20th Anniversary Spotlight: SAFE Uganda
The work we support in Uganda is quite different to that we support elsewhere with the main focus on child protection, rather than education.
The team at SAFE Uganda, our partner in Kampala, runs:
Children’s Rights awareness forums, for children AND adults.
Drop-in clinics for children’s rights issues.
Children’s weekend clubs.
The Nsimbe ‘Transit Home’ which provides a nurturing home for children who have been separated from their families, with the aim of reuniting them or seeking foster accommodation.
The first 3 children at the Nsimbe Transit Home
Nsimbe opened in 2010 with just 3 children, and they now have the capacity for 20.
Ahead of the Small Charity Week Big Give campaign and as part of our 20th Anniversary celebrations, Judith Kinobe – a social worker and the Founder of SAFE Uganda – told us her story, which we’re pleased to share in her own words:
“I met the late Peter Tyrer, one of the founders of African Children’s Fund, in 2009 in Uganda while searching for a donor to fund my newly birthed idea. Peter had a deep heart and I carried a conviction that abused children needed a safe place to stay, other than remand homes, while investigations were ongoing.
At the time, the NGO space in Uganda was crowded and donors had grown weary of seeing good intentions dissolve into misuse of funds. Trust was fragile.
I shared my background in child protection with Peter and also something deeply personal: I had lost my mother when I was just 3 years old and my own life had been shaped by the kindness and intervention of others. My work was not theoretical, but borne out of gratitude and a desire to give back to society.
During Peter’s visit, I took him to Nsimbe, a 10-acre piece of land I had acquired. What greeted us was not a home, but an endless expanse of shrubs! Peter looked across the land and said: “Judith, just start.”. On the drive back to Kampala, those words became my resolve.
I returned to the UK and took on locum work, determined to raise what was needed to build the home. In 2010, work at Nsimbe was complete and we welcomed our first residents.”
All too often, success in the charity sector is measured in terms of numbers.
We could tell you how many children have attended a SAFE forum. Or have been rehomed. Or have attended weekend clubs.
Instead we’re sharing some final words from Judith:
A certain future, filled with hope and opportunity
“Outcomes in child protection are not always immediate or neat. They unfold in restored trust, in young lives redirected, in children who sleep through the night.
Through our window, we see children who arrive frightened return to school; we see young people who needed protection now advocating for others; we see futures restored.
African Children’s Fund has been a great partner (I do not want to call you donor because apart from funding us, you support our projects and give us invaluable advice). We feel that you are part of us.
Thank you to Dee, Peter and all at African Children’s Fund for seeing beyond the shrubs and believing what could grow.”
We’re sure you’ll agree this resonates far more loudly than numbers.
