SOS Children in Uganda

Although Uganda in Eastern Africa has now enjoyed more than a decade of relative peace and stability after twenty years of civil war, it remains one of the poorest countries in the world and the people continue to suffer from its position at the centre of an area of violence and ethnic unrest.

Health care is poor and malnutrition, malaria and parasites are common. There is a high incidence of HIV / AIDS at nearly 7%, alongside related illnesses such as tuberculosis (TB) and pneumonia. Less than half the population have access to clean drinking water and life expectancy is low.

Our second SOS Children's Village opened in 2003 in Entebbe, the country's second largest city. It has 12 family houses for 120 children. It also has lots of grassy areas for the children to play together, as well as trees to shelter the houses from the heat. 100 children also attend the SOS Nursery School located on the Village site, which has four classrooms and a playground. Opened in 2008, an SOS Social Centre here supports up to 600 children and their parents to stay together.

In June 2002, we began an Emergency Relief Programme in Gulu in the North of the country, in order to help refugee children and ex-child soldiers drawn into the violence perpetrated by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Over 20,000 children were abducted by the LRA, mainly to be used as soldiers or sex slaves. Our emergency programme evolved into an SOS Social Centre to help orphaned and vulnerable children and their families. An SOS Children’s Village was opened here in May 2009 to give family homes to 120 refugee children who could not be reunited with their families. An SOS Medical Centre in the town also provides healthcare, counselling, HIV/AIDS support and workshops to over 10,000 people every year.

SOS Children’s Village Fort Portal opened in 2010 and comprises twelve family houses to care for approximately 120 children. It also includes a village director's house, an aunts' house (SOS aunts take care of the children during their SOS mothers’ absence), a “tukul”, which is an African hut to hold events, a co-workers' house and an administration and service area.

The SOS Children’s Village also includes an SOS Nursery which accommodates 11 children.

In 2009, before the SOS Children’s Village started caring for children, an SOS Family Strengthening Programme was started in Fort Portal. About 1,600 children and their family members benefit from this programme per year.

See also Aids Orphan Projects in Uganda, Africa

"Dying on his feet" is how the village director at SOS Children's Village Entebbe described four-year-old John when she first saw him. "If we had left him there, I am sure he would be dead by now."

John lived with his father and older brother in a very poor part of western Uganda. When SOS Children first found him, he could not talk, he had a very big stomach, he had jiggers (parasitic insects that lay eggs under the skin) all over him and he was shaking like he had a fever. The father didn't care - he didn't even know John's other name. It was as if everyone was waiting for John to die.

When he arrived at the village, John had a blank stare and would not speak. He was very malnourished. The doctor prescribed treatment for jiggers and discovered he also had malaria. His new SOS mother, Mary, said he could not eat properly because of the jiggers. He also had bad nose bleeds. "I really nursed him", said Mary, "and he changed bit by bit”. Every morning, Mary asked John how he was; finally one day, after nearly three months, he answered her: "Fine”.