted to being back at home.

Henry and Eddy have a close relationship with their mother and their Jaja (grandmother), and they are getting to know much of their extended family for the first time. Henry loves playing with his new friends in his village, and Eddy adores his little sister Milly.

They are happy to be home and are grateful to have a caring mother and grandmother who are always there to listen.

Henry and Eddy's mother says, "I feel happy living with my children because I have the chance to raise them as their mother. I now see a bright future for my children.”

Keeping Families Together: Supporting Families with HIV

Lifting families out of poverty, and providing access to critical services, is at the heart of our family care work.

Many families we work with are struggling with HIV. We work primarily in Kalungu district, at the epicenter of where the AIDS crisis began. Nearly 13% of adults and children are infected (the national average is < 6%). With your support, we're providing access to lifesaving medical care and nutritious food,  as well as access to all our programs. 

Milly’s Story

Milly is four years old and is HIV+. Her mother died of Aids, leaving Milly and her five siblings orphaned. Fortunately, Milly has an incredible grandmother who stepped up to raise her and her siblings. She's aging, but determined and hardworking, and wants to keep the children together as a family.

Milly’s grandmother was already in one of our microfinance groups. Just last year, she took out a loan to plant sweet potatoes to support her grandchildren. Since her mother died, we’ve provided medical care to all the children and specialist care for Milly. We helped with food and necessities and helped her grandmother to start a business raising goats. We also provided scholarships to three of the children.

With your support, Milly and her siblings are receiving the care they need and growing up where they belong: in a loving family.

Growing Foster Care: 21 New Families Trained

Three years ago, we started one of the first foster care programs in Uganda. Since then, we have helped eleven children to grow up in long-term foster care.

In May, we introduced emergency foster care to provide short-term family care to abandoned children while we work to find them families of their own.

Since then, we’ve hired a new social worker, trained our social work team in emergency foster care, and trained twenty-one new foster parents. Now we’re ready to receive our first referrals!

Olivia’s Story

Olivia with her grandmother.

Olivia is a smiley and playful 6-year-old. But for two years she grew up in a lonely orphanage.

Olivia’s mother died when she was a baby. Her father and grandmother did their best to care for her but struggled to send her to school. With the promise of free education, Olivia was put in an orphanage when she was four years old. 

For two years, Olivia grew up alone. She missed her grandmother and brothers and sister. The orphanage only fed her cornmeal and beans. She was often hungry. 

Last year, the local authorities closed Olivia’s orphanage. They referred her to us, and we helped to reunite Olivia with her grandmother and siblings.

With the loving care of a family, Olivia’s life is transforming.

Once a scared child, Olivia is blossoming into an outgoing and happy girl. She loves playing with her brothers and sister and is learning how to do new things, like helping to wash the dishes. Her grandmother says, “she really missed out on a lot in the orphanage.”

With your help and the support of a child sponsor, Olivia is going to kindergarten in her community. She is receiving medical care and her family is receiving much needed support, including a family business and regular social work visits.

When asked how she feels about being home Olivia says simply, ”I feel happy because my grandmother loves me.”

Our Team is Growing!

Joseph Kihumuro on a social work visit with a child in our programs.

Joseph Katongole in the office.

We’re excited to welcome two new social workers, and bring our program team to seven full-time staff.

Joseph Kihumuro is leading our new Emergency Foster Care Program, and Joseph Katongole is managing our Reunification and Kinship Care Program. Both are experienced social workers, and deeply committed to helping children to thrive in families.

New: Emergency Foster Care

With the help of a generous grant, we have just launched an emergency foster care program!

This project will allow us to train local families to provide temporary care to abandoned or abused children while we look for permanent family solutions.

This is an exciting opportunity for us, as it means we will soon be receiving abandoned babies and children directly from the police in Kalungu and surrounding districts. These children are usually sent to orphanages, where they spend their entire childhoods in an institution.

By providing short-term emergency care in families, we’ll be able to provide nurturing family care while working to find each child a permanent loving family.

"Home Free is changing the trajectory of child welfare in Uganda"

Wilmary, Home Free volunteer (second from right) with the Home Free team in Uganda.

‘I had an amazing experience volunteering with Home Free in November and December. During my time I saw how a few dedicated people can make a profound difference in the lives of vulnerable children. The work being done by Home Free is changing the trajectory of child welfare in Uganda.

I also witnessed the impact that moving a child from an institution to family-based care can have on a child’s life.

To give one example, here is the story of Grace:

Grace’s husband died four years ago. Without the support of her husband, she was forced to send two of her children Samuel and Joshua to an orphanage, when they were seven and five years-of-age.

During one of her visits to the institution, Grace noticed that her sons were malnourished. Joshua, who had been a strong boy, was just skin and bones.

It was even more heartbreaking to hear Samuel recalling he and his brother’s experience.

Samuel explained that they were only given one meal per day and the children were always hungry. He told us that one time another child at the orphanage stole cornmeal, and in retaliation, a worker caught him and burned his hands in front of the other children.

He also told us how his little brother Joshua, sometimes wet his bed at night. In the morning, the staff would punish him by making him wash his clothes and sheets, and then send him to school alone. Samuel would try to help, but the workers stopped him, in an attempt to dissolve the brotherly bond that gave them hope.

The few times that their mom was allowed to visit the boys, her sons begged her to take them home, but Leticia was not allowed to, nor did she have the support to care for them.

An organization that works with Home Free, worked with Leticia so that she could rescue her boys. Samuel and Joshua are now back home and thriving at school, and Home Free continues to support the family to ensure that they never have to go hungry or resort to an orphanage again.

I will forever cherish my experience working with Home Free. It has impacted me both professionally and personally. Working with Home Free helped me dream bigger as to what is possible for countries who have not yet moved away from institutional care.  

My experience with Home Free has motivated me to start my own organization in my home country, the Dominican Republic. As someone who was in the New York City foster care system, I know how important Home Free’s work is, and I believe that introducing similar support systems to other countries could mitigate the hardships that vulnerable children face.’

Guest Post: Wilmary

How a 12-year-old Girl Inspired Foster Care

The young girl who inspired our foster care program, and her siblings in 2016 (identity protected)

Two years ago, a courageous young girl was referred to our office by a partner organization. She was living in a family with violence, substance abuse and neglect. She told us what was happening at home, in hopes that we could help her, and her young brothers and sisters.

Our social work team contacted the police, and together, investigated the case.

The abuse the children suffered was shocking.

As a result of that investigation, two family members were charged, and imprisoned.

Prior to our investigation, the community had taken action to protect the children. They began removing them one-by-one and placing them in orphanages.

We knew we had to do better.

With no parents or extended family to safely care for them, we asked the community for help.

The community responded, and today, the children are growing up with foster families. They are now like any other child in the community. They go to school, have siblings and friends, and have the security and love of family.

Today, we are leading the first foster care program in Central-West Uganda. We have trained our social workers in foster care, and recruited five foster families.

The foster families we work with volunteer their time to care for children in their own homes. They provide short-term care for children in emergencies, and long-term care for children who cannot safely stay with their parents or extended family, or whose families are missing.

Foster families give children day-to-day care, and the love and security of family. We support our foster families with basic necessities, medical care and school fees for the children, and the long-term support of a social worker.

Thanks to the courage of one young girl, we are now supporting nine children in long-term foster care.

Our Partners: CALM Africa and SFAC trained our social work team in Foster Care.

A Mother’s Love

Visiting with Maddie and her family in 2016.

When I first volunteered in 2009, there were two little girls in the orphanage. They were about five or six years of age, and best friends, always sitting and playing together. 

The orphanage was a bad place. There was no clean water, no regular meals and little care or supervision. The neglect was evident. They girls were malnourished, and often sick. When they played, they would often shout insults and hit each other, imitating the orphanage housemother and volunteer teacher.

When I left the orphanage, I hoped that at least those two girls would make it home to their families.

A year and half later, the girls were gone.

I visited with one of the girl’s mothers two years ago. Her story is so similar to many of the families we work with, that I wanted to share it.

Mama Maddie gave birth to her daughter when she was a secondary school student. When Maddie was born, she soon dropped out of school, and began work as a maid for a family; cooking, cleaning and providing childcare around the clock.

Many vulnerable young girls are exploited this way in Uganda, working 24/7 as domestic servants for room and board and $20 a month.

She was not allowed to keep her daughter with her, and so she placed her in an orphanage.

She was determined, however, that she would save what she needed to bring her daughter home.

Mama Maddie would visit the orphanage when she could. Every time she visited her daughter would be worse off: unbathed, sick and malnourished. It was heartbreaking to visit.

Three years later, she had the money to bring her home. She went to the orphanage, picked up her daughter, and told the Director she was taking her home for a visit. She never went back.

With her savings, she joined a microfinance group. She saved enough to rent a small grocery shop with a room in the back. From the shop she could support her daughter with the basics, and send her to school.

The transition wasn’t easy.

Maddie would eat from the garbage, steal and lie. All things she learned to survive at the orphanage.

With time, patience and her mother’s love, Maddie flourished. She is still unable to talk about life at the orphanage, but when asked about her mother she will tell you just how much she loves her.

Mama Maddie, Maddie and her little sister Jojo live together in the same shop that her mother started to bring her home. Maddie goes to primary school where she is doing well. She loves to play with her little sister. We regularly check in with the family, and all are doing well.

Post by: Jennifer Martin, Executive Director, Home Free

Note: We respect the privacy of the children and families we work with. Names may be changed, and photos may conceal identity to protect a child's information.