1. No category

A loving home for every child
i
Our vision
Every child belongs to a family and grows with love, respect and security.
Our mission
We build families for children in need, we held them shape their own futures and we share in the
development of their communities.
Our core values

Courage: We take action. We have challenged traditional methods of orphan care and
continue innovative child care approaches.

Commitment: We keep our promises. We are dedicated to helping generation of
children have a better life. We do this by nurturing lasting relationships with our donors,
our co-workers and communities in which are rooted.

Trust: We believe in each other. We believe in each other other’s abilities and potential.
We support and respect one another, and build and an environment where one can
approach our responsibilities with confidence. In an atmosphere of trust we are inspired
to share our experience and learn from each other.

Accountability: We are reliable partners. Since 1991 we have built a foundation of trust
with donors, governments and other partners who support our mission. Our greatest
responsibility is guaranteeing the well-being of children by ensuring high standards of
care. In doing this we are committed to using all funds and resources wisely, with
respect and accountability.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Our vision .......................................................................................................................................ii
Our mission ....................................................................................................................................ii
Our core values..............................................................................................................................ii
Acronyms.......................................................................................................................................iii
Key definitions...............................................................................................................................iv
Foreword........................................................................................................................................iii
SECTION ONE ................................................................................................................................v
1.1 Summary of SOS Children’s Villages’ work in Uganda 2014...................................................... v
1.2 Schedule of major events for 2015............................................................................................3
SECTION TWO................................................................................................................................4
2.1 Statistical figures 2014........................................................................................................................ 4
2.2 Board of trustees ................................................................................................................................. 5
SECTION THREE............................................................................................................................6
FACILITY REPORTS................................................................................................................................. 6
3.1 SOS CHILDRENS VILLAGE ENTEBBE..................................................................................6
3.1.1 Family based Care - CV Entebbe...........................................................................................6
3.1.2 SOS Youth Facility – Entebbe................................................................................................8
3.1.3 SOS Kindergarten Entebbe ..................................................................................................10
3.1.4 SOS Family Strengthening Programme Entebbe ................................................................11
3.1.5 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Medical Centre – Entebbe ............................................................14
3.2 SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE FORTPORTAL .......................................................................16
3.2.1 Family Based Care - CV Fort Portal............................................................................................ 16
3.2.2 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Kindergarten Fort Portal ...............................................................21
3.2.3 Family Strengthening Programme Fort Portal .....................................................................23
3.2.3. SOS Hermann Gmeiner Medical Centre-Fort portal................................................................ 26
3.3 SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE KAKIRI....................................................................................28
3.3.1 Family Based Care - CV Kakiri .................................................................................................... 28
3.3.2 SOS youth facilities Kakiri ....................................................................................................30
3.3.3 SOS Hermann Gmeiner School Kakiri .................................................................................33
3.3.4 SOS kindergarten, Kakiri ....................................................................................................35
3.3.5 Family Strengthening Programme Kakiri .............................................................................36
3.3.6 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Medical Centre Kakiri ........................................................................ 40
3.4 SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE GULU ......................................................................................42
3.4.1 Family Based Care – CV............................................................................................................... 42
3.4.2 SOS Youth Facility - Gulu ............................................................................................................. 45
3.4.4 Helmut Kutin Kindergarten Gulu...........................................................................................49
3.4.4 Hermann Gmeiner Primary School Gulu..............................................................................50
3.4.5 SOS Family Strengthening Programme Gulu ......................................................................51
3.4.5 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Medical Centre Gulu .....................................................................58
4.0 NATIONAL OFFICE ................................................................................................................61
4.1 Programme Development ONE CHILD.......................................................................................... 61
4.2 Human Resources ONE MOVEMENT ...................................................................................61
4.3 Fund Development ONE FRIEND……………………………………………………………...…62
4.3.1Achievements……………………………………………………………………………………… 63
4.3.2Public Relations……………………………………………………………………………………64
4.3.3Online Activity………………………………………………………………………………………..……….68
4.3.4 Sponsorship…………………………………………………………………………………………………..69
4.4 Finance / Operations Departments……………………….…………………………….………...71
5.0 Information Communication Technology ICT)………………………………………………………………… 72
6.0 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................................73
ii
ACRONYMS
ADA
Austrian Development Agency
ART
Anti-retroviral therapy
CV
Children Villages
FBC
Family Based Care
FCPU
Family Child Protection Unit
FDP
Family Development plan
FSP
Family Strengthening Programme
KG
Kindergarten
NORAD
Norwegian Agency for development
PTA
Parents Teachers Association
SCORE
Sustainable Comprehensive Responses for Vulnerable children
and their Families
VSLA
Village Saving and Loan Association
iv
KEY DEFINITIONS
1. Family Based Care Programme; this is SOS family care model offered to children on a
long term basis to children who have lost parental care.
2. Family Strengthening Programme; this is SOS community programme that targets
children who are at risk of losing parental care. The programme aims at preventing
children to lose the care of their family. SOS builds the capacity of the families to protect
and care for their children. SOS works with other duty bearers like the Government,
Community structures, churches etc.
3. One Child: SOS strategic objective focusing children. By 2016 SOS Uganda will be
having 7000 children ( 6000 from FS and 1000 from FBC)
4. One Friend: SOS Strategic objective focusing on friends and partners.
5. One Movement: SOS strategic objective focusing on co-workers.
motivated staff to support the children
Committed and
6. SOS Families: Families under the Family based Care programme where children are
provided long term care
7. VSLA: An alternative saving and loan scheme targeting caregivers on the programme
although other community members are allowed to join. It brings together community
groups based on self-selection. Group members are able to work together to save
money.
8. Youth home 1: Youth living with in the youth facility
9. Youth Home 2: Youth living outside the youth facility
iv
FOREWORD
Dear Friends and Partners,
On behalf of the children, Staff, Management and the Board of SOS Children`s Villages
Uganda, It is my honor to share with you our Annual Report for the year 2014. This has been
yet another successful year; a year that the organisation has continued to make improvements
in our mission of providing quality child care, education and health to more to 5,346 children in
Uganda.
In the 2013, there were quite a number of challenges that befell the Member Association but
with a change of leadership, corporate governance, new staff on board and the overwhelming
support from the continuing staff; we have managed to achieve the key developments within the
member association.
SERVICE DELIVERY: MAJOR EVENTS IN 2014
In terms of corporate governance, the Board of Trustees together with the management
successfully formed Board Committees in the areas of Finance, Human Resources,
Fund Development and Programmes Development to provide much closer support to
the different functions within the organisation. An internal audit department was also
incorporated in the organisational structure in order to give an independent and objective
assurance to The Board and Management. This move was intended to improve on
operations in the area of internal control and governance within the organisation and I
must say there has been significant improvement so far.
The previous year had significant staff gaps, which gaps came with challenges in
management of the organisation however; this year new staff recruitments for key
positions including National Director, other top and middle level positions have taken
place. This now has enabled us to cope with the rising demands on the organisation for
service delivery.
Publicity for the organisation was taken on as a drive to stimulate growth. A decision was
arrived at during the year that in order to influence support from friends and partners,
SOS Children`s Villages Uganda, needed to build the brand and be the leading child
care organisation in the country. In our effort to achieve this, the organisation embarked
on media campaigns engaging various media houses throughout the year and on a good
note, SOS Children`s Villages Uganda is gaining cognition and awareness which has
become a benefit in terms of funding and stakeholder involvement in programme
development.
In terms of partnership development, new agreements were arrived at and various
commitments were renewed such as;
o
The partnership with AVSI Foundation to implement the Sustainable
Comprehensive Responses for Vulnerable children and their households
(SCORE) with funds from USAID was renewed for yet another year in which
AVSI made a financial commitment to support SOS Uganda with a total of UGX
734,084, 301 (USD 255,779) to implement project activities from January 2014 to
December 2015.
Leveraging on the knowledge and skills attained from the fruitful relationship with
AVSI under the SCORE project, the organisation won a similar Community
Project in Kakiri, one of our programme locations in the central part of the
country. – USAID. The project started on 1st of August 2014 and SOS was
advanced Ugx 38,000,000 (USD 12195) to implement activities for the first 3
months with funding from USAID/Uganda Private Health Support Program under
the CARDNO grant.
Under local fundraising through SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools and Medical Centres,
we managed to raise a total amount of Ugx 1,518,496,587 which is 25% lower from the
amount we raised in 2013. Because of this, a local fundraising strategy has been
developed for 2015 and will be implemented to create a more positive impact.
As a
Member Association, we still have areas to improve on in order to accelerate on the level
of achievements: Strengthening procurement processes, Internal Controls, Monitoring
and Evaluation, widening the resource base as well as up scaling advocacy efforts have
all been highlighted for improvement in the year 2015. Staff turnover also continues to
affect the Member Association attributed to constrained budgets however; various
strategies are being adopted and developed in order to improve on the organisational
salary scale and retain staff.
Our accomplishments in the year 2014 can be attributed significantly to our Promoting
and Supporting Associations i.e SOS Norway, SOS Netherlands, SOS Austria, SOS
Switzerland and SOS Kinderdorf International, the Regional Office Management, the
Board of Trustees, our partners who include; Ministry of Gender, District, Sub County
Officials in our various locations, Deutche Post DHL, AVSI Foundation, USAID/Uganda
Private Health Initiative, Rotary club of Entebbe, Madhvani Group, Bartlett Group, Arrow
Centre, Tropical Bank, Brood Uganda Limited, Smile Telecom Uganda, Kemarg Uganda
Limited, key implementing partners among others.
Our work this past year has been both challenging and rewarding for both the
organisation and the entire community. In all our efforts, we will continue to adhere to
our values, Dedication to Mission Success, Technical Excellence, and Commitment to
Our People in order to deliver quality care, education, and health to children in our target
group.
Sincerely,
Karl Wipfler - Chairman- Board of Trustees
v
SECTION ONE
1.1 Summary of SOS Children’s Villages’ work in Uganda – 2014
In a bid to continue providing quality care, education and health to more than 5,349 Children in
our target group, SOS Children`s Villages Uganda maintained her commitment to the mission
regardless of the dynamic environment of the Ugandan Scene in the year 2014. The situation
around us kept impacting on the organisation both positively and a negative but never the less,
the organisation has sailed along. We give you a brief scenario of the country context in the next
few paragraphs to follow;
THE SITUATION OF CHILDREN IN UGANDA
Children comprise up to 56% of Uganda’s population. By 2010, Uganda had a population of 33
million people, including about 19 million children (UNICEF Uganda statistics, 2009). The living
conditions for this important group of the Ugandan society are still desirable. Children continue
to live in conditions characterized by inadequate access to health services, biting poverty in
homes, exploitation, and violence. The given living conditions for children in Uganda undermine
the four cardinal rights of a child to survival, development, protection and participation. Two
millions children are orphaned According to UNICEF, as of 2009; there were approximately
2.7 million orphans in Uganda of which 1.2 million were orphaned by AIDS.
Care:
The protection and care of vulnerable children in Uganda is still not assured. Many of the
orphaned children are forced to live on the streets and/or under exploitative conditions of labour,
physical, emotional and sexual abuse. A lot of them live in child-headed households and are
forced to fend for themselves and their siblings; others are infected with HIV either through
mother-to-child- transmission or through defilement.
Health:
The situation affecting the health of children in Uganda is quite alarming and has been
exacerbated by the prevalence of preventable diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis and
conflicts in the country. One in seven children dies before the age of five due to insufficient
health care - According to the 2010 Millennium Development Report for Uganda, 135 children
die in every 1000 live births. In other words, one in seven children will die before they reach the
age of five years. Up to 90% of our children grow up in poverty with one in every five suffering
from chronic hunger. According to the 2010 United Nations Development Programme UNDP
Uganda Report, 20% of children are underweight. The issue of children affected and infected
with HIV/AIDS projects an equally grim picture; of the estimated 50,000 children in need of this
treatment, only about 13,000 children are receiving this essential intervention, while of the 200
antiretroviral treatment sites approved by the Ministry of Health, only 30 provide pediatric
services.
Education:
The quality in education kept dwindling during the year. Despite a net enrolment rate of 97.1%
at primary education level, up to 67.6% of these children who enroll, drop out before they
complete primary seven, according to the 2010 UNDP Human Development Index. Also
UNICEF’S statistics on the State of the world’s children 2011 show that the primary school
enrolment rate lies at 96% for boys and 98% for girls, but the survival rate to last the primary
grade is just 32%. The secondary enrolment ratio remains low at 22% for boys and 21% for
girls.
Advocating for children`s rights:
Uganda joined the rest the world in 2014 to mark the 25 years of the UN Convention on the
rights of the child (UNCRC) under the theme “CRC @ 25 counting the gains of children”.
Uganda as a country ratified the UNCRC in 1990 as progressive measure to protect and
promote children`s rights in the country. SOS Children`s Villages Uganda this year was part of
the leadership team at the forefront of lobbying the legislators in the Parliament of Uganda to:
 Prioritize children’s’ issues in all agendas’ including; planning, budgeting among others
as Uganda joins the rest of the world to commemorate 25 years of the Child Rights
Convention.
 Put in place and implement legislations that protect children from erroneous acts like
inter-country adoption under the guise of foster-guardianship, child trafficking, forced
marriages, child labor, among others.
Several amendments had been made especially in the areas of adoption, child trafficking, child
labour among others but all these had stalled with no clear communication from the government
as to why these amendments had taken long to be implemented.
After successful parliamentary debates a private member`s bill was passed to review the
amendments on the Children`s Act. This led to a formation of a committee to foresee progress.
The committee task force held a retreat where they reviewed the first draft of the act in
December 2014; after which a Certificate of financial implication to the private members would
be gazetted in February 2015.
The Ugandan economy:
The performance of Uganda`s economy was robust according to the Bank of Uganda report
2014. The gross domestic product expanded by 4.7% from 2013, the annual core inflation
averaged at 5.2 percent from 6.6 % in the previous year. This improvement of inflation enabled
the bank of Uganda to ease monetary policy to support economic activity in the country. As
result of this, banks lowered their interest rates. Amendments were also made on the Financial
Institutions Act which gave way to mobile banking, bank assurance and Islamic banking hence
deepening the financial sector in 2014. Perhaps this would also explain the improvement of
local revenue for the organisation from 2013 to 2014.
SOS Uganda sails on:
Despite the social, political economic situation prevailing within the country, our work still
continued, guided by the three priority strategic areas under the themes “One Child”, “One
Friend” and “One Movement”. Under ‘One Child’ we continued to focus on the implementation
of the SOS Children’s Village Programme Policy (CVPP) at Kakiri and moved on to start the
process in Entebbe, Gulu and Fort Portal.
1
CVPP implementation processes continued and as a result, sustained benefits and synergies
among programmes have been already realized in Kakiri and partly in Entebbe, Fort Portal and
Gulu. Under this objective, we continued to invest great efforts in improving child and youth
development programming to support the increased capacity and quality of child and youth work
within the National Association. This was a key area of focus in 2014.
Under the Family Strengthening Programme our objectives sought to enhance sustainability and
income generation within the local communities, but also the strategy of working through
partnerships both for programme implementation and funding. The organisation registered
commendable steps in the area of partnership however we plan to strengthen this area further
in 2015. Owing to the financial support from partners such as NORAD, ADA, AVSI, USAID there
has been a significant growth in the number of beneficiaries to over 6000.
Under the ‘One Friend’ objective, The Member Association has improved the level of local funds
raised from less than 50% in the year 2013 to 61% in the year 2014. This has been achieved
through combination of efforts from the National Office and all project locations inform of
corporate donations, individual giving, donations in kind and institutional grants. Revenue
generation still remains a challenge however with significant changes in approach in 2015, this
trend will be improving. Focus in 2014 was towards building a strong, visible brand that
maintains a network of reputable partners and committed givers. In our effort to achieve this, the
organisation embarked on media campaigns engaging various media houses throughout the
year and on a good note, SOS Children`s Villages Uganda is gaining cognition and awareness
which has become a benefit in terms of funding and stakeholder involvement in programme
development.
The One Movement’ objective focuses our national association on having strong staff to lead
the growing developments of the Member Association. In 2013 this objective area was very
much affected by high staff turnover of up to 7.1%; majority of whom were senior staff. Despite
the challenges faced within the Member Association that year, in 2014 the organisation has
been able to carry on with core business including recruitment of new staff which brought in
various new talents; including key management positions.
Regardless of the general drawbacks the Member Association faced in 2014 the organisation is
committed to dealing with these challenges seriously. Plans have already been laid out
specifically to deal with them right from 2014 all through to 2015. There has been massive
support for the Board of Trustees, Regional Office Nairobi, International Office, Promoting
Support Associations and partners and for this; the National Association maintains its respect
and gratitude.
2
1.2 Schedule of major events for 2015
Period ( Month) Event
2015
January
Board meeting
Recruitment of the NPDA, IPD manager, Child and
youth coordinator
February
March
April
May
Board meeting
Internal Audit – Fort- Portal Location
Submission of
ADA, NORAD and Grieg gender
challenge
1st Peer review meetings & visits
1st Strategic plan review
External Audit
Women’s Day ( 8th March)
NA management training
Launch of Annual Mothers Conference
National Fundraising Event
Women Health Day ( 11th May)
International day for the families (14th May)
June
SOS day celebrations
Day of the African Child, (16th June)
2nd strategic plan review
July
Bi-annual reports (ADA, NORAD, GRIEG)
Peer reviews and visits
Internal Audits
2015 Location & NA planning and
commences
Board Meeting
Breast feeding ( 1st -5th August)
Internal Audits
August
September
budgeting
Youth Day celebration
3rd strategic plan review
October
November
December
Conclusion of annual planning and budgeting
International Day of the Girl child (11th Oct)
Peer reviews and visits
World AIDS day (1st December)
16days of Gender Activism (25th Nov – 10th Dec)
Strategic plan final review
Annual Reports to Regional Office
Board meeting
3
SECTION TWO
2.1 Statistical figures 2014
Basic statistics showing occupancy of the family houses, Fs programme operational
communities, number of children participating in FS programme, and SOS HGS statistics.
#
1.
2.
3.
4.
SOS CV location
CV Kakiri
CV Entebbe
CV Gulu
CV Fort Portal
Total
#
FS programme
1
FS Kakiri
Boys
58
64
54
65
241
2. FS Entebbe
3. Fs Gulu
4. FS Fort Portal
Total
Girls
72
53
59
46
230
Total
130
117
113
111
471
Table 1: Occupancy of the
family houses
Name of the Sub No.
of No of parishes
County
parishes
2014
2010
Kakiri & 1 Town 3
7
council
Katabi
1
4
Koch
1
1
Karambi & Bukuku 4
5
9
17
Table 2: FSP operational communities
#
1.
2.
3.
4.
FS Programme
FS Kakiri
FS Entebbe
FS Gulu
FS Fort portal
Total
No.
of
families
(0 -17)
Boys
427
255
311
304
1,297
996
395
564
518
2,473
Children
18 +
Girls
Boys
936
372
512
499
2,319
Total
Number
Children
and Young
adults
2,252
904
1,168
1,134
5,458
Girls
178
69
49
57
353
142
68
43
60
313
Table 3: Children and Families participating in FS programme 2014
Location
Kakiri
Entebbe
Gulu
Fort
portal
Level
KG
PS
SS
KG
KG
PS
KG
SOS families
FS
Community
children
Boys
Girls
Boys
Girls
Boys
Girls
17
41
25
7
74
35
38
17
50
25
12
57
26
20
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
00
01
00
00
00
54
81
30
60
17
61
15
45
90
38
50
11
61
07
Total
No. of
boys
Total No.
of girls
Grand
total
71
122
55
67
91
96
55
62
140
63
63
68
68
25
133
262
118
130
159
183
80
4
Total
00
01
Table 4: Number of pupils &students in HGS
1,065
2.2 Board of trustees
SOS Uganda is run by a Board of Trustees (BOT). They are highly experienced, professional
and well known in the Country for their different roles. They have voluntarily committed
themselves to serve and they have played a significant role in shaping SOS Uganda. Below is a
list of Board of Trustees.
SOS Uganda is run by a board of trustees. They are professional men and women who have
voluntarily committed themselves to serve. Below is a list of Board of Directors;
Board of Directors - 2014
#
NAME
Position
1.
Mr. Karl Wipfler
Chairman
2.
Mr. Sam Bwaya
Vice-Chairman
3..
Dr. Edison Arwanire Mworozi
Member
4.
Dr. Margaret Musoke Bukenya
Member
5.
Mr. Charles Muhoozi
Member
6.
Ms. Sarah Walusimbi
Member
7.
Mr. Wilhelm Huber
CVI Representative/ (GSC)
5
SECTION THREE
FACILITY REPORTS
SOS Children’s villages Uganda (SOS
Uganda) runs Children’s Villages
Development programmes in Kakiri,
Entebbe in the Central region, Gulu in
the Northern region and Fort Portal in a
Western part of the country.
SOS Uganda has been existing in
Uganda for more than 2 decades. The
focus of these CV programmes is child
development in a family caring
environment. This development occurs
in different forms; physical, emotional,
intellectual, social, cultural and spiritual.
Similarly
SOS Children’s Villages
programmes strengthen different forms
of families to provide a caring family
environment where the child can form
reliable,
supportive
and
lasting
relationships with his/her parents (or
other caregiver) and siblings.
3.1 SOS CHILDRENS VILLAGE ENTEBBE
Located at Abaita Ababiri along Entebbe road on the way to Entebbe International airport, this
children`s village programme was officially inaugurated in 2003. SOS Entebbe operates a
Family based Care programme, Community programme (Family Strengthening programme), a
Kindergarten and a Medical Centre.
3.1.1 Family based Care - CV Entebbe
The year 2014 has been a year of rebuilding the team in Entebbe CV through recruitment of
new staff members and settling them in. Although the process is still ongoing, several
vacancies, some at management level were filled in the course of the year.
As a country, Uganda has taken new steps to ensure all organizations operating children’s
homes, meet a set of revised minimum standards and requirements. The requirements aim to
discourage organizations from engaging in provision of long term care to children. For any
organization to be registered by government there must be well laid procedure of early reintegration of children to the community where continued support can be delivered to them. CV
Entebbe is now working closely with both local and national Government officials to achieve
maximum compliance to the requirements of government.
6
a. Tropical Bank visits SOS Children’s Villages, Entebbe
In the month of April, children at the Village experienced lots of fun. One of our local banks;
Tropical bank together with the Uganda Scouts Association organized a fun day for the children
in celebration of Easter. The theme of the day was “Here for you” and all they wanted to do was
involve the children in all sorts of fun activities for a whole day. Children enjoyed painting their
faces in different colors of their choices. Different stalls had been set up to illustrate retail shops
and to serve as food centers. Music played in the background as children took part in various
competitions and won prizes.
Amidst the fan, the children also got to learn a few things about banking and finances. They
were taken through the basics of how a bank operates and why it is very important to have
savings. This made more sense to the youth who are already leading semi-independent lives
and managing some of their allowances. Perhaps they will use this knowledge to improve their
practices and be able to make their finances better.
b. SOS Entebbe honors the Prime minister of Buganda Kingdom
The ‘Katikiiro’ (Prime Minister) of the Buganda Kingdom, Mr. Mayiga Peter, visited the
Children’s Village in June leaving wonderful memories. They children, some of them subject of
the King, were honored welcoming the Prime Minister’s motorcade with a banquette of flowers.
Lumia and Lewis, both dressed in cultural attire were overjoyed by the experience of having to
shake the Prime Ministers’ hand. Family house one in the village has enjoyed a warm
relationship with the Royal family for years that makes it easy for the village to share such light
moments with the Kingdom officials.
c. Commemorating Hermann Gmeiner Day
Children in SOS Entebbe are living happily because of Hermann Gmeiner’s vision of making a
loving home for every child. This explains why a lot of significance is placed on him through
“SOS DAY”. Every year, we celebrate him but this year it was pretty different because we also
went an extra mile to invite our SOS friends from Uganda to celebrate with us at the Village. It
was a colorful event that Children enjoyed especially the colorful decorations, cool
entertainment and the presentations in songs
and dances. Children from SOS Kakiri Village
were invited and performed a cultural dance
from the central part of Uganda. On the same
day, two SOS Mother were honored and
appreciated with certificates for their good
work in the lives of the children.
d. Celebrating Christmas Day
The Christmas party is always held in
December and all children in the Village look
forward to it. As soon as they had come back
from school, the party preparations started
Children cut a cake during Christmas Party celebration
and these involved much training in dances,
th
miming, plays as well as skits. On the 17 of
December, the whole Village was filled with excitements as children got their best outfits for the
celebration. Cool music was played from morning and this placed everyone around in Christmas
moods. The Deputy Managing Director of Tropical Bank Uganda graced the occasion as the
7
Guest of Honor. He has been a long partner of SOS CV Entebbe who has demonstrated a
strong believe in what we do to develop the less privileged children. He advised children to work
hard for their future, and also donated five hundred thousand Ugandan shillings (UGX500,000).
During the celebrations, the administration and sponsorship department awarded the best
improved children in school performance and well-disciplined children in the Village with gifts
which were handed over to them by the Guest of honor.
e. 6 children graduate from SOS Entebbe Kindergarten
4 boys and 2 girls graduated from the Kindergarten in a colorful ceremony where children
performed a play entitled ‘The Sleeping Princes’. Children and parents from the community
were part of the graduation ceremony during which the parents launched a School Van Project.
This Project will see parents contribute money to help the Kindergarten acquire a School Van
for transporting children during the school term. Also 15 boys and 7 girls sat Primary Leaving
Examination and are awaiting the results to join secondary education. We have high hope that
some of these candidates will emerge with high grades that will enable them join highly
competitive secondary schools.
We are confident that we will build on the team that was built in 2014 to achieve greater success
in 2015.
Plans for 2015
Focusing on preventive approach to child protection through life skills training and
character development support to children.
Strengthening family bonding between children and their biological family members
Networking with Government and other NGOs that are involved in child development
initiatives for greater impact.
Building a strong team spirit among staffs.
Registering 10 new children
Identifying an alternative place in the community for reallocation of the youth home.
3.1.2 Youth Facility – Entebbe
Entebbe Children’s Village youth facilities presently has a total of 35 youth (12 girls and 24
boys) they range from the ages of 15 to 20 years old. There are currently two youth facilities.
The boys’ youth facility opened in 2011 and the girls’ facility opened in 2012. Since their
inception, both facilities have increased and are at full capacity to date. The youth are supported
by 2 youth leaders, one for girls and one for boys. 2014 was a year of several milestones,
challenges as well as positive developments for the youth department in CV Entebbe.
a. Education
Educationally some of the youth achieved some major milestones in their academics. We had a
total of 15 candidates who sat for their ordinary level (senior 4) and Advance level (senior 6)
final exams. Two were senior 6 youth boys and 3 were senior 4 youth girls. In addition the 3
youth girls who had been in a vocational institute doing hairdressing and catering also
completed their courses last year. All the candidates are currently with their biological relatives
for the long holiday.
8
2014 also saw the youth equipped with financial literacy skills courtesy of Crane bank. They had
a workshop in which they covered topics like: budgeting, developing a savings culture, financial
discipline among others. They were also given the opportunity for each to open a savings
account a move that was welcomed with excitement. Currently each youth has a savings
account with Crane bank.
DHL as a company played a major role in enhancing the
educational development of the youth this past year.
They held a couple of career workshops in which the
youth were equipped with skills of identifying clear career
paths and how to pursue one’s career choice. The youth
also received entrepreneurial skill’s training.
b. Social and physical Development
SOS Youths, Board Chairman & DHL staff
after the career Workshop
On the social and physical front the youth were kept quite busy throughout the year. One of the
biggest engagements of our youth was the community outreach activities they undertook with
several families supported by the Family Strengthening Programme. The youth cleaned up the
homes of 6 FSP families by digging around their rubbish pits and constructed 2 local dish racks.
This
experience taught them the importance of
giving back to the community.
On the sports arena, youth from CV Entebbe and CV
Kakiri came together in Entebbe and engaged in
games like volleyball, Pool, and football. The youth
also held several football matches with youth from
the community. It was a time of healthy competition
and interaction between the two groups. This event
was able to strengthen the bond between the youth
from both villages.
Towards the end of the year the youth were able to
attend a life changing camp with other youth from
different organizations. This was a camp which
covered career development, social interaction and
how to avoid negative peers’ influences as well as spiritual and moral sessions. The youth were
able to make new connections with other youth and hence enlarged their networks of friends.
Youth footballers from Entebbe & Kakiri
greeting each other before the match
Overall, 2014 was an adventurous year full of lots of positive activity for the youth which all
worked to enhance their holistic development.
9
Plans for 2015
Resettle at least 10 youth with their biological parents.
Re-integrate 4 youth in the community. ( these are youth who do not have any biological
relatives)
Identify a new youth facility in the community so as to expand the youth boys’ facility.
At least 3 girls from FBC transition from the family houses to the youth facility. ( Youth
girls’ facility cannot take more than this)
Enroll 4 youth in vocational institutes.
3.1.3 SOS Kindergarten Entebbe
This year we have had 130 children (68 girls and 62 boys) at the kindergarten, the school has
been operating at full capacity with 10 teachers and 2 support staff, 11 female 1 male. We had
children from FBC, FSP and the community. The children were distributed in the different
classes as follows.
CLASS
Crèche
K.G 1
K.G 2
K.G3
FBC
FSP
COMMUNITY
TOTAL
25
25
11
24
35
2
1
32
35
5
30
35
18
1
111
130
Throughout the year we had a number of activities designed to enhance the children’s learning,
the teaching practice and the parental involvement in the learning of children.
During the first term we had the curriculum evening where parents were given an overview on
what goes on in school. A heath parade was conducted in which children were equipped with
skills in personal hygiene. The sports day was to promote the physical fitness in school and
promote the children’s sports talents while a Study trip to ‘Time to play’; an early year play
center was an exciting moment for the children.
In second term our focus was on Plants and Animals. We had a fruit day where we invited the
parents to sensitize the children on the importance of fruits to our body, the reading and art
exhibition was another interesting activity, parents bought the crafts and children demonstrated
reading. We as well had a teacher exchange at St. Marcelino Kindergarten where the teachers
looked at the small group approach to learning and an activity
based classroom environment. We ended with a trip to Anam
Cara farm where children had a close look at the farm
animals.
During the third term we
had a Cultural day,
children dressed up in
their cultural attires and
Children at Cara Farm
parents came to tell them
about their cultures in stories, songs and poems. We
Cultural Day
10
celebrated the teacher’s day by taking the teachers for an outing, the children celebrated the
Christmas party and we ended with the End of year musical, Graduation for K.G 3 where 35
children graduated to P.1 and a dinner for both children and teachers.
In a way to enhance the parental involvement we launched a Parent Teachers Association
P.T.A this year which has supported our work.
Plans for 2015
Acquire a school van with the help of the P.T.A Development committee.
Expand the Kindergarten to accommodate 175 children.
Improve of the service delivery by providing the children with a child friendly environment
indoor and outdoor, physical and invisible environment.
3.1.4 SOS Family Strengthening Programme Entebbe
Family Strengthening Programme at Entebbe has seven full time staff that is; one programme
manager, 5 programme officers and one Data officer. The programme supports child
beneficiaries are 767 i.e. 372 boys and 395 girls from 255 households in Nkumba, Kabaale,
Kitala and Nalugala Parishes; with financial support from the Grieg Foundation, Austrian
Development Agency (ADA) and AVSI Foundation. The year 2014 has seen FS programme
Entebbe realizing several achievements however, the outstanding success being the ability to
graduate off 23 households comprising of 49 children (30 boys and 19 girls) after their
assessment showing that they are out of vulnerability. This implies that they are able to provide
for their children without support from SOS. It should also be noted that 27 households with 102
children (58 girls and 44 boys) were exited prematurely due to several reasons such as
relocation, lack of interest in the programme and death.
a. Family capacity building
This is of the strong pillars within the FS programme, last year 2014; FS Entebbe made strides
in the following below;
28 youth (13 girls and 15 boys) successfully completed their courses in hairdressing,
motor vehicle mechanics, tailoring etc. 17 are employed and 11 have recently been
supported with start-up kits.
108 children (67 girls and 41 boys) were screened for malnutrition with support from the
Village Health Teams.
50 households were able to practice good nutrition i.e. nutritious feeding and nutritional
hygiene.
1 youth 10 youth ( 7 boys and 3 girls) was equipped with life skills
180 households were sensitized on child rights issues and birth registration of their
children.
11
The 18 Village Savings & Loaning groups composed of 428 men and 55 men managed
to accumulate savings worth 104,809,300 million shillings hence improving their
household incomes through the business they are engaged in.
159 households were able to set up productive backyard gardens to improve nutrition in
their homes.
b. Capacity building of local community structures
The good school strategy was launched at Entebbe Umea primary school, the rugby club
was facilitated with tag rugby items i.e. ball, uniforms, and shoes and also facilitated the
talking compound. The good school strategy was also introduced in one other school i.e.
King Foundation Junior school where 13 teachers were trained on the approach.
7 career guidance sessions were facilitated in 7 schools i.e. King Foundation Junior school,
Kisakye Education Centre, St. Paul Bulega p/s, Nkumba Junior school, Lake View High
school, St. Kizito p/s and Divine Child P/S.
c. Cooperation with local authorities
In order to enhance our visibility, we hosted and facilitated one Sub County Orphans and
Vulnerable Children (OVC) Coordination meeting where 24 other child care organizations
were in attendance. In addition two annual events were jointly celebrated with other child
care organizations i.e. women’s day and the day of the African Child. The local authority
officials were also invited to participate and witness the graduation of 23 households.
d. Partnerships
In order to root the FS programme in the community, FS Entebbe is progressively building
the capacity of 2 key implementing partners; Katabi Friends for Family Development (
KFFDO) and Kitubulu Child rights Initiative Katabi ( KCRIK). This year the two CBOS have
progressively improved in the delivery of services to the vulnerable households.
e. HIV/AIDS related activities
One HIV/AIDS health talk followed by counselling and testing were done at St Noah senior
secondary school. Where 61 students (45 girls and 16 boys) tested for HIV and 1 student
tested positive. The activity was done with support from SOS Medical Centre staff.
The programme was able to facilitate 9 HIV positive caregivers with transport back home or
to the ART centres or medical treatment for the opportunistic infections.
Challenges
In order to reduce on the risks that affect the projects, SOS Uganda emphasizes the
adherence to the right procurement procedures while this is the case the long procurement
process affected the timely implementation of some activities hence affecting the reporting
periods.
12
Lessons learnt
During the course of the programme implementation for 2014, we have learnt the following
lessons;
Conducting the market analysis exercise before placing youth for apprenticeship is
very important as it guides the decision making of the marketable trades on both the
organization and the concerned youth/family.
Installment payment for the apprentices is better than full payment as it minimizes
resource wastage in case the youth drops out before completing the course.
Having focal staff in charge of projects or objectives eases activity implementation
and enhances individual accountability.
Success story
We are glad to report that our Programme has changed lives of people from 2008 to date despite some
inevitable challenges they have encountered along the way. Ms. Nakalyango Maureen is one of the 23
households who were successfully graduated off the programme. She was recruited unto the programme
in January 2012
Household Activities
since 2012:
involved
in
Apprenticeship (Hair dressing &
start-up kit)
Village
savings
and
Loans
Association training
Financial literacy training
Selection planning and management
of business training
Dialogues and interactive learning
sessions
Child rights training
Maureen busy displaying braids in her saloon
Background:
Maureen (24yrs) is a mother of two children that is Nambajje Rehema,& Namugombe Asnart and a
guardian to Mukisa Vicente her late relative’s son aged 8,1&7respectively . Before apprenticeship,
Maureen used to sell assorted vegetables (tomatoes, cabbages, carrots) as her income generating
activity (IGA) but it was not very successful. Maureen had this to say “I could sometime fail to get lunch
and supper because I could at times fail to sell the whole day”; Coupled to this, she had inadequate
capital to stock, which resulted into having no customers to buy from her, since most buyers would prefer
to buy from sellers who stocked variety of products because of having enough capital.
“Before I joined VSLA, I could not afford to pay children’s fee in time, and they would be sent out of
school most of the time”
One interesting thing to note about Maureen is that she had a passion for
hairdressing since childhood. “When I was growing up, I wanted to do hairdressing but I could not afford it
13
since I had no knowledge and skills to do it. I did not even have money to pay for myself in order to learn
it. We used to miss food, dressed poorly; even my husband left me after some misunderstanding.”
Maureen said
Intervention and Results:
“In May 2012, a great opportunity came up when SOS Children’s Villages Entebbe introduced the idea of
apprenticeship to me under SCORE project; they told me they would place me with someone so that I
can learn hairdressing. I was placed at Jabel’s Salon, which was managed by Allen who trained me for
eight months. After completing the training, I presented my plan of starting my own Salon to SOS, of
which they liked It; and supported me with the following: Sitting Dryer, Sink, 6 plastic chairs, 6 tins of hair
relaxes, rollers, 6 tins of big and small hair treatment, 5 litres of shampoo, 6 bottles of neutralizing
shampoo, 3 bottles of pink lotion, 12 braids, 1 spray radiant. Besides that I used to benefit from other
services like medical care. But as I was training, I was also saving in Village Savings Loans Association
(VSLA) and from my savings I was able to buy the following items for starting my salon: hand dryer,
counter, mirror, paying rent for three months, jerry cans, buckets, some oil, electricity bills which
amounted to 1,000,000/= ”
Participating in apprenticeship and VSLA of SCORE project funded by USAID has greatly changed
Maureen’s life – she has been able to realize some of her dreams. Currently she has a saloon and she is
a trainer in hairdressing.
Maureen continues to say that “First change in my life is that I now know how to make different hair
styles – what I was dreaming of since my childhood. I can now train other people in hairdressing
at a fee” She has trained 6 SCORE beneficiaries and other apprentices: In total 11 apprentices have
been trained so far.
Her Big Dream:
Maureen says she still has more to her life, and by God’s grace she has a plan to own a bridal’s Saloon
where her saloon will not only be attending to the ordinary customers but to brides too.
Plans for 2015
Graduating off 61 households
Linking 17 VSLA groups to the bank
Capacity re- assessment of the Key implementing and bridging the capacity gaps
3.1.5 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Medical Centre – Entebbe
The SOS Medical Centre in Entebbe has five permanent staff.
1 Clinical Officer (also the medical centre head)
1 Nurse : 1 Nursing Assistant
1 Laboratory Technician : 1 Support staff
1 Visiting Doctor (pediatrician)
The medical centre registered many successes in 2014, challenges notwithstanding. We had
6924 single services with 317service days with July having the highest number of days at 31.
The increment in number was based on the fact that in the past we worked during week days
only, however, we now work on Saturdays too. Through collaborations with Local Government
at the Health sub-district (Doctor in charge located at Kisubi Hospital), an immunization
14
outreach post was identified for us at Kitubulu. Here we carry out integrated outreaches
including immunization, health education, deworming and vitamin A supplementation. Active
Antenatal) clinics (ANC) that picked up in the last quarter of 2014 with 9 expectant mothers
attending in their 1st trimester. Through support from our National office, the Lab Technician had
refresher training in Microbiology; this will now in 2015 make our Microbiology department of the
laboratory functional.
Blood group screening was done for 136 children (55 boys and 50 girls) and youth (21boys and
9 girls). These came from the family houses and from the youth homes. In addition we had one
HIV workshops in schools where our Family strengthening beneficiaries attend. Dangers of risky
behavior were taught and the students voluntarily tested for HIV. One student turned out
positive; follow up was made and was referred to The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) for
further management.
2014 indicated an increment in the revenue from 60,000,000 Uganda shillings target for 2013 to
23,000,000 Uganda shillings. This was majorly due to the increase in the total number of
patients from 3475 in 2013 to 6,924 (Children 2,438 and 4,486 adults
The medical centre in comparison to other medical facilities, offers services at a subsidized
price putting into consideration the needs of the greater community it serves. In collaboration
with other service providers have been able to offer specialized care to the children and staff
who need it at affordable costs with quality guaranteed (NIURE –eye care 5 boys from the
family houses and 6 youth (4 boys and 2 girls) and Alpha Dental clinic for our dental care that
attended to 10 youth boys and 5 youth girls)
There were no major changes registered at the medical centre in terms of construction or
renovations.
Plans for 2015
Write proposals to attract funding for the Medical Centre.
Extension of working hours to 06:00pm Monday through Saturday
Introduce circumcision services to the MC
15
3.2 SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE FORTPORTAL
Since 2009, SOS Children’s Village Fort Portal has been experiencing a number of changes
in terms of growth and development. There have been several developments in different
facilities at the location. The year 2014 has been a year of great innovations; staff career
development; improved performance in community capacity development; caregivers’ economic
capacity strengthening; children talent exhibitions; improved service delivery at both the SOS
Medical Centre and Kindergarten. Similarly, the SOS Mothers and Aunties continued to pray a
significant role in children’s welfare. The Children in the village have grown up with a sizable
number approaching the youthful ages. The new government (MoLGSD) rules and regulations
for approved homes further informed most of the planning and activities implemented in the
second half of the year.
Despite, the good stable environment, the village has experienced some challenges, which
included among others re-assessment and re-integration process for children, registration of
children for sponsorship; court care orders renewal process among others. SOS Mothers have
continued to engage in agricultural production within the allocated family plots and this has
improved on children’s nutrition and also supplemented on the meagre family feeding
allowances. There have been a few reported cases of repairs within the family houses.
On the other hand, the Family Strengthening Programme continued to support community
programmes with major focus on caregivers’ economic capacity strengthening; capacity building
for the Key Implementing Partners (KIPs) and advocacy for children’s rights. The Village
Savings and Loans Association still remained a key intervention for FSP while the KIPs were
supported to implement Functional Adult Literacy; Water Sanitation and Hygiene; Child Rights
awareness creation FDP ( Family Development Planning) monitoring. The Medical Centre has
improved service delivery through procurement of laboratory equipment and face-lifting of the
facility.
3.2.1 Family Based Care - CV Fort Portal
a) SOS Families
The Children’s Village currently has 111 (65 boy & 46 girls) children. The program currently has
28 staff that includes 15 Mothers/Aunties, Programme Director, Family Based Care Manager,
Village Educator, Administrator, Sponsorship Assistant, Accountant, Accounts Assistant, Office
Messenger, a driver and two guards. Only one girl is aged 14 years while the youngest is 2
years old. A total of 7 children (3 boys & 4 girls) aged 12 years. A total of 39 (29 boys and 10
girls) children are attending SOS Kindergarten
b) It’s Thrilling, It’s Friendship, It’s School
It was so exciting a moment for children to begin school and others to join new classes. As
many were upgrading, 7 children were starting Kindergarten and for these, it was a whole new
experience. For little smiling Joshua, walking had slowed him down and so he decided to run
faster than his SOS mother who was escorting him to Kindergarten on his first day. In the
afternoon after school, Joshua ran home excitedly to tell his SOS mother about his new friends
and experiences. It was fun to start school life.
16
Amazingly all children were promoted to their next classes at the end of the academic year.
Their performances were so blissful. Even the academically weak children managed to pass
with better grades. We are hopefully excited to produce some of the best grades in Primary
Leaving examinations in the coming years. For the children who were leaving Kindergarten,
joining Grade One, excitement filled their little innocent faces. How great it felt for them to be
celebrated! All eyes were on their lovely black and red graduation gowns. Their graduation
framed photos were a show off to their siblings at home. You can imagine the joy that filled their
spotless hearts on that colourful graduation day!
c) Celebrating The International Day Of African Child
The international Day of African Child was celebrated on 16th/June/2014from Ntoroko District.
The theme for the day was “A Child friendly, compulsory and violence-free education for all
children.” All schools and child-care organizations from the western region of Uganda were
expected to take part in this celebration. SOS Children matched delightedly with their banner
advocating for their rights as children. They felt a sense of belonging that day.
d) The Long Awaited Siblings Join The SOS Family
In the second and last quarter we were privileged to receive four more children joining the SOS
family in Fort Portal. Joab who was 2 years old and junior 1yr and 3 months joined their siblings
in April as Caleb and Timothy did in December before Christmas. Mothers and children stood at
the SOS gate waiting to receive the new entrants. For one little Titus, you would not tell whether
he was excited or not. He wanted to hug Joab and Junior but feared that they would take away
his mother’s love. He then moved quickly to his SOS mother, drawing her attention away from
the new entrants to him alone. What an attachment these children get with their SOS mothers!
As time moved on, we started expecting other children and guess what; Caleb and Timothy
drop in. Baby Caleb’s case was very touching to hear. He had been found (by Potter’s Village)
dumped near the Rwanda-Uganda boarder with an uncut umbilical cord in dire coldness. He
joined the SOS family when he was three months old and his health has improved greatly. His
appetite is very good. Since the children are in holidays, they can help out with their mothers in
carrying baby Timothy (6 months) and baby Caleb. They have settled in very well with others.
e) With Two Hands We Received From Big Hearts
SOS Children’s Village Fort Portal has been getting local donors who willingly donate in kind, or
cash. This year we managed to collect more than One Million Uganda shillings which money
was been helpful in improving children’s livelihood. In September, a donor gave children clothes
worth 148,500/- and another gave them biscuits worth 90,000/-. We will keep lobbying for the
children such that they have better lives. Our
prayer is that God may give back to everyone
who has had a hand in the lives of these
children.
f) Grooming Tomorrow’s Leaders
There is a saying that goes ‘Train up a child the
way he should go and when he is old, he will not
depart from it.’ With belief in this saying, a child
17
Owen, the FBC Manager during facilitating the young
leaders
leaders’ training was organized for up-coming leaders. Each of the twelve family houses
nominated a boy and girl of exemplary behaviour to represent them at the training.
The training was geared towards growing basic leadership skills among the children and also
increasing their participation in matters that affect them as well as providing a platform for them
to voice their issues. During the training they discussed how to minimize child to child abuse
and leading by example. There was also emphasis on being creative, developmental and useful
in the community. Mothers can now count on these same children to lead others especially in
their absence.
SOS CV Fort Portal Children joined the match
g)
Commemorating the World AIDS Day
The location is now very certain that most of our SOS
children know what HIV/AIDS means, and how to
prevent it. On the 1st/Dec/2014, the World AIDS Day
in Uganda was celebrated from Fort Portal, and the
children had a chance to be a part of it. They
matched with the SOS banner raise high all over
town, with a theme; “Getting to Zero, My
Responsibility”. The function was graced by
President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, and that was another excitement for the SOS children to
get to see their president face to face. Children got fliers, and stickers communicating about
HIV/AIDS on top of listening to presentations that were very important.
f) The Hermann Gmeiner Kids Soccer Club F/P
We are happy to let you know that we now have a
soccer club called Hermann Gmeiner Kids Soccer Club
F/P. Children not only play soccer for fun but also aim
at training for professionalism especially during the
holidays. We target to have 20 interested children train
with support from Horst Soccer Academy in Fort Portal.
13 boys are underway training for a tournament and
girls are also soon getting on board. We hope to have a
strong competing team that will be on the regional
scene come 2017.
Hermann Gmeiner Kids Club
18
g) Music Dance and Drama
It was discovered that the Children Village is endowed with many talented children
musicians, dancers and actors. We have been boosting their talents and most children can
now sing, dance and act. When we got the long
awaited traditional musical instruments, ecstasy
filled the village. Children wanted to grab them and
use them immediately. Though they were not used
on Christmas as earlier planned, they cannot wait to
play them on the Big Fun Day on 12th/Jan/2014.
Isn’t it so amazing to keep in an environment filled
New Traditional Instruments, What an
with children, nurturing and seeing them grow into
Excitement!!!
responsible people? That’s our joy here in SOS Fort
Portal.
h) Renewing Care Orders
During the year, out of the admitted 111 children in the CV, 48 Care Orders were still running
but 62 of them needed renewal, 13 for Kabarole , 13 for Kamwenge, 7 for Kasese, 5 for
Kyenjojo, 8 for Kyegegwa, 7 for Hoima, 4 for Bundibugyo and 5 for Kisoro. As of 30th November,
a total of 61 Care Orders had been renewed. The remaining one child from Kabarole is
expected to be renewed by close of February 2015. We have registered a very great
achievement as regards to care orders renewal and we are now ready for inspection as a
facility.
i) Registering Children for Sponsorship
The registration on sponsorship of the admitted children has been an ongoing process during
the year but with several challenges ad majority of the children would need to be re-assessed
before registration. Out of the 111 children, 63 were sponsored by October 2014 and 48 are
pending re-assessment and registration. Since we could not risk sending registration forms of
children with expired care orders, the process has been delayed a bit. So far, 21 renewed care
orders and registration forms have been sent to National Office and others are underway. The
challenge is still with the Kamwenge cases (14) which we have limited control over.
j) Updating Children’s Files
Updating children’s files required us to renew care orders and also take up-to-date children’s
photos for filling. We have already taken all the children’s photos and we plan to print and
laminate them for proper filing before the close of this month, as we enter all the documents in
file separators. This may take quite a while but we shall be through by February 2015.
Otherwise, about 90% of the children’s files have the necessary documents.
k) Psychosocial Needs Assessment
During the course of the year, a psychosocial needs assessment for 100 CV children was
conducted by Rwenzori Prolife and Child Care Foundation to determine the psychosocial and
development needs for individual children. The findings indicate that the children exhibit
different behaviours including attention deficit, hyper activity disorder (ADHD), multiple
personality disorders, anti-social personality disorders, slow learners, conduct disorders,
separation anxiety, bipolar 11 (not major depression) but mood swings, post traumatic
disorders, memory impairment and insomnia among others. However, finding equally indicated
19
that the majority of the children assessed, possessed normal behaviours based on their age as
described by Erik Erikson’s developmental characteristics.
The consultant made recommendations including trainings for the mothers ( psychosocial
training, attachment and bonding,
child growth and behavioural change and individual
counselling were made for both individual children and caretakers (mothers); other
recommendations included engagement of a weekend/ part-time professional counsellor with
special interest in children; engaging children in more creative activities, recreational activities,
prayers and music to motivate mothers among others. Management was recommended to
initiate a healing procedure of re-uniting these children with their relatives at an appropriate
time.
l) Consultative meeting on Child Care
During the course of the year, a consultative meeting was held (07th Nov 2014) with the Child
Rights stakeholders. Key on the agenda was the operationalization of Ministry of Gender Labour
and Social Development (MoGLSD) Approved Homes rules and regulations. The meeting that
was attended by the District Health Inspector (DHI), District Probation and Welfare Officer
(DPWO), Family Child Protection Unit (FCPU) Rep and Karambi S/County LCIII Chairman
representative equally agreed to be part of the location Management Committee whose roles
and responsibilities were brainstormed.
m) SOS Children’s Village Gulu team/Mothers visit CV Fort portal
The first team was hosted on 17th to 19th October 2014 while the second team was visited on
24th to 26th October 2014, on all occasions; the mothers discussed several aspects child care
and support, shared good practices and common challenges. During a sharing meeting held on
25th October 2014, the mothers unanimously resolved to form an SOS Mothers’ Forum that will
among others be a platform for discussing issues affecting the mothers and children. It was
equally agreed that this should be an annual event.
n) Staff Recruitment
During the reporting month, a Mother Trainee (Acayo Hellen) was recommended from Gulu.
She reported on Job on 1st October 2014. However, she later reported to management that she
could not continue working because the remuneration was too small to meet her basic needs
and family obligations. Hellen travelled back to Gulu on 8th November 2014. The location will
locally advertise for the position during the course of November 2014.
O. Child Development
The Village still maintains a total of 111 (65 boys and 46girls) healthy children. Only one girl is
aged 14 years while the youngest is 2 years old. A total of 7 children (3 boys and 4 girls) aged
12 years and above attended sessions to prepare them for youthful stage.
Plans for 2015
Conduct individual and group counselling for children and caregivers.
Conduct pre-assessment to identify the psychosocial needs for the new children.
Develop psychosocial support module to support the provisional of psychosocial support
to children.
Conduct family tracing and assessment
Rolling out data base for FBC.
Training in fundraising and event management
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3.2.2 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Kindergarten Fort Portal
The SOS HG Kindergarten Fort Portal places children in a caring family like happy environment
where each child is treated as an individual and is encouraged to develop a wide range of skills
in preparation for formal schooling. By focusing on the development of the whole child, SOS
Kindergarten aims to provide a sound foundation for children to lead a fulfilling and balanced
life.
SOS KG has 09 staff; they include the KG Head, 06 teachers and 02 support staff. Currently,
the KG has a total number of 80 (53 boys & 27 girls) children with 39 coming from CV while 41
are from the community.
Table 4: Number of children at Kindergarten by Gender- December 2014
Class
Children’s
FSP
Community Total No.
Total No. of
village
children
of boys
girls
Boys Girls Boys Girls Boys Girls
KG 1
14
04
--07
05
21
09
KG 2
10
06
--06
02
16
08
KG 3
14
10
--01
-15
9
Crèche
----03
-03
-Total
38
20
15
07
55
25
Table 5: Number of staff at Kindergarten by Gender-December 2013
Teaching Number of Gender Support
Number of Kindergarten
staff
teachers
staff
support
head
staff
KG 1
2
Female Kitchen
1
1 female
KG 2
2
Female Cleaning
1
KG 3
2
Female
Crèche
1
Female
Total
07
2
1
Grand
total
30
24
25
03
80
Total
number of
KG staff
3
3
2
1
09
Key activities implemented by the Kindergarten during the year 2014 included:
a) Quality of Children’s Learning
During the year, the SOS Kindergarten (KG) continued providing quality education to the 80
children (53 boys and 27 girls) currently in the school by developing schemes of work and
instructional materials and creating an attractive and conducive learning environment that is
child friendly as to attract more children to the school.
b) Reading exhibition
Children at SOS Kindergarten Fort Portal are given chances of reaching the basic reading level;
books which have helped them have an increased comprehension of words in context. They
have exhibited this through their presentations at the reading exhibition by reviewing books,
21
reciting rhymes in relation to the reading books, songs and acting out stories. This has helped
the children improve their fluency and comprehension
c) Introduction of new scheming format
Sessions for interpreting and writing out schemes of work was held in October 2014. KG 2
teachers have since made flash cards for set one in the jolly phonics, five sets of number lotto
games and flash cards for number 1-5. Similarly, KG1- teachers have made Flash Cards, 10
sets of lotto games and 10 sets of the snap game for first to the third set of the jolly phonics
while KG 3 reading cards ,flash cards(set 4 & 5) numeracy numbers words 1-20 and charts for
days of the week and months in a year have been made. All the 6 teachers at the KG completed
their schemes of work for term three.
d) Parents-Teacher conferencing
During the reporting year, the Kindergarten organized a two-day parents-teacher conferencing,
this was meant to improve on the interaction between the parents and the teachers, discussion
the children’s performance progress and any other challenges that the children/teachers/parents
face. During the two days, all the KG parents were able interact with the teachers and discussed
matters to do with their children education, this interaction also improved the relationship
between the parents and the teachers.
e) Lesson Planning
During the 2014, the Kindergarten Head conducted a lesson planning session to improve on the
planning of the 6 Kindergarten teachers this enabled the teachers to conduct the lesson
planning at ease.
f)
School Tour
The Fun City a City of Fun for children
It
was
an Experie
bouncing castle
excitement and fun
when
children
visited the Fun City
in
Fort
portal.
There was a lot of
fun and it was
exposure to many
new
sceneries
including
seeing
and aeroplane and
experiencing what it feels sitting it.
g) Construction of Placement for a Swimming Pad
There is a saying that “work without play makes Jack a dull boy”. The works on the construction
of basement for swimming pad placement commenced in October 2014 and by the end
December, the construction was complete. This is expected to attract more community children
in addition to increase on the number of facility based co-curricular activities.
h)
End of Year Children
Graduation
and
Musical
Presentation
The month of December 2014, was
an exception one, as the KG Fort
22
KG Fort Portal graduands 2014
Music Dance and Drama
Portal saw 22 children (13 boys 9 girls) successfully completing their 3 years and graduating.
The parents and staff could not hold their joy seeing off their children progressing on to another
level. It was a memorable event for the children.
Alongside the joys of the graduation, children exhibited their talents through the music
presentation.The children displayed their skills in music dance and drama with independence,
high confidence and self-esteem, which has made the school more popular in to the community
that we have now registered 30 new children hoping to get more the coming term.
i) Staff Capacity Building
Staff development is a key component for KG Fort portal. We conducted 3 capacity building
workshops for the 6 staff in developing confidence in the using and teaching of English
language, to be more outcome based, sensitive to gender and better in teaching about life skills
mainly using the Learning Frame Work (National curriculum Development Centre )while
integrating content with the jolly phonics approach
Plan for 2015
Form and inaugurate a committee for Parent Teachers Association
Holding a fundraising event to purchase a computer for the Kindergarten
Re-instate swimming lessons for children
Hold 1 sports event
Hold a music and drama presentation for the children
3.2.3 Family strengthening programme
SOS Fort Portal Family Strengthening Programme has been making positive contribution
towards the socio-economic development of the vulnerable households in Karambi and Bukuku
Sub Counties in Kabarole District. To date, supporting 1017children (499 girls and 51boys) and
117 youth (57boys & 60 girls) from 304 vulnerable households are directly benefiting from the
programme activities.
a) Children Access to Essential Services
During the reporting year, 1017 children continued accessing education and health care
services. The FSP provided monthly nutritional support to 145 (48M&97F) HIV/AIDS positive
children & caregivers and made shelter improvement for 19 households to ensure children’s
security and improved living conditions
b) Caregivers’ Capacity Building through Skills
Development
During the year, the FSP continued to train caregivers in
Home Sanitation and Hygiene promotion; parenting skills;
Child Rights and Responsibilities; will making and
succession planning; nutrition and disease prevention;
drug adherence and positive living for HIV/AIDS positive
caregivers; sustainable agriculture mechanisms to
enhance food security in the homes;
HIV/AIDS
prevention and Home Based Care training for Community
Counselling Aides (CCAs) and trained Village Agents and
23
Extension Workers in Loan Recovery under Village Savings and Lending Association (VSLA)
project.
c) Caregivers’ Economic Capacity Strengthening
through IGAs support
The Family Strengthening Programme supported 66
Village Savings and Lending Association (VSLA) in two
sub counties with 1,980 members and total savings
amounting to 156,127,140 shillings. In bid to further
improve household incomes, the programme supported
quality improvement, packaging and marketing of
products for 08 art and craft making groups with 123
(02 men &121women) members; promoted quality
improvement and marketing for 04 groups of caregivers
Agribusiness for some Care givers
engaged with 40 engaged into commercial liquid and
bar soap making and promoted mushrooms packaging and marketing for 08 groups of
caregivers comprising of 80 members engaged in commercial mushrooms growing.
d) Community Capacity Building
The FS programme in Fort Portal implemented interventions to strengthen community structures
for program sustainability; a fundraising and resource mobilization training for SOS staff and
three partner Community Based Organizations (CBOs) staff and board was done to enable the
participants come up with the mechanisms of raising resources. In addition, the program
conducted a Financial Resource Management training for three partner Community Based
Organizations (CBOs) staff and board while seed grants were provided to Key Implementing
Partners (KIP) in 2014 to implement Child Rights Initiatives, Home Sanitation and Hygiene
Promotion, Functional Adult Literacy as well as FDP monitoring
Other community capacity development initiatives included trainings for Community Care
Coalition Cluster members, involvement of community based structures like local leaders,
Village Health Teams, Community Volunteers, Extension Workers and Community Counselling
Aides in program activities
The programme further constructed a Five Stance pit latrine with washrooms for girls at Bukuku
Community Secondary school was completed in November 2014. This enabled over 1500 boys
and girls to access improved sanitation services.
e) Gender Equity & Equality
Under Grieg Gender program, sensitization meetings caregivers on Alcohol abuse attended by
345(249 women & 96 men) participants.
Sensitization meetings on prevention of teenage
pregnancies for interest groups were organized in
September 2014 that attracted 70 participants (64
boys and 6 girls) who included Boda boda riders,
saloon operators, and video hall operators and bar
attendants.
Further, the program supported126 Scouts (79
boys & 47 girls) from 9 FSP supported schools
were supported to participate in the District scout
camping competitions organized by Kabarole
Scouts posing for group photo during the camp
24
District while at the same time continued to run short radio messages on prevention of domestic
violence have been continuously running on Hits FM a local radio station in Fort portal Town.
During the year, the FSP Organised a student’s leader’s meeting for 6 secondary schools on
discipline and conflict management that attracted 45 participants (22 boys & 23 Females). This
was in addition to 4 career guidance sessions for candidate classes in 4 secondary school of
Kahinju, Kagote seed, Bukuuku and St. John vianny and the interschool debate competitions
were organized where 8 primary schools participated with 560 participants
f) Holding Dialogue Meetings
During the month of October 2014, the FSP held community dialogue meetings for local leaders
in Karambi Sub-County on Alcohol abuse. These meetings were held in five parishes and
attended by 79 local leaders (43 men, 36 women). They discussed the effects of alcohol abuse
that include child rights abuse, domestic violence and family economic welfare effects. The local
leaders resolved to pass by-laws regarding regulation alcohol consumption in the communities.
g) Cross-Learning Visit
The location on 6th to 7th October hosted a team from FSP Entebbe together with staff
board/members and Kitubulu Child Rights Initiative Katabi and Katabi Friends for Family
Development Initiative. The key objective of the visit was to exchange ideas with Fort Portal
FSP team including partner CBOs on approaches to community capacity building, family
economic capacity strengthening and program sustainability strategies. The team visited CBOs
and learnt from each other, they equally visited families and groups engaged in different income
generating activities.
The team equally agreed on the need for the CBOs to join networks and attend coordination
meetings for in order to strengthen their external relations and to learn and share resources;
working closely with local council systems; and the need to focus beyond grants but mobilize
cater for their needs for instance starting income generating activities. The need for SOS to
further build CBO’s capacities through trainings, relevant policies development, structures and
systems set-up was encouraged.
h) FS Forum
Fort Portal organized and hosted the annual FS
Forum held on 18th – 19th November 2014. The
event whose main objective was to “Explore
Strategies of Enhancing Community and Family
Empowerment for Child Development” was
attended by key FS staff 39 (25M, 14F) from the
four location. Key issues discussed included the
FSP progress to-date, programs sustainability,
monthly progress reporting requirements, working
with community based partners and the SOS of
tomorrow among others.
FS team at the Toro Kingdom palace
i) Internal Audit
On 29th October 2014, an inception Internal Audit meeting was held at the location with the team
together with National and Regional Internal Auditors, the meeting discussed implementation
progress of the previous Audit recommendations. It was noted that most of the
recommendations had been closed safe for Fire Alarms in families, Land Litigation currently with
25
IGG’s office and Medical Centre Gate were still pending. During the subsequent days of Audit,
there were other noted systems and procedural gaps such as admission process for FSP,
delayed renewal of some children’s Court Care Orders, delayed registration of children for
sponsorship, re-assessment and resettlement processes among others. An action plan has
since been developed to address the identified gaps.
Plans for 2015
Graduate off about 100 families
Replace families that have graduated
Bank linkage of the VSLA groups
Conduct capacity re-assessment of the key Implementing partner and bridge the gaps
Enhance the economic strengthen for individual caregivers and groups
Strengthen partnerships with local net works
3.2.3. SOS Hermann Gmeiner Medical Centre-Fort Portal
In mid-2012, SOS Uganda established an infirmary in
SOS Fort Portal to contribute to improved health
wellbeing of the communities of Karambi Sub County
with particular focus on vulnerable children and
women as well meeting the health needs of children
from SOS families and staff. The major focus is on
providing preventive, curative and promotive health
services to the community in addition to weekly
community outreaches conducted to cater for the
SOS MC Centre Fort Portal - Front View
emergent needs of the communities living within a
reasonable geographical radius.
Since its establishment, the medical centre team has been engaged into community awareness
creation meetings, nutritional trainings for the caregivers, drug adherence trainings for the
HIV/AIDS positive caregivers, training of Community Counselling Aides (CCAs) in Home Based
Care, communicable diseases prevention trainings for caregivers and SOS Mothers;
sensitisation of in-school and out of school girls in the usage of re-usable sanitary pads as well
as conducting centre based treatment and disease management for SOS Children, staff and
the general community.
a) Patients Treatment
During the year, the Medical Centre received a total of 1031 patients and these included. The
common reported and diagnosed illnesses were malaria fever, common cold, skin disorder,
fungal infections, Urinary Tract Infections (UTI) mostly in female and injuries.
b) News Constructions
In order to meet the required set health standards for the operation of the health Centre, major
constructions were completed at the Medical Centre and these included; the Medical
Laboratory, Incinerator and the Pit Latrine. In addition, face-lifting of the medical centre was
carried out to improve on the structural outlook.
Laboratory
Improved VIP latrine
Incinerator
26
c) District Support
During 2014, the Medical centre received support from District Health Officer (DHO’s office) in
form of HIV test kits, Stat pack and Unigold as well as Mid arm circumference measuring
tapes, Jik and 2mls syringes all amounting to four hundred fifty six thousand shillings only
(456,000/=). This support went along way to ensure that the medical centre meets the health
needs of the children, staff and the community at large.
Plans for 2015
Strengthen partnerships with the district
Solicit more support from the district health department
Reach out more to the community where there are health needs
27
3.3 SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE KAKIRI
3.3.1 Family Based Care - CV Kakiri
a) SOS Families
The Family Based Programme in Kakiri has a total of 130 children (58 boys, 72 girls) and 190
youths (104 boys, 86 girls), of which 51 youths were reintegrated. Out of the 13 children
admitted, there is a set of twins Kato and Babirye who were dumped by their mother at the
church in Kampala. Four boy children are siblings with a biological mother alive but were living
in biting poverty. They lived in a shanty house that was almost falling and going without food. It
was reported that they constantly suffered from malaria attacks and there was no proper
medical care; no hope of survival and besides they had no single samaritan they would rely
upon for day today support. Looking through these children's eyes, you could see complete
misery, dread for the unknown and desperate cries of help. When the SOS Kakiri Child
Admission’s team members visited the respective homes where these children were staying,
they acted in the best interests to save their lives because some of them were getting over
malnourished. Much as the emotional and physical scars from their tormenting past are still
evident, there is hope for them and a reason to smile. It's amazing how children can recover
from dreadful deprivation once offered love, respect, security and above all, a loving home. The
situation of these children is not different from the children affected by the biting poverty in
Africa.
b) New staff members
Family Based care department received two new staff members on board; the Family Based
Care Manager and the sponsorship assistant. These came on board to replace those that had
resigned from their positions. With the new team on board, the work took a normal progress
d) Easter celebrated in style
127 children and 90 youths within SOS Children’s Villages Kakiri celebrated the birth of Jesus
Christ as an SOS family. Children and youths danced, dined and wined with both the youth
leaders and the mothers. This did not only increase the bonding of staff and the children, but
was an indicator of a loving home for children. Though no special donations were made on this
day, SOS management saw to it that the children, youths and mothers enjoy to their fullest.
e) Children supported to learn both at school and home in a more practical approach.
We conducted home projects during holidays targeting 50 children (23 girls, 27 boys) with an
aim of helping them acquire various practical skills. One aunt trained children and youths in
liquid soap making,
while other children
were involved in sewing
clothes, learning how to
make cakes and laying
beds which was done to
28
Children learn how to bake
help them improve on their hygiene in their respective family houses and youth facilities. In line
with the practical skills training, 92 children (47boys, 48 girls) aged 8-14 years took part in one
self-discovery lessons that included: - sexuality, cultural values sessions and career guidance.
11 year old Patrick who participated in an International drawing competition facilitated by the
United Nations, in commemoration of the road safety week with the theme “My way to school”
won a prize worth $1500 and T-shirts for all the children in the facility. The purpose of this
competition was to increase the children’s awareness of the need to be responsible pedestrians
and to heighten the awareness of all members of the public, about the need to protect children
on our roads and to respect the rights of pedestrians.
f)
SOS acts as a Good Samaritan towards its staff
Unlike other work places, SOS Children’s Villages Uganda has a unique approach of ensuring
good health of its staff. Even with that approach, hard times struck the entire community when
our two mothers and 1 aunt were diagnosed with serious illnesses that required major surgeries.
One mother had breast cancer, another a heart problem while the auntie Gynaecology related
problems. The process of operations went on successfully with all the three recovering and in
good health, though under the doctors’ guidance. Even when the medical expenses were
quoted to be high, SOS Children’s Villages Uganda took it upon itself to foot 100% of the
medical costs.
g) Retirement of two mothers and 1 youth leader
It was a sad moment when three of our own long serving staff members were officially retired on
5/12/2014 after a long time service and reaching retiring age. These were Joyce Kasagire,
Margaret Lutaaya and Joy Kanyike. It was a good experience to see long serving staff members
being honoured by in a special way. They were awarded with gifts that were indeed worth their
efforts. The 2 mothers and the aunt were very happy with the organisation being able to honour
their request of retiring.
h) Community Involvement
As a way of teaching
children to give back
to the community, on
annual basis children
and youth participate
in the community
services. This year
2014, 60 children (30
boys and 30 girls)
participated
in
a
range of community
Community service at work
services
that
included cleaning the health centres, Sub county court and churches. This voluntary community
service forms part of the reintegration process as well as help children share in the community
development
29
i)
Partnership Development the way to go.
With an aim of increasing partners who are doing similar work as SOS, 48 of our children and 4
mothers visited Kids of Africa. In the same way, 3 mothers and 40 children from Kids of Africa
were able to visit SOS Children’s Village-Kakiri. Our children enjoyed the visit while they were at
Kids of Africa because they were exposed to various games and sports that included Tag-rugby,
bouncing castles among others. Similarly, the FBC programme has a good working relationship
with “A chance for Children” where 10 youths (10 boys) were considered for skills trainings in
carpentry, tailoring shoe making and welding. We feel that this partnership will provide our
youths with an exposure to create more important friends and jobs in future.
Plans for 2015
Facilitate the referral of at least 10 boys and girls identified and assessed with
psychosocial challenges for specialized counseling and other treatment therapies.
Facilitate 8 life skills training sessions for 50 boys & girls aged 8-14 years to enhance
their esteem and decision making.
Conduct family tracing for 13 boys & girls admitted from Sanyu & Nsambya baby’s
homes with unknown origins.
Conduct 3 CPP coordination meetings for the child protection committee to review
matters of child protection and prevention.
Conduct 2 trainings for 13 mothers, 5 aunties and 1 village educator on alternative
discipline for children.
3.3.2 SOS youth facilities Kakiri
The youth’s department has a total number of 190 youths (104 boys, 86 girls) of whom 112
are in YHI, 32 in YH II while 51 are resettled. These youths have been supported by 7 youth
care co-workers. Over the years, the number of youths has continued to increase steadily thus
requiring us to allocate more funds to attend to the youths’ increasing needs and
development.
Cumulative Statistics for the youth
NO. Details
1
Youths in primary
2
HGSS
3
O'level Boarding
4
A level Boarding
5
HGIC Ghana and other colleges
6
Vocational skills training
7
Nursing
8
Self-help
education(special
needs)
9
Youths from southern Sudan
8
Local universities
9
Universities abroad
10
Graduates 2014
Boys
4
22
3
6
11
7
0
0
Girls
1
17
0
10
8
7
3
2
Total
5
39
3
16
19
14
3
2
4
8
4
3
3
1
5
0
7
9
9
3
30
11
Road map to reintegration
12
Reintegrated youths
Grand Total
How youths are categorized
YF1(Youth living within the facility)
YF2(Youth living outside the facility)
Resettled/Re-integrated
7
25
104
3
26
86
9
51
190
112
32
51
a) Education
The youth have continuously improved in their academic efforts and this has seen many
winning KDI scholarships at various International Universities. These include Onema
George & Mbabazi Sheila and Stephen Jjumba who joined different Universities in South
Africa. In addition; we had two youths qualifying to study at Herman Gmeiner International
College in Ghana this year others two (Jessica Tusuubira and Franco Byaruhanga) who
won scholarships with United World College in Norway and USA respectively.
Below is information about youths within the local institutions who have graduated with
different credentials in 2014.
No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Name
Sanyu Hannah
Nakitende Felicity
Namirembe Lydia
Ruth Kemirembe
Nuliat Nakamanya
Damian Kato
Christopher Muwanga
Manyi Moses
Kizito Robert
Kyobe Ronald
Nakawungu Ruth
Course
Certificate of merit in catering
Certificate in Journalism
Diploma in Early Child Hood Development
Certificate in Fashion and design
Certificate in Fashion and design
Diploma in Journalism
certificate in Videography,
B.A (SWASA)
B.A (SWASA)
Bachelor’s Degree in Business computing
Bachelor of Science in Accounting
In a related development, DHL international under its “Go
teach” programme corporate social responsibility in
partnership with SOS Children’s Villages-Uganda;
organized a very fruitful career guidance day for the youth
at Kakiri. The Go Teach Program aims at developing the
confidence, knowledge and life skills that are important for
the youths in getting jobs in the easiest way possible. The
youths were taken through the importance of selecting the
right subjects of study in line with their desired careers.
They were also inspired by how things are done in the
Youth during the Career day with DHL
corporate world (professionalism) in addition to making
staff
friends
for
mentorship
purposes.
With further
engagements, DHL's support through the go teach program intends to bridge the gap within
the transitional phase of youth from home-life to that of an independent contributing member
of the society which is in line with the SOS mission. It therefore opted to take 10 youths for
apprenticeship as shown below:
31
NO.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
Name
Kyobe Ronald
Nandutu Annet
Kato Demaiano
Kazungu Brian
Manyi Moses
Kizito Robert
Kizito Ronald
Kiwanuka Duncan
Naijuka Julius
Gender
M
F
M
M
M
M
M
M
M
Department they are attached to
DHL finance department
Receptionist
Transport department (delivery)
Transport department (delivery)
Transport department (delivery)
Transport department (delivery)
Transport department (delivery)
Transport department (delivery)
Social work
b) Talent development - Games and sports
Nurturing the talents for the youth is one of the mandatory obligations for Youth department.
We have strong Soccer team composed of 8 staff, 16 youth boys from youth home 1, 5
youth boys from youth home 2 and 5 youth boys form
the FS programme.
The football club started in
November 2013 and progressed into a strong team in
February 2014. The team registered to participate in
one of tournaments organised by the parliament youth
leader in November 2014. The team progressed to the
semi-finals. We are very optimistic that this team can
become stronger and better if given the necessary
support required. Currently it is constrained with the
logistical requirements such as transport and play
SOS Football Club
materials to use.
c) Youth transition and re-unification processes
As stated in the SOS youth transition policy; 12 children (4 girls, 5boys) from the family
houses were prepared to move the youth homes (YH1). This preparation process begun as
early as May through December 2014 to familiarize the youth with what is expected of them
in YHI. The 12 youths are now ready to join their colleagues who will usher them in with a
welcome dinner.
It’s worth mentioning that besides the transition process; we have been able to trace parents
for 2 youth (1 girl and 1 boy) and reunified 2 youths (1 youth boy and 1 youth girl). 1 youth
whose parents were traced and not found, has been resettled with her former SOS retired
mother who resides in Mbalala-Mukono. 1 youth boy who has as well reintegrated, his story
has been different. He has failed to settle irrespective of the support that has been provided
by his mother, siblings and management.
It is worth noting that even where the organisation has provided all the needed school
requirements, mothers and youth leaders do their guardianship roles; some children and
youths have failed to cope with life challenges. A case in point; 2 youth boys dropped out of
University and the reasons they gave were unconvincing to management. Despite this
follow up support is given to ensure they sort out their challenges.
32
Plans for 2015
Organize 2 spiritual talks for 95 boys & girls to participate in spiritual talks to enhance
their discipline and spirituality.
Facilitate 60 youths to visit families of origin 28 and attachment 15 in preparation for their
resettlement back to the communities.
Facilitate and organise five (5) sports exchange program for 70 youths to visit, schools to
be able to socialise with the outside community and learn how other youths behave
outside SOS.
Facilitate 20 Youth to participation in 3 National Academic Contests to promote youth
confidence to overcome stereotype subject fears.
Conduct 6 school visits for each of the 95 youths for youth care co-workers and mothers
to review academic performance aimed at reviewing Learners’ holistic progress.
Facilitate 38 youth to participate in the Duke of Edinburg International Award (Nile
Award)/ Talent development activities such as Public speaking, community service, bead
making, crafts, adventourous Journey & graduation at bronze, silver & gold levels.
3.3.3 SOS Hermann Gmeiner School Kakiri
SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools strongly believes in quality and relevant education for
its learners. This has been achieved with support from teachers ,parents,other SOS
staff and the Minisrty of Education and Sports. By the end of 2014, total enrollment in
HGS was 380 learners with 262 in primary (122 boys, 140 girls) and 118 (55 boys , 63
girls) secondary schools. The full capacity of the schools is at 440 hence we were less
than 60 learners. With the new strategies in place we hope this gap will be bridged in
2015.
a) Academic activities
In 2014, a lot of emphasis was put on the practical approach to teaching and learning of
science subjects to make life more meaningful to the children and relevant to their day
today lives. 55 classroom practical exercises and 7 demostration lessons were
conducted out of the normal class hours/days for Senior four and primary seven
learners. Learners infant classes (P1-P3) children participated in Toto Magazine
colouring and writing competition organised by the National News paper ( New Vision).
4 of 12(7 boys and 5 girls ) won prizes that ranged from umbrellas,school bags
,crayons and other scholastic materials.
To achieve quality service delivery , 4 science teachers (Physics, Chemistry, Biology
and Mathematics) were funded to attended a training( SESEMAT) that is annually
organised by the Minisrty of Education and Sports at Trinity college Nabbingo. The
training which was established to promote the teaching of Sciences Ugandan
secondary schools; emphasised the use of local materials as teaching aids, preparation
of learner centered teaching & learning, plus a practical approach to teaching science
subjects and Mathematics. Equally, 10 teachers (6 men & 4 women) from the primary
school were facilitated to attend 5-sipro workshops in 4 subjects (Math, English, Math,
33
SST and Science). They were re-oriented in methods of using and producing teaching
materials for infants (the lower primary) and the general methods of supporting
academically challeged learners. The 3 slow learners ( 2 girls and 1 boy) all of Primary
seven benefited more through extra and remedial lessons as they were being
prepared for Uganda National exams (Primary Leaving Examinations).
In abid to catch up with ICT for Development initiative within the organisation, 13
computers were procured to be used in the teaching & learning processes. These did
not only reduce the computer- learner ratio from 1:38 to 1:17,but also energyised the
senior four candidates who were preparing for the National examinations. Teachers will
have the initiative to use varying teaching methods that are supported by computers.
b) A healthy mind in a healthy body
In a bid to enable children to have health bodies, develop social skills for building
supportive relationships. Clubs are encouraged and it is through these that children
develop and have their talents nutured . These include:- the debating club, scripture
union, music dance and dramma and sports like football, netball, volleyball, table
tennis, handball and antheletics. The primary school excelled in hand ball at the district
level and three pupils ( 2 boys and 1 girl ) qualified for the National Championships that
took place at Boma grounds in Hoima district.
SOS Children’s Villages choir stole the show and is the talk of the day in and out of the
organisation. After undergoing training , the choir was able to present to the most
important people and these ranged from the president, ministers, Members of
Parliament, Heads of different NGOs”, politicians dignitories from the coorporate world.
On 8/10/2014,the chior presented a wonderful performance at Imperial Royale Hotel at
a Dinner that was organised in preparation for the International day of the Girl-child. On
29/10/2014, it presented at at Serena hotel – Kampala, during the launch of the Earlychild hood program that was organised by The Private Sector Foundation.On
25/11/2014, the team ended the year with a fantastic performance at Golf course hotel
during the UN celebrations marking 25 years of the UN Convention on the rights of the
child.This time, the first Lady , Janet Museveni and the minister for Gender ,Labour and
Social Development Mary Karooro Okurut ;were part of the guests of the day.This did
not only promote talent development ,but also increased SOS visibility.
c) Parent and Community participation
Schools can’t run in isolation of the parents in particular and the community at large.
Through Parent- teachers Association( PTA),the school saw it important to involve
parents more in the management of the school. 2 executive meetings were held on
31/10/2014 and 13/11/2014 respectively,in addition to the General Parents meeting that
was held on 27/11/2014. Parents agreed to suppliment the school budget with a humble
contributon of 10,000/= per child per year and this to go towards the welfare of the
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children and teachers. This gave birth to the PTA fund whose account shall be opened
after approval of the proposal by the National Director .
d) School facilities
No structural changes were made on the facility and the environment was kept
conducive for the teaching and learning processes. Repairs done included painting of
the ceiling boards, the kitchen, notice boards,pavements and facier boards.
Key planned activities for 2015
Conduct 72 practical lessons and 9 experiments for primary and secondary learners
To stock the library with 180 books, 40 books for English and 140 for different
subjects
Facilitate the rebranding of the sign post
To build and maintain effective partnerships with 2 schools in UK for exchange visits
and donations
Write 4 proposals for local donors to support the school in vocational activities
To develop brochures to be used doing the community awareness sessions
3.3.4 SOS Hermann Gmeiner kindergarten, Kakiri
SOS kindergarten had a total enrollment of 133 learners (71 boys, 62 girls); of which 34
were from the Family Based Care while 99 were from the community. What excited
management is to see enrollment grow from 124 learners in 2013 to 133 learners in 2014.
All these learners have been under the custodianship of 9 staff (7women, 2 men).This
achievement coupled with many others came along with challenges as well.
a) Parents and the entire community enjoy the fruits of SOS Kindergarten
After realizing the importance of education and the role parents play in enhancing individual
children’s learning; parents and guardians got more involved in their children’s education.
Activities participated in include:- 3 teacher- parent conferences, a parents general meeting,
end of year concert, kindergarten three graduation party , reading & Art exhibition and
sports day. During these events; individual children’s performance was discussed with the
parents; there was show case of children’s class work, talent and skills attained plus other
general school achievements & challenges. Also to note is the education trip that was
organized for the learners to the Uganda Wild Life Centre and this was fully funded by the
parents. This activity enabled the learners relate classroom concepts to real life and to have
fun while learning.
With the good background in Jolly phonics, teachers of SOS Kindergarten passed on skills
in reading and writing using Jolly phonics to 19 teachers (1man, 18 women) from 7
community kindergarten & primary schools supported by the Family Strengthening (FS).
After 7 months, a follow-up on implementation status was made, but it was realized that
teachers needed more practical training to help them grasp the content better.
b) Partnerships and donations
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The kindergarten went into partnership with Multitech Business School that trains
kindergarten teachers. Through this partnership, we managed get 3 student teachers who
gave support and this reduced the teacher learner ratio from 1: 20 to 1:13.This as well
helped to reduce to the expense of salary since the teacher who had left in the middle of the
year was not replaced. This saving was boosted by 320,000 Uganda Shillings - that was
collected from the sale of the children’s art pieces and 135,000 Ugandan Shillings - the
value of 50kg of rice that was donated.
c) KG face-lifting
The kindergarten got a new look when it was re-painted and pictures drawn in the inner
circle of the building. This did not only make environment at the kindergarten so attractive
the learners, but also to the visitors.
Challenges:As mentioned earlier, 2014 had challenges that cannot be left unmentioned and these
included the water shortage that made it very hard to maintain good sanitation and
hygiene at the kindergarten. This was worsened by another big blow in August when the
children’s play area that doubles as a hut shade and sand pit was burnt to ashes by
children from SOS families as they were experimenting with a matchbox. This has
however not been replaced because of inadequate funds.
Key planned activities for 2015
Increase number of children in the kindergarten from 133 to 145 learners
Conduct Jolly phonics training for SOS kindergarten teachers
Benchmark at Madarasa Resource Centre
Conduct curriculum nights
Conduct Teacher – Exchange program
Monitor and evaluate the teaching & learning processes
Conduct a Sport day and Cultural day /end of year concert.
Prepare KG III children for transition to primary one class
3.3.5 Family Strengthening Programme Kakiri
a) FS programme overview
The Family Strengthening Program in Kakiri is implemented in 7 parishes with support
from
Austrian Development Agency, the Grieg Foundation and USAID through the
SCORE/AVSI and Cardno projects. Within the parishes of Lubbe, Nakyerongosa and
Buwanuka, the program is implemented through the Kakiri Family Care Organization
(KAFCO) as the key implementing partner reaching 60 households. While in the
parishes of Kikandwa, Magoggo, Sentema
and Luwunga, the program is directly
implemented by the FS team.
36
One key achievement this year is that the program managed to scale up the number of
children and communities it is reaching through a new USAID project that was won
through a competitive process. The project aims at enabling local communities to sustain
OVC comprehensive and integrated approaches or services within 150 households in
Luwunga and Sentema parishes. The project is for one year with a possibility of an
extension upon performance. We managed to recruit 143 families reaching 520 children
(249 boys, 271girls). Two additional staff one project officer and an accountant were
recruited and are majorly dedicated to this project.
Within the parishes of Magoggo and Kikandwa, the program conducted the vulnerable
assessment of 220 families with a view of checking the level of progress so as to
determine which family to be graduated due to reduced vulnerability. Out of 220 families,
177 families had shown reducing vulnerability while 14 families had no change, 12
families had their vulnerability increase while 17 families had shifted and could not be
traced. Among the families that had worsened, it was further observed that majority of
them don’t participate in any activity because of different reasons. These include: elderly
caregivers or those not interested in program activities and other two families that lost
the primary care givers thus affecting the status of the family. Among the 177 families
with reduced vulnerability, 8 families were ready to be exited from the program and in
December we organized a graduation ceremony for them plus three farmer field school
groups that had undergone training in modern farming for three years. The rest of the
families with reduced vulnerability, the program is planning to observe them for one
more year and if in the next assessment the result is the same, they will be graduated.
b) Family Capacity building
The program has its focus on increasing families to access financial services in their
communities through promoting and facilitating the village saving and loans association
methodologies. Currently the program supports 47 VSLAs groups (18 Score 29
managed by KAFCO) with 1,353 members, 267,712,000/= savings and 247,089,880
loan outs. Among the members, 237 are direct program caregivers from 413 total
caregivers in the program. However, in 150 caregivers belong to the newly recruited
communities where VSLA has not yet been rolled out. This means that 90 percent of the
program caregivers have access to financial services which have helped them to engage
in small businesses for income generation. Relatedly, the program has supported 203
caregivers with knowledge and skills in enterprise selection, planning and management
to enhance their ability to select, plan and manage their activities that generate income.
This number has increased from 32 groups that we had in 2013. This quarter, there was
only one new group established. The CBTs and programme staff also engaged in
monitoring the 47 groups to ensure that they adhere to the VSLA principles and good
practices. The groups therefore have been in position to improve attendance, time
management, sitting arrangement, and record keeping. Because of the good practices
noted within the VSLA groups, the community members have continued requesting the
office to train them in the approach.
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Below is a list of beneficiaries and the type of IGAS they are doing after getting loans
and SPM trainings.
Name and Family Code
Type of IGA involved in
Mirembe Jane (A-SOK-0220)
Drug Shop
Kyeyune Rashidah (A-SOK-0184)
Selling second hand shoes
Mirundi John (A-SOK-0038)
Growing Maize
Nalongo Babirye (A-SOK-0168)
Runs a vegetable stall
Nanyanzi Tina Nalongo ( A-SOK-01020)
Poultry keeping
d) Capacity building of local community structures
In 2014, the program continued to focus on building the financial and functional capacity of
KAFCO as our key implementing partner. The program facilitated KAFCO to develop the
human resource and finance guidelines that were missing. These two policies were
developed with support from Agency for Integrated Rural Development (AFIRD) which
guided the process. These policies are in place and being utilized by KAFCO in day to day
operations. For example, the financial policy required KAFCO to have different documents
like payment vouchers, petty cash requests form, and receipt books. All these are already
put in place. The process of aligning KAFCO systems to the finance policy is on-going and
the program is continuing to support KAFCO to ensure that the guidelines are implemented.
The program also conducted a 3 days Training of Trainers was done with Behaviour
Change Communication club members in nutrition, to equip them with knowledge and skills
on how to make a proper diet-by way of preparing a proper meal for the children aged 6
months up to 5 years, as well as promote food security in the beneficiaries’ households by
way of making kitchen gardens.
At the larger community level, the program has continued to carry out activities that
empower the entire community with knowledge and skills to handle child related issues. In
this reporting year, the programme organized legal clinic events in two parishes of Kikandwa
and Magoggo. The idea was conceived from interactions with community volunteers,
interactive learning sessions and dialogues, it was realized that Care givers face a number
of challenges that affect the vulnerable children. Among the issues realized were domestic
violence, land grabbing and defilement. It was therefore from this background that the
Programme organized a legal clinic outreach to create awareness and provide advice on
issues of land ownership between the landlord and the tenants, the distribution of property
where a will was absent, the legal procedure to follow if challenged with domestic violence
and defilement. In addition, the Legal clinic was to bring legal services related to land
issues, defilement and domestic violence closer to the community.
38
e)
Strategic partnerships and local networks
This year, the programme participated in the formation of the network of the service
providers. A network that was formed on 10th April 2014 by the service providers is called
Kakiri Civil Society Organisation (CSO) Network. It has an executive of five members from
the different organisations. The chairman comes from KAFCO, secretary is from SOS, the
treasurer is from Lwantama Child Development Centre (CDC) and the vice chairperson is
from New Hope education and children’s Centre. The network also agreed that they would be
having the meeting on every last Thursday of the quarter. In the second quarter, it took place
on 26th June 2014 at New Hope. The Network also developed a certificate for all the Civil
Society Organisations (CSO) currently on the network and those to join. They agreed to have
an annual subscription for all the CSOs where CBOs are to pay 100,000= while the NGOs
pay 200,000=. They also agreed to make a first visit to the other organisations in the town
council and Sub County before the end of the third quarter to establish whether they can have
them join the network.
The network was agreed first of all to be organizing the public events together and the first
one was the day of the African child. This was conducted in conjunction with the schools in
the sub county and the town council. The function took place on 16th June 2014 where all the
5 organisations participated. On the day of the main event, 1,044 people (200 male, 844
female) participated out of which 947were children and 70 adults. Another event that was
organized by the local network was the Worlds Day that which took place on 28th November.
In addition, the programme worked together with the teachers’ network to improve the
quality of education in the sub county. The main activities carried out included: monitoring
schools progress, training teachers in literacy skills and experience sharing for the primary
seven teachers. Three Education network meetings have been held since January and it is
usually attended by 11 teachers (3female and 8male), to plan for the schools in the year.
Challenges
 Our key implementing partner - KAFCO still requires close monitoring and support to
achieve the best out of it. We have made deliberate plans for the programme staffs to
keep close to KAFCO staff to ensure that mistakes made are rectified there and then.

KAFCO staff are not motivated enough so they keep looking out for better paying jobs
thus not concentrating on their work. KAFCO management is making efforts to look
into the welfare of the staff.
Lesson learnt


The community has been able to appreciate saving through the VSLA approach and
these have made SOS and KAFCO gain visibility
KAFCO has been able to share their vision mission and details with other
organisation thus getting more partners like Mild May. This has also seen them gain
visibility in the community and at the district.
39

The power of funding KAFCO on a monthly basis has seen the organisation work
harder and more effectively than the way they used to
Focus for 2014
Strengthen systems, procedures and processes of working with key
implementing partners
Mentor and guide the Key Implementing Partners (KIPs) for community
programme sustainability
Enhance the economic strengthening of the vulnerable families through
Village Saving and Loans Association
Further enhance partnerships with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for
knowledge and skills sharing, lessons learning, advocacy and effective service
delivery.
3.3.6 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Medical Centre - Kakiri
The year 2014 was generally a challenging year with limited number of clients yet many
new medical facilities opened up business in our locality. This was looked at as a threat but
at the sometime as an opportunity to improve service delivery at the SOS Hermann
Gmeiner medical centre. Despite the challenges, we managed to offer service to a total of
11,523 clients who received services like medical treatment, family planning, antenatal, and
immunization, HIV counselling and testing. We also initiated home based care services
where 54 clients affected and infected with HIV under the family strengthening program
benefited. A team that comprises of health workers, social workers, counsellors and Village
Health Teams took services direct to their homes. This did not only bring the services
closer to the people, but also benefited joint efforts of finding solutions to the challenges
faced by the sick and their families’ at home.
The top five causes of hospital visits remained; upper respiratory tract infections (that is
common cold, simple coughs, allergies, etc.), malaria, skin infections, ear, nose and throat
infections, and eye infections, respectively as was in 2013.
The Medical Centre had two partners brought on board and these were AAR health
services (an insurance company that entrusted with treatment of their corporate clients)
and Kikandwa Cooperative Community contracted SOS to treat their beneficiaries. A total
of UGX 529,100/= (207 USD) has so far been contributed by the two partners whose clients
were treated on account. This will help the medical centre to increase its income thus reach
self-sustenance in the long run. The other partners notably; Wakiso District Health Office,
Uganda Health Marketing Group and Uganda Muslim Medical Bureau continued with their
unrivalled support in kind that was also calculated to have been an equivalent of UGX
5,930,559 (2,326 USD).
Notable activities conducted during the year included;
A health awareness camp that was conducted from 23rd to 25th June 2014, where a total
of 350 people (229 female and 121 male) received health education and treatment for
40
malaria, HIV, cervical cancer, diabetes and hypertension among others. The camp was
aimed at empowering the community with skills and knowledge in addressing challenges
related to health. Partners included; Wakiso District Health Office, Soul touch ministries
and Kakiri Redeemed Church one of the local churches around. The Target was met
since we intended to offer services to 300 clients.
Family planning services were provided to a total of 655 female clients. These methods
included; pills, injecta-plan, nor plants and moon beads. We have planned conduct
sensitization for the male spouses and other male clients through sending short
message services (SMS) so as to encourage they participate in health services.
Immunization services too were offered successfully during static and outreach
programs. A total of 1,469 children under one year were immunized against a target of
1,000 children.
We participated in World Aids day celebrations that were organized by Kakiri sub county
civil society network where SOS Children Villages-Uganda is member. Here, a total of
80 clients’ were tested for HIV and offered other supportive services at SOS Hermann
Gmeiner Clinic.
By the end of the year we had generated revenue of approximately 88,755,995 UGX
(34,806 USD) as compared to 85,000,000 UGX (34,000 USD) by December 2013. This is
5% growth in revenue collection though it was less than the target for the year that was
120,000,000 (47,059 USD), the revenue collected managed to cover 73% of the medical
centre expenditure which stood at approximately 121,000,000 UGX (47,450 USD). In 2015,
emphasis will be put on resource mobilisation through proposal writing and new innovations
so as to attain 100% self-sustenance.
Plans for 2015
To increase platforms of learning for medical centre staff
To strengthen the SOS brand through internal & external communications
To strengthen Monitoring & Evaluation systems in programme planning at the MC
To increase the institutional funding portfolio of the Medical Centre
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3.4 SOS CHILDREN’S VILLAGE GULU
Introduction
The situation in Northern Uganda and especially Gulu District has been generally calm; many
people have been attending to their farm land given the opportunity that calm has permanently
return and people have moved out of the Internally Displaced Camp situation. Most part of
Northern Uganda is fertile hence giving the people a privilege to work in their land. The district
saw a high yield in food production in crops like rice, maize and beans, cassava and groundnut
which has increased its marketing ability to the neighbouring district and southern Sudan. There
has been minor security setback like robbery but this has not undermined most activities in the
district, it was alarming around June and July but it was later contained. This was mainly
because of the increase of guns in the hand of people as people from South Sudan fled their
countries with a lot of fire arms.
3.4.1 Family Based Care – CV
a) Care
The Children’s Village has been very active in implementing its programmes planned throughout
the year with increase participation of all core workers in supporting children and youth work.
The staff motivation is gradually getting better with frequent motivational and team building
activities and management engagement. The mothers and other core care workers have been
supportive in implementing behavioral change programmes, child protection activities, nutritional
training, alternative discipline training, special need support training, guidance and counseling
support, school follow up and support, mentoring youth and life skills training for youth and
children.
b) Capacity utilization
In the year 2014, the capacity of the Village has been stable with five new children (4 boys, 1
girl) joining the Children’s Village and five youth boys joining the youth home. There were 103
children in the village, 05 of whom have been admitted in April 2014. The family houses are still
hosting the 25 youth girls as there has been no facility rented for the youth girls these youth girls
spend most of their time in boarding school and are only home during first and second term
holiday as this December most children went home for biological visits and only three youth girls
remained. There were 38 youth boys who are under the guidance of a male youth leader in a
provisional youth home. Out of the 38 boys 10 are in day schools and 28 in boarding schools
with two studying at Herman Gmeiner International School Ghana (HGISG) only returning home
for holiday. The village has 18 caregivers, 2 Youth Leaders, 1 Village Educator, 1 Sponsorship
Assistant and 1 Village Director.
The child admission committee followed up on children that were assessed in Lira Babies home
and they out of the ten children assessed 5 were admitted. In the December holidays 69
children (35 boys, 34 girls) and 51(28m, 23f) youth made visits to their biological families to
increase relationship building and family acquaintance for future integration.
C) CV registration
42
The Village also embarked on its registration process with the government which saw a team of
officers from Gulu District Probation Office and the Children’s Court led by the Chief Magistrate
Gulu; visiting, conducting assessment in the village. The village has also written appointment
letters to external people for appointment on its management committee as required by the
National Law of the country. Although not all has responded, there is high hope that all will
accept to become management members that would steer the village to the next expected level
in child care work.
d) Visitors and donations in kind
During the course of the year, the CV hosted a number of visitors; Among these were; a team
who came from regional office in preparation of hosting the southern Sudan village of Malakai,
the children from the neighboring community who were invited for Christmas party, the district
local government who came for a tour that was organized to create visibility of SOS work. In
addition we also received biological families who came for visits and they supported in the wellbeing of their children. Furthermore the village received donations from both international and
local donors in the like of families from Netherlands, organizations, Local Leaders (the Mayor of
Gulu Municipality) and also individual families and staff of SOS from the location.
e) Child participation
The two structures for child participation in the village were child parliament and the children’s life skill
clubs. The two structures have been strengthened in creating awareness on issues that affect children
and also to increase participation of children in activities that promotes decision making. Children have
also been taken through child protection training and this has increased their awareness level hence
increased reporting of Child Protection Concerns. The youth council has also step up its activities in
promoting decision making and active participation of youth in all aspect of their wellbeing for improved
youth care.
f)
Games, Sports and Music Dance and Drama
We had inter-house competition; sport gala and concert which were conducted by the Children
and youth with a range of activities such as music dance, drama, games, and cleanliness
among others to help increase their ability in managing their personal wellbeing and hygiene.
The youth also participated in community charity work, health camp awareness and church
cleaning. These activities were meant to inculcate community interaction, visibility and
integration to aid community liaison and networking for future smooth interaction and also
showing the community that our children are their children.
g) Assessment of Special Need Children
The CV contacted organization and specialist that have conducted assessment for our children
that had various signs of having varied special needs concerns. The report from the
organization is out and it has clearly analyzed their needs and what intervention will be good for
them.
h) Trainings of Mothers and Aunts
43
Trainings of Mothers and Aunts on Child Protection Policy was a great achievement as this
helped them to implement set guidelines when attending to children needs and care. Mothers
and aunts have also participated on training on Positive Discipline as this was an area that most
of them were not knowledgeable enough to implement when faced with children’s indiscipline.
i)
Election of Father Figures
The Village embarked on a sensitization drive to create awareness to other co- care workers
that they can be the father figure these children missed in their life. This idea was welcomed
and open election was done by involving the mothers and aunties. In each family house we
have attached two male staff and by coincident they were twenty four in number. Later the
Uncles together with mothers drafted their roles and responsibilities which need to be approved
by the Human Resource Coordinator. They are supposed to undergo orientation training on
what our children, mothers and management expect of them. There will be a need assessment
conducted to know what children, mothers and other co care workers expect of them.
j)
CO-Care coworker capacity building
Capacity is a significant component of our worker to enable the staff to able deliver quality
services. This year 5 mothers were facilitated to attend refresher course in a range of topical
areas related to care, 2 youth leaders attended youth forum and the village director also
attended the Village Director Forum in Karen Nairobi training centre.
k) Fundraising event
The fundraising event was a process that involved good networking and coordination with a
number of partners both from the local government and civil social society organizations. The
drive was to encourage local resource mobilization as a way of sustainability as resources are
gradually dwindling from the international communities. The drive ensured that our organization
opens up to the community in one way or the other and this came with a package of not only
financial support but mass publicity of the organization and long lasting relationship which has
also been created. This event is even expected to gain more ground and propel the organization
to a greater height and achieve more in working for the vulnerable children especially if high
team spirit is exhibit. However the event did not yield much as we had expected due to various
reasons among which were; inadequate preparations, perceptions of the community that the
organisation is endowed with resources, inadequate team effort towards the event.
Key actions for 2015
To run the CV at full capacity.
Reintegrate children and youth with known able relatives back to the community.
Improve Community Coordination and Networking to increase SOS Visibility and
Publicity.
Improve access to education for all children and youth.
Improve health care for all children and youth.
Strengthen children and youth programmes.
Enhance learning and development for all co care workers.
44
Increase local support to SOS Activities (Donations and Fundraising).
3.4.2 SOS Youth Facility - Gulu
SOS Children’s Villages Gulu is a home to 65 youth (40 youth boys and 25 youth girls). The
youth facility is still partially developed as only the boys are housed within the older facilities of
CV while the girls are still in the SOS family houses with their SOS mothers. The youth
throughout the year have been involved in a number of social-cultural, educational, physical,
spiritual, economic and psychosocial supports. The details are as follows;
a) Education
65 youth (40 boys and 25 girls) were enrolled and sustained in different boarding, day primary, secondary
and vocational schools and University in and around Kampala and within Gulu. This year, our youth didn’t
make it to International school in Ghana hence we have maintained only three (3) of the youth (2 boys
and 1 girl) who were there before.
Two youth (female) are in a vocational training institution in Kampala and one boy who
completed a mechanic course last year has joined the world of work as an apprentice and has
moved to a Garage in Kitgum town where he is being closely monitored by his family members
and to also begin the process of reintegration back home.
One youth boy has joined Mukono University where he is pursuing a Bachelor of Business
Administration course; this course takes three years so we expect him to soon join the world of
work. We are very hopeful as he is like the first born of the family; his success will set a pace
for the rest of the youth to excel; while one other youth boy sat Senior six and is waiting to join
either a university or other recognized higher institutions of learning.
Four youth boys and two youth girls sat for Uganda Ordinary Level Exam (UCE), four youth
boys sat for Primary Leaving Examination (PLE) from a community school and one boy from a
special need school. Two (2) youth boys are in a special needs school. The rest of the
remaining 27 youth boys and 21 youth girls attended formal education (primary and secondary)
with 5 (3 boys and 2 girl in primary).
The youth were fully supported and encouraged by all the core workers directly involved in their
educational achievement, they were followed up in school, administrative discussions were held
with their schools administration and class teachers to craft away forward in supporting their
academic performance. Back home remedial classes and academic arenas where held for all
the youth to enhanced improved performance. These efforts truly benefited the youth and the
location as none of them scored grades below average or were advised to repeat classes.
However we still face challenges in regard to the education of the youth. A few youth still need
to be pushed and followed up closely as they are not self-driven, they lack the intrinsic
motivation to learn on their own, and some are involved with bad peer groups that are making it
difficult for them to score good grades.
As a way forward, Individual counseling, frequent school visits and follow up, involvement of
biological relatives to encourage their children, remedial classes, provision of all important
45
scholastic materials have been some of the measures deployed to enhanced improved
academic performance.
b)
Psycho-social support
The youth were from time to time taken through continuous guidance and counseling sessions
that were either intentional or unintentional depending on the situation. There were a number of
counselors who supported them psychologically both from within and without. They were guided
through educational programmes, social as well as physical life. The one on one counseling as
well as the group one helped the youth to become stress free as many also learnt to manage
their emotions better. As a result, the overall level of discipline improved greatly as the youth are
implementing and following the youth policy and at individual levels, they have designed various
forms of managing their stress levels, example through games and sports and music among
others.
There is increased reduction on indiscipline cases for youth both at school and at home as they
were taken through self-confidence talk, friendship building and conflict Management which
made them mirrored themselves and many improved on areas that they had had agreed that
they would work towards improving for their better wellbeing and relations with all in the CV
community.
However as most of our youth stay away in boarding schools most of the days in the year, it has
been a challenge following up on their progress however discussion has been taken to school
with administration to help monitoring on their behavior and discipline improvement. This has
helped as were able to get feedback that there are marked changes compared to when they
started school at the beginning of the year.
c. Social Cultural activities
These included activities such as life skills sessions where the youth were taken through a
number of trainings and mentoring in selected life skills activities life adventure unlimited, River
Me, and way to happiness among others. These drew up a number of experiences for the
young youth to be fully equipped to overcome day to day challenges and also how to effectively
socialize and co-exist within the village but also with other community people.
The youth transition was also carefully handled as youth identified from different family houses
were taken through a number of careful processes of counseling and guidance from the youth
leaders and other co-workers. A total of at least 04 boys and 05 girls will be transited by
February, 2015.
The youth end of year party was also organized for all the youth. This was done to reflect on the
year’s achievements and challenges of the youth and have a reflection as a group but also as
an individual. The youth came together and shared pleasantries with mothers and other coworkers.
46
The youth were also engaged in a number of community work with other community people in
places like Koch Ongako sub-county, where the youth got engaged into cleaning (slashing and
sweeping) of a community market, and sub county headquarters respectively. This
strengthened SOS and community relationship.
A total of 50 (28 boys, 22 girls) youth participated in Nile Award activities. Most youth were
engaged in the holiday programme known as ‘The Nile Award’ this programme has helped
youth improve on their social lives, build skills and talents in different fields which will help them
become self-reliant .These activities also kept them busy and focused. They gained a lot of
skills in different fields but above all the rapport they created at different levels and the self-drive
to become responsible citizens were clearly seen in them.
However some youth are still reluctant to get engaged in community work (Nile Award) as they
stated that many got discouraged by not being appreciated at the different levels of their
engagement into the programme despite doing everything well as expected. Coupled with the
above, some youth lacked committed supervisors to take them through the whole programme
as they complained about inadequate time to actively attend to the youth.
d. Physical Activities
The youth participated in various physical activities that enhanced their fitness and above all
interaction and coordination with other youth groups and people were increased. These
activities were in door and our door activities like chess, darts, board game/omweso, cards and
draft, badminton, netball, football and basketball, early morning fitness run and yoga among
others. The games took the youth places like Kampala for the DHL Tournament, Pece Division
League, and Unyama Sub County for Aswa Youth Tournament and in Koch Ongako with the
Family Strengthening Youth.
Some youth were also involved in Music & dance activities within and outside the youth home
and this was not only seen as a source of entertainment, but also talent development and
exposure especially for those who were doing it outside the youth home. Not only did these
activities benefit the youth physically but also mentally through gained skills and also socially as
they were able to meet new people especially those in the community and worked together.
The major obstacles to implementation of these activities are games and sports wears,
costumes for MDD activities and also a dependable coach as most of our coaches are part
timers and are very expensive and also unreliable. Many times our youth try but reaching the
peak becomes a problem as we lack effective coaching and consistency in practice. However,
we hope that with increase coordination and networking we can get people who can do
coaching on pro Bono services and also lobby to get people who can donate some sport kits for
our youth.
e. Spiritual Growth activities
The youth were involved in spiritual enrichment activities at their various churches that they go
to; for instance the youth in Watoto Church, Holy Rosary, Christ Church and others were
subjected to holiday prayers, fasting, bible studies and choir practices. These involvements has
seen youth indiscipline level declining as their interaction with other young people makes them
47
learn that it’s important to remained Godly by walking the church teaching to reflect that you
have been going to church. This has been seen in most family houses and in the youth boys
home where by the youth took lead of the evening prayers and also in bible studies session.
F. Partnership
The youth have been involved in activities that were organized in partnership with other
organization also involved in youth work. For instance our youth participated in competition and
sport tournament that were done in partnership with Watoto and Holy Rosary Youth Club
respectively. These activities helped in forging intensive relationship among the youth and the
organizations. This kind of partnership has also made it possible for cross organization learning
to take place hence making it easy to share ideas and how to improve on our youth work.
h. Youth development programmes
65 youth have benefited from programmes like life skills, mentorship programme and financial
literacy programme that have been implemented effectively to enhanced character development
that has helped in the smooth engagement of the youth. The youth also participated in a health
programme by sensitizing the community youth to come and attend health camp, be
circumcised and have voluntary testing for HIV/AIDs and also stay away from premarital sex.
The youth were also taken through a financial literacy training that helped them in making up
their mind in saving the little money that they would save their pocket money or try out some
casual work to earn money to save their future use. All our youth have mentors and also have
valid bank accounts thanks to the programme that open their eyes to saving; the only challenge
they faced is that they don’t have access to means that can make them earn to increase their
savings.
Lessons Learnt
With frequent sharing and discussion with the young people on issues related to their
behaviors, characters and peer association our youth indiscipline can reduce hence a
positive behavioral change can be achieved in schools and at the CV.
Involvement of biological relatives of children with serious indiscipline issues has seen
most of them changed and have taken studies seriously and we expect good results by
those whom we have taken through the join disciplinary forum.
With well-set programs, we can go a long way in achieving desirable results in youth
work. The programs need to be continuous and owned by the youth for sustainability
purposes.
Focus for 2015
Conduct educational support-remedial lessons
Conduct School follow up\ visits
Development / reviews of YDPs and career road maps
Mentorship meetings and workshops
Guidance and counseling
Hold Life skills sessions
Conduct life building / entrepreneurship programs.
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3.4.4 Helmut Kutin Kindergarten - Gulu
Helmut Kutin Kindergarten provides high quality early childhood Education to both the SOS CV
children and the community children in Gulu.
The Kindergarten is the pride of Gulu as every parent wants to
be associated with the Kindergarten
because of the high quality and
standard of Education, this year
2014 the Kindergarten had four
classes that is, crèche (play group)
K.G 1, 2, 3, managed by 8 teachers
all ladies, 1 head teacher and 2
Jolly phonics training for parents
Support staffs. SOS Kindergarten
Open day
is located in the northern part of Uganda in Gulu district. The
kindergarten has 74 community boys, 57 community girls, 11 SOS
CV girls and 17 SOS CV boys. In addition the Kindergarten offers two full sponsorships to two
community children (1 boy and 1 girl).
The school has a well-planned curriculum that includes; Jolly Phonics, swimming, Art and craft,
numeracy, storytelling, music, dance and drama, nature walks, puppet
shows, gardening for learning
purposes, rhymes, water play, indoor
and outdoor activities that are well
planned to offer children quality
foundation in Nursery education.
Our activities this year included:
Held KG 3 graduation
KG 3 graduation
Outdoor game
Peer classroom reviews
End of year concert
Conducting home visits
Education tour to the Murchison fall park
It is worth noting that the Kindergarten is at 100% self-financing. We were able to purchase a number of
play items like a play center, outdoor slides, sports bikes and scooters.
Focus for 2015
Begin a toddler class to cater for children 6months – 1 year in order to meet the
demand
Increase the capacity form 40 – 45 in order to meet the parents demand
Startup vegetable gardens for the kindergarten to supplement on the feeding of
the children
49
Begin computer lessons, aerobics lessons and Taikondo for the children
3.4.4 Hermann Gmeiner Primary School Gulu
SOS Hermann Gmeiner Primary School Gulu has grown from the pupils’ population of 130
(65%) in 2013 to 183 (96 boys, 87 boys) or 77.5% capacity in 2014. SOS CV children are
61 (35 girls, 26 boys) and children from the community are 122 (61 girls, 61 boys). We
have 22 staff with a break down as follows; 13 are teachers (8 males, 5 females), 1 Head
teacher, 1 Admin secretary, 1 Accountant, 2 cleaners, 3 kitchen staff and 1 day guard. The
school grew by 1 class to reach P.6 and by 6 staff (3 teachers
& 3 cooks). Academic performance has also continued to
grow in both upper and lower sections, with lower primary
leading. Lowest average mark in P.2 was 63% while upper
classes increased children in first division.
The staff ability to perform and handle children better has
improved due to continued training and exposure visits. This
year, we had in internal workshops in the 4 main academic areas (math, English, Science and
SST). 2 teachers attended music training organized by the
Awarding certificates to good
perfoming pupils
District. All staff also attended workshops organized by SOS
location team. These were in first aid, psycho-social support, fire drills, and child protection,
among others. 1 teacher attended a workshop about Red Cross club while one went for bench
mark about library management in Kampala.
2014 also saw us excelling in different disciplines outside class. We participated in district
athletics competition for the 1st time, we participated in Northern Uganda Debate competition
and we were the runners up, in district music, dance & drama completion, we were number 4
and we also participated in Sir Samuel Baker Sports Gala. We again participated in District 16
days of commemoration of gender based violence, all of which our children exhibit different
items in music, dance & drama. During the District Cerebration of the Day of the African Child in
June, our pupils actively participated; our 2 children represented Northern Uganda in Kampala
and they were later selected to represent all children in the country. We also introduced vibrant
children activities on Monday assemblies. Children read news with news reporters giving news
from different parts of the country.
We also had the popular end of Year School Concert & Xmas Extravanza in which Moses
Golola, the Ugandan & African Champion in kick boxing was the Guest of Honor. Children
exhibited their skills & talents and people from all walks of life thronged the school. Over 5
million net cash was corrected. We conducted a study tour for children in Kampala – Wakiso
areas such Kabanyoro Government farm where children practically proved what they had learnt
in class.
Special academic programmes were designed and implemented to support children
academically. We had remedial lessons twice a week to support children with learning
difficulties in all classes P.1-P.6. There were also Saturday and evening extra lessons organized
for P.5 and P.6 besides additional 3 tests. Target mark setting, monthly exams, quizzes and
rewarding of the best performers in different disciplines have enabled our children to do better in
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academics. Most of the above activities appear in Ugandan curriculum but do not appear in
most schools due to limited resources or lack of will by school leaders & Proprietors.
This second year of the school existence has enabled us to acquire 18 computers, substantial
items in the Science lab & home economics lab and school TV for study programmes. We also
started preparing meals internally as opposed to using external service providers. This has not
only improved children’s diet but has also excited parents.
Fundraising drive:
On fundraising and self- sufficiency, we collected some funds this year and we got some
partners, all of which will enable us move towards the path of sustainability. We hired our
premises to people for their wedding & we raised 800,000/=, December fundraising concert
raised over 5 million net cash, people who maintain our play field and sponsor our SOS CV
children enable us to save over 18 million a year ( but was over 9 million ) this year from July.
Focus for 2015
Plans for the following year will include;
Having P.7 sitting for the National exams (P.L.E)
Registering the school with the Education Ministry
Computer networking and internet installation
Purchase of more furniture.
Face lifting of the school
Completion of the modernizing the forest park
Purchase of the school motorcycle and generator.
Enhance schools clubs’ activities
Increase on the partnerships
Conducting children’s study tour to Jinja
Holding a sports day.
Participating in District Athletics, football, Music competitions and in the Day of the
African Child.
3.4.5 SOS Family Strengthening Programme Gulu
The family strengthening Programme in Gulu is being implemented in a rural sub county
Koch Ongako and specifically within 1 parish out of the 4 Parishes of Koch Ongako sub
county and the current parish of operation is Onyana Parish. FSP Gulu in 2014 implemented
3 projects that directly supported OVC households that included the SOS FSP project, Grieg
Gender Challenge Project and the SCORE project through funded by AVSI. In 2014, FSP
Gulu supported a total of 1325 children from a total of 328 households (90 FSP and 238
SCORE).
51
The key areas of interventions included increasing children and care givers access to
essential services, care giver capacity building, community capacity building and building
networks and partnership to advocate for the rights of children for quality care, Education
and Health.
Access creation
a. Access to Education for children and youth in 2014
In the year 2014, a total of 97 children and youth (50 boys and 47 girls) from extremely
vulnerable households were supported to access education through direct school fees. In
addition 95 children (66 girls and 29 boys) were also supported with school uniforms.
b. Access to Health Care and treatment
In the year 2014, a total of 137 children (55 boys and 82 girls) were able to access free
medical treatment either at the SOS medical centre, during mobile outreaches or through
referrals hence through this intervention the programme significantly contributed towards
improving health conditions and saving lives of children.
c. Life skills training
In the year 2014, FSP Gulu successfully trained,
supported and graduated a total of 31youth (7 boys and
24 girls) in life skills. The life skill had tailor made training
modules which focus on behaviour change, knowing
about themselves, coping with emotions, communications
and making decision in life and etc. Through this initiative
our programme was able to support in shaping positive
and desirable behaviour among youth in the community
hence significantly reducing inappropriate behaviour like
Certificate award
drunkenness, early marriages and drug abuses which
affects the lives and wellbeing of community youth.
d. Improved nutrition among children:
To improve nutrition for children in 2014, FSP Gulu successfully conducted 1
malnutrition screening for 700 children i.e. (320 males and 380 females) and out of the
screening exercise 33 children (16 boys
and 17 girls were discovered to be mildly
malnourished. As a result of this finding, 1
nutrition dialogue and a mini cooking
demonstration was conducted which
involved households with the malnourished
children. This initiative was intended to
create awareness on better nutrition
practices and also to demonstrate to the
Cooking demonstration
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care givers ways through which nutritious food could be prepared in ways that benefits
the body best. As a result of this initiative, the programme was able to contribute in
creating awareness on good nutrition practices hence reducing malnutrition among
supported children.
e. Apprenticeship: In the year 2014, a total of 18 youth (15 girls and 3 boys) were enrolled
for apprenticeship training where a total of 14 girls were enrolled and successfully
completed apprenticeship training on hair dressing and were later provided with startup kits which comprised chemicals, mirrors and some few packets of weaves to open up
2 joint saloons in Koch while the 2 boys successfully completed training on motor vehicle
and mechanic. Hence Through the skills acquired through apprenticeship placements,
the youth are now able to generate income for self-sustainability and also enhancing the
welfare needs of their family as a whole.
f.
Child rights awareness in Schools;
In 2014, a total of 1500 children i.e. (642 boys and 858 girls) from 4 primary schools
were sensitized on children’s rights and responsibilities and the schools included (Koch
Koo, Koch Ongako, Lamina wino and Tongwiri). The 4 schools were also supported to
formulate and establish a child protection working group comprising 5 members who are
responsible to respond and report any child abuse case which may occur within the
school. Through this initiative, FSP Gulu significantly contributed towards promoting and
creating awareness among children’s so that they are able to demand for their rights
and also to report any cases of abuse when their rights is being violated.
g. Girl child mentorship in school
In 2014, FSP Gulu managed to reach a total of 600 girls in 4 primary schools in Koch
Ongako through mentorship dialogue session conducted by the senior Education Officer
for Amuru district and 4 other women representatives from civil society organization
including the district probation officer. The purpose of this mentorship dialogue was to
provide role model and encouragement for the girl child to value and appreciate the
importance of education in their life. Through this mentorship dialogue, we anticipate
seeing young girls committed to pursuing their education in the long run.
h. Hygiene and Sanitation improvement
2 drainable VIP latrines and a girl changing rooms were constructed in Koch Koo
primary school with funding from Grieg Challenge Foundation and handed over to the
school. These 2 facilities now benefits 700 children enrolled in this school and has
significantly contributed towards enhancing improved hygiene and sanitation in the
school. The girl changing room will contribute towards girl’s retention in school as it
provides conducive environment for girls to change whenever they are in menstrual
period without stigma hence significantly reducing absenteeism which is common among
girls whenever they are experiencing their menstrual periods.
53
Completed VIP Latrines handed to the School
j.
Environmental protection and school retention among children
As part of its contribution towards promoting environmental protection among children in
school, FSP Gulu supported 6 primary schools with tree seedlings 45 seedlings per
school i.e. (pines and umbrella trees) through the Grieg Challenge Project with purpose
to promote and inspire children in regards to environmental protection including retention
of children in school. Through this initiative, children were attached to particular trees
and were tasked with the responsibility of proper management of the tree seedlings.
Through this, the children have been motivated and encouraged to attend school
regularly since they have been assigned responsibilities and attachment to the trees and
secondly, by engaging them in managing the trees, they are being inspired to embrace
environmental conservation and protection. The schools that benefitted from the tree
seedling included Koch Koo Primary, Lamina wino, Koch Ongako Primary, Tongwiri
Primary and 2 community run schools.
Family capacity building: During the course of the year 2014, we did have several
interventions aimed at improving the capacity of the families
a. Parenting Skills training; 1 parenting group was formed in Koch with a total number
of 35 care givers i.e (12 men and 23 women) and have all under gone training on
good parenting. This training on parenting skills was implemented under the SCORE
project and it’s through these trainings, that the care givers were equipped with
better parenting skills that provides a holistic approach towards child care and as a
result of this intervention, the care givers have benefited and have been exposed to
the most appropriate approach to child care and parenting.
b. Care giver Sensitization on children’s rights
In 2014, a total of 238 care givers (64 male and 174 females) were reached and
sensitized on children’s rights and responsibilities and as care givers they were also
sensitized on their roles in protecting children’s rights in the community. As a result
54
of the numerous sensitization of the care givers and other community members,
there has been a reduction on child abuse cases reported in the beneficiary
households hence this can be attributed to the community becoming more informed
and involved in protecting and promoting the rights of children under their care.
c. Gender awareness creation; A total of 143 care givers (39 men and 104 women)
were sensitized on issues of gender and it included sensitization on girl child
education, gender equality, Gender roles just to mention a few. Through the
numerous trainings and sensitization of the care givers on gender issues, the
community members were equipped with knowledge and understanding on gender
hence significantly contributing in reducing gender based violence and gender
discrimination in the community. This intervention was possible with funding from the
Grieg Challenge Project.
d. Training on will making and succession planning:
In 2014, a total of 98 care givers i.e. (80 women and 18 men) were trained on will
making and inheritance and as a result, the care givers were able to appreciate the
value and importance of having a will. They realized that having a will protects their
children and other family members from wrangles and snatching of properties of
deceased in case of absence of a will. This training will be routinely conducted to
enable at least all the supported households have at least a will in place.
e. Improved Household access to income
VSLA Performance In 2014, there was a total of
12 VSLA groups with a total of 265 men and
women of which 165 were direct beneficiaries.
Overall cumulative total savings for all the 12
groups was 32,189,000 with an average saving for
each member being UGX 98,500 Cumulative loan
for the year was
Ugx14,679,000. This is a
significant improvement compared to the previous
VSLA group sharing out
year performance. The VSLA has enabled care
givers access to save and borrow money which has significantly improved
beneficiary access to income for investment and meeting other household basic
needs. It should be noted that there were also some challenges encountered by the
VSLA groups for example inconsistent records in some groups, weak leadership
which eventually contributed to collapse of one VSLA groups i.e. Can Opwonyo.
b. Community skills training and Income generating activities
To enhance social technologies, a number of interventions were initiated to build
care givers capacities ranging from Kitchen garden/back garden initiatives, apiary,
vocational skills training for youth school drop outs and so forth hence all this skills
and social technologies were geared towards empowering care givers to acquire
skills and technologies that will eventually improve on their livelihood.
55
Community capacity building
a. Partner CBO: In 2014, 3 different trainings were organised for Rwot Omiyo where 14
(10 men and 4 women) attended, The trainings included; Financial management and
proposal writing including gender mainstreaming and strategic planning and
Formulation. These trainings were all geared towards building the capacity of the
CBO to effectively support SOS programme implementation at grass root level.
Through this training, there has been acquisition of knowledge and skills by the CBO
members which we anticipate will improve on their effectiveness and efficiency in
community service delivery.
b. Community dialogues
Also in 2014, a total of 10 community dialogues
were conducted hence reaching a total cumulative
number of 600 community people (males and
females). Key issues discuss during the community
Community Dialogue
dialogues included gender based violence, Children’s
rights, HIV awareness campaigns, Better Hygiene and sanitation promotion including
girl child education promotion. Through the community dialogues, key information’s,
messages and lessons were passed on to the community people.
Partnerships and networks:
These are very vital in our programme interventions. The FS programme in Gulu
participated in various networks and meeting during the course of 2014.
a. Child protection and GBV working group meetings
In 2014, FSP Gulu was very active through participation and involvement in the child
protection and GBV working group meetings which is held at the district board room.
Through this initiative, there was building of network, information sharing and
collaboration in child protection and GBV intervention at the district. Through this
initiative, there was SOS publicity and recognitions in such forums.
b. Sub county coordination meetings
In 2014, FSP Gulu actively participated in the sub county coordination meeting
where SOS Has been the lead partner in mobilization and the most active participant
in the coordination meeting which brings together all partners operating from within
Koch Ongako Sub county. This meeting has enabled information sharing and also
building a good working relationship between SOS and the sub county
administration.
c. Participation in district and national events
FSP Gulu has also been actively involved in networks and advocacy through
participation in both district and national events as part of wider networks. For
example FSP actively participated in the commemoration of the day of the African
child; FSP also participated in the international women’s day celebration including
56
active participation in the 16 days of gender activism and also the Solidarity march
on girl child education awareness. All these events involved a number of partners
ranging from government, private sector including civil society organisation.
Therefore through active participation in these events, we enable visibility and
publicity of SOS including interaction and mapping other partners for future networks
and collaborations.
Agricultural show case
Celebrating self-reliance
Caregivers dance to the tune celebrating the joy
It is one thing to be vulnerable but it is
worth celebrating the life change journey of toward self-reliance. In 2014, FS Gulu
graduated 35 families from the programme who are now self-reliant as a result of the
programme intervention and can now provide care and support for their families on
their own. In summary the graduated households at least have established a stable
income generating source, have adequate access to food with good nutrition
including good skills and knowledge on child. In addition there was also graduation
of 6 FFS (farmer field schools groups who graduated from learning and immature
group to a production and marketing groups. This was after the Farmer Field School
successfully completed their learning circle. During the graduation exercise, the
farmers groups were able to show case some of the lesson’s and skills they acquired
during the learning circle and also had plenty of harvested products to show to the
community so that the community embraces Farmer field school approach of
community development.
Challenges
The major challenge faced by FSP in 2014 has been basically the inconsistent
internet connectivity which to a greater extends affected data entry to the FS Data
base. There has been acquisition of another ROTA for the data officer to improve
data entry to the intra net data base.
Initially there was also a transport challenge characterised by regular breaking down
of the existing motor bikes which eventually affected field work implementation but
also this challenge has been averted by acquisition of 2 new motorcycles which has
significantly improved field work implementation.
There was also donor pressure especially from public funded projects which
sometimes affected staffs from executing other task that had already been planned.
This challenge has been averted by proving quarterly; monthly and weekly work
57
plans to donors like AVSI to enable them know appropriate time for follow ups and
support visits.
Lessons learnt
One of the lessons learnt was that integrating mobile clinic or medical outreach with
community dialogue can be so beneficial since the medical outreach tends to attract
many community members hence during out reaches, key issues that affect the
community can be discussed before the medical services are provided hence the
medical outreaches significantly contributes in community mobilization for
dialogues.
The community of Koch is endowed with adequate resources hence when fully
equipped with adequate knowledge and skills on resource utilization, they
community is likely to transform for the better in terms of social and economic
growth and the community being able to adequately provided better care and
support for children.
Focus for 2015
Capitalize on the quality of our work
Bridge the existing gaps
Implement the new projects on board
3.4.5 SOS Hermann Gmeiner Medical Centre Gulu
During the year 2014 the attendance amounted a total of 6,909 patients accessed the
medical centre for curative services with an increment of 56% when compared to the
number of clients that accessed mc services in 2013. 2,253 were children below five
years and 4,656 were adults & 189 (155 adults and 34 children) were referred to
Hospital for further management. 1,435 patients received testing and counselling for
various diseases, 716 were counselled and tested for HIV, 208 mothers attended
Antenatal Care and 2076 clients (females) received the Modern family planning services.
Partnerships to achieve common goals
Medical centre Gulu continued working with partners to achieve common goals among
these were; Gulu Municipal Council, Gulu University medical school, Pace and Nuhites
at our Medical Centre. Through this partnership, were able to successfully carry out two
integrated medical camps in conjunction with the different partners.
Through our partnership with NUhealth, through result based financing requirements by
Nuhealth, were able to raise 156 million in cash for 2014 cycle. In terms of credit line
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(drugs) medical centre received drugs worth 7 million from the same donor for the year
2014 and donation in kind items worth 16 million.
Preventive health:
Outreach immunization in four immunization posts, Family health day and school health
programmes were conducted in the 4 parishes of Pece division. Routine mobile clinic
conducted at least twice a week in Koch Ongako with an average of 40 patients seen
per visit and their health conditions have really improved and they [FSP beneficiaries]
are appreciating the programme because of the broad services offer during the
outreach.
Challenges: During the course of the year we have register some challenges as below
Inadequate space, thus limiting services at the facility, this also has limited the
scope of income generation since we do not have the required services that would
have brought in more income e.g. inpatient department.
Lack of reliable internet connectivity that has hindered effectiveness in
communication at the medical centre retarding all activities.
Inconsistent transport for mobile clinic as the only available vehicle has to be used
by the different departments and the MC motorbikes are yet to be handed over by
the facilities that were using them.
Inadequate field facilitation due to unit running short of interest as this is also to be
shared within the different facilities.
Continued sloth in procurement system and thus retardation in every activity, this
has made it difficult for the medical centre to compete with other facility in service
delivery.
Proposed solutions
For the facility running short of impress for field activities, we would like to suggest
that management allows the medical centre to have its own impress than to have to
share with other facility
The management should device means of fastening the procurement process; we
would suggest that each facility does procure the essential items per facility unless
it’s a major procurement e.g. Computer sets, sophisticated machines etc
Expansion of the medical centre to overcome the problem of limited space and few
or substandard services which is limiting our partnerships with potential
partners/donors.
Need to buy another vehicle to support different facility activities to avoid over
loading and delaying activities
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Need to get a proper internet connectivity that can serve the whole location.
Lessons learnt
Through the different Partnerships the medical centre has been empowered and it has
helped take the medical centre to another level in regards to service delivery.
Organizations need to work hand in hand with others for better resource mobilization,
effectiveness and consistency in service delivery.
For a project to succeed there is need to involve the local leaders since they are in direct
contact with the communities.
Focus for 2015
increasing clientele to 12,000, enhancing the capacity of care givers to access health
services, increasing the health service provision from 51.4 % - 75%, improving sustainability
of medical centres through upgrading to a Health centre III level and improved visibility of
the medical centre.
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4.0 NATIONAL OFFICE
The National Office offers a supporting and coordination role to the location team. Headed by
the National Director, the National Office is manned by 20 staff (10 men and 10 women). The
office is comprised of several departments namely; Programmes, Finance and Administration,
Human Resource, Fund Development and Communication (FDC), Institution Partnership
Development and Information and Communication Technology and Sponsorship Department.
Below are some highlights on the Programmes, Human Resource, sponsorship and finance
departments;
4.1 Programme Development ONE CHILD
The One child Objective oversees the organisation embracing alternative care programmes,
Strengthening M & E systems, Implementation of the SOSCVPP quality requirements, Selfsustenance of programmes. ICT support to improve efficiency in service delivery, Skills and
career development, Advocacy campaign, enhancing the quality of education in SOS supported
school
In an effort to provide support to the locations team the department commenced the year 2014
with Gender mainstreaming training of trainers that provided an opportunity to train a team of
gender focal persons across all the locations that would support in mainstreaming gender.
Additional key support to locations include; Conducting supervisory project visits and reviews,
conducting self-evaluation in Fort Portal and reviews for the ADA funded projects, Donor liaison
and servicing, and Coordinating project report for timely submission to the Region Office.
Further the department was able to create avenue for reflections and developing corrective
actions.
Focus for 2015
Innovate new practices to foster progress of the programme within the Member
Association (MA)
Implementation of the SOS CVPP within the MA, (1)Technical support in
conducting SOS CVPP workshop for National steering team 2014 (2)
Participation in the review of SOSCVPP implementation
SOS children’s Village of tomorrow concept and principles (Dissemination of
information, Technical support in rolling it out)
Strengthen Child and youth Care programming and implementation within the
MA
Implementation of alternative care through defined guidelines on foster care
4.2 Human Resources ONE MOVEMENT
The One Movement objective oversees the organisation having co-workers who are committed,
motivated & competent to strongly support the development of the MA, and be supported to
provide quality service to children.
The one movement objective oversees various aspects in human resources including;
performance management, leadership development, capacity building, retirement planning and
61
awareness, SOS CVPP implementation Individual learning and development, staff orientation,
team building, staff retention governance among others.
Staff Composition and Statistics
In 2014, the HR department focused on filling various senior positions position gaps at both
National and facility level. We also facilitated several capacity building needs for a number of
staff in key areas of child protection, youth development, performance monitoring, proposal
development and writing, resource mobilization among others. We also conducted a detailed
orientation programme for all newly recruited management staff within and side Uganda. The
department also retired three long serving staff of the national Association.
Location
CV
FSP
MC
HGS/KG Total
1.
Entebbe
34
9
5
12
60
2.
Kakiri
39
10
8
46
103
3.
Gulu
35
11
6
29
81
4.
Fort portal
29
10
2
9
50
5.
National Office
20
Total
314
Key focus areas for 2015
Capacity building for programme learning & development
Develop strategies for staff retention & motivation
Improvement of mothers welfare (Review of mothers handbook) including SOS Uganda
Terms and Conditions of employment
Review of performance management tool with emphasis on measuring performance
Enhance board governance & development
4.3 Fund Development and Communications ONE FRIEND
The One Friend strategy for the organisation as summery is about developing and aligning
strong resource mobilisation strategies focus on institutional partnership development,
enhancing quality of documentation, recruitment of new donors, retention of committed donors
and staff capacity building.
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4.3.1 Achievements
STAFF CAPACITY BULIDING RESOURCE MOBILIZATION
During the period starting January to June 2014, four resource mobilization workshops for 86
staff across all 4 locations were conducted. The objectives of the workshops were to (1) raise
awareness of fund development (including institutional partnership development), (2) equip
location staff with knowledge and skills in local fundraising, (3) review the role and effectiveness
of the location fund development committees, (4) and review progress in implementing location
fund development plans. These trainings have enabled us to:
 Increase knowledge and skills in local fundraising as evidenced by the increased
number of initiatives by locations to identify needs, develop products and link these
products to potential donors.
 Form functional fund development committees whose members have clearly defined
roles, clear work plans and are meeting more regularly to discuss issues related to
resource mobilization.
 Identify capacity gaps in relation to Fund Development and as a result of gaps in
proposal writing skills, 2 trainings in proposal writing have been held.
TARGETS
In 2014, the department set off to raise a total of four hundred and sixty eight millions Uganda
Shilling (UGX468, 000,000/=) from corporate organizations, individuals, and donor agencies.
During the year; the department collected up a tune of UGX 287, 054, 751, /= (Two hundred
eighty seven million, fifty four thousand seven hundred fifty one) which is 61% of the total
revenue targeted for 2014. This amount was raised from only corporate donations, individual
and donations in kind. (Ref: Finance Department Update and illustration below) It does not
include collections from donor agencies and institutional grants.
Year 2014
100%
80%
60%
Year 2014
40%
20%
0%
Collected
Targeted
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Furthermore we raised a total of UGX: 187 million from donor agencies which included
USAID/Private Health Support Programme UGX: 75 million and NU Health UGX 112 million
accounting for part of the budgeted amounts above.
INDIVIDUALS DONORS
Although the individual giving platform is a little narrow in Uganda, there has also been a
category of individuals who are actively engaged in monthly donations to support various
aspects of our programmes. 120 individual are still making contributions to the organisation.
Focus in 2015 will be to target individuals of high net worth to increase revenue.
INSTITUTIONAL PARTNESHIPS
Part of the strategy towards diversifying the funding portfolio was through institutional
partnerships development. This initiative facilitated the development of various funding
proposals to institutional donors .Out of the 3 proposals that were submitted 2 were successfully
funded which included; Brand Charity (€50,000 for one year)
 USAID/UPHSP ($30,000 for one year)
4.3.2 Public Relations
We carried out various activities to create awareness in a publicity campaign around the brand
through targeted TV appearances, print media and radio talk shows. Below are some of the key
media appearances that SOS Children`s Villages Uganda has attracted.
The Katiikiro of Buganda`s Visit to Entebbe Event appeared in the Red Paper
Tuesday 13th May 2014: SOS Uganda hosted the Prime Minister “Katiikiro” of Buganda, Mr.
Charles Peter Mayiga at SOS Children's Village in Entebbe. During this visit, he was involved in
a sight tour of SOS programmes, presided over a ceremonial planting of a tree of legacy and
received the contribution of SOS Children's Villages Uganda to the reconstruction of the Kasubi
Tombs dubbed "Masiro Gwanga Mujje" The contribution was a unique gesture, aimed at
teaching our children that a giving hand is more blessed than a receiving one.
The Red Pepper News took keen interest and wrote about this event on the 18th, May 2014
Below is the caption:
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Above: Children welcome the “Katiikiro”
Left: The News caption on the Sunday Pepper.
Day of the African Child Celebrations
Every 16th June, the world commemorates the Day of the African Child. This year, 2014 SOS
actively joined various institutions in various events and organized two of these events at sub
county level under the theme "A child friendly, quality, free and compulsory education for all
children in Africa" which was able to attract media attention for publicity.
National Level
A story about how our very own SOS children shared challenges faced while at school in a
petition to the State Minister for Primary Education. This appeared on the Daily Monitor
Newspaper
dated
June
8th,
2014:
Please
see
attached
link:
http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/School-girls-petition-Education-minister-over-sexualharassment/-/688334/2340404/-/fx7hvuz/-/index.html
Top: A pupil demonstrates during the SOS meeting in Kampala on
Thursday. Pupils from various schools in the central region
submitted their intended petition to Education minister Jessica
Alupo about sexual harassment by teachers.
Right: Children strike a pose at Hotel Africana Kampala, where the
children`s dialogue session was held.
Day of the African child celebrations Entebbe
This was yet another celebration on the theme however, this time round it was held on the 18th,
June 2014 in Kitinda Sub-county jointly organized SOS Children`s Village Entebbe along with
other partners such are Hyslink Inc, Kids of Africa, the Kitinda Sub County and among others.
Media attention was also attracted during function that enabled the function to appear on the
9:00 O`clock News on UBC and 9:00 O’clock News on Star TV.
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On set, The National Director addresses the public
gathering.
Day of the Africa Child Celebration Kakiri
A function on the above them was organized, June, 16, 2014 at the sub county level in Kakiri
Wakiso district where SOS Children`s Village Kakiri was the lead organizer. This Event was
aired on Bukkedde TV and Record TV.
Above: Children and staff of SOS Children`s Village Kakiri get interviewed on various topics affecting children.
Easter Celebration with tropical bank and Uganda Scouts association
One of the local banks; Tropical Bank together with the Uganda Scouts Association organized a
fun day for the children in celebration of Easter. Local celebrities such as Peter Miles also joined
in the fun and shared various light moments with the children.
The Daily Monitor picked up this story and printed a half page pictorial business caption on
Page 2 on the Newspaper.
Below: Group photo with children Left: News caption
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SOS Day Celebration Entebbe
This started out as an internal event to bring children and staff on board with the need to uphold
the Vision of SOS that was started by Hermann Gmeiner but latter on was adopted as an
opportunity for SOS Uganda to strengthen our relationships with our donors & show them that
they are part of the big SOS family and appreciate them in a special way for their support.
Executed on the 11/7/2014, it was a great success with a turn up of 20 companies attending.
We were also able to get coverage on UBC 9:00pm news.
A child from SOS Children`s Village Kakiri wins an international painting competition.
Recently, one of our very own children, Paddy emerged the winner in a Road Safety Campaign
Painting Competition initiated by ÖAMTC/FIA (Federation of International Automobile) a partner
to Automobile Association of Uganda (AAU) and SOS Children´s Village International. 10
children from Uganda were required to create paintings visualizing their way to school in
preparation for the Annual UN Global Road Safety Week. The paintings were submitted to a
panel of judges who reviewed them among others from different countries including Jordan,
South Africa and Lebanon. Paddy`s wining artwork was printed on 330 T-shirts worth 6,600,000
and distributed to all children who participated in the contest.
The daily Monitor appeared captured this activity and wrote about it on the 24th June, 2014.
Above: A group photo with children and Staff of SOS Children`s
Village Kakiri and the Managing Director of Automobile Association of
Uganda (AAU)
Left: The news Caption on the Daily Monitor.
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The graduation of 35 families from the FSP programme in Gulu
SOS Children`s Villages Uganda in partnership with AVSI - SCORE in a
USAID funded project on Friday 19th September 2014 celebrated the
graduation of thirty five (35) households from the Family Strengthening
Programme under the theme “Empowering families to care, educate and
protect vulnerable children”.
This function feature on
NTV, UBC, Gulu FM, Social Media
DHL GLOBAL VOLUNTEER DAY – Kampala
4.3.3 Online Activity
The online marketing platforms have been a useful tool for public relations. During the year
2014 the department increased the organisations presence online through the social media
platform including Facebook @ SOS Children`s Villages Uganda, Twitter @UgandaSOS and UTube @ SOS Children`s Villages Uganda.
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The SOS Face Book Page gained popularity and as evidence, the number of friends has
increased from 358 In May 2014 to 1,130 in Sept 2014.
4.3.4 Sponsorship
The number of sponsorships for our Member Association (MA) has significantly grown over
2014. We are now at 4663 sponsorships (December 2014) from 4120 at the close of 2013.
Altogether an amount of UGX 3,656,824,485 was raised through our sponsors covering 36% of
the entire MA budget in 2014 and this was one of our key achievements we can proudly talk
about.
As a way of retaining our sponsors, a lot of emphasis was placed on our communication style –
it was all about story telling. We were required to tell stories of the children we support so that
the sponsors can feel connected and become more willing to support our work.
One of the locations (CV Entebbe) has been on the STOP list throughout the year as
communicated by IDS. This meant that we could not submit new child registrations or have any
additional child or village sponsorships since there was a major donor covering the running
costs for this particular location.
There has also been a strong appeal for a review in the sponsorship policy to enable the
programme to cater for children who are not under the Family Based Care programme as it is
now. This followed the growing number of children due for reunification with biological families
yet they still require some financial support from the SOS Children’s Villages. There is a need to
further explore this option in order to continue supporting these children even after they leave
the village.
Plans for 2015
PUBLICITY/VISIBILITY
Publicity as a strategy has been adopted and will be given priority so as to increase the market
share for the SOS Children`s Villages Uganda among various civil society organisations. This
will then enable the national association to attract various stake holders to partner along various
avenues.
ONLINE ACTIVIITY
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Steps have been taken to increase online marketing initiatives for the organisation. This will be
scaled up in the following ways: (1) The Organisations website will be constantly reviewed to
ensure that it responds and supports fundraising initiatives. (1) The social media platform will be
active enough to generate word of mouth about the organisation and drive publicity for the SOS
Brand.
STAFF MEMBERS AND FUNDRAISING
Fundraising is being considered as a deliverable of all staff and they are encouraged to take on
the fundraising aspects as addition roles. All staff will be encouraged to share new ideas, new
leads, and new ways of implementing various activities to help increase the chances of
attracting funds for the organisation.
SPONSORSHIP
Youth leaders will be empowered to give support to the Sponsorship Assistants in regard to
Sponsorship reports to ensure timely submission yearly reports to international individual donors
and sponsors.
NATIONAL RESOURCE MOBILIZATION STRATEGY
One National Resource Mobilization Strategy for SOS Uganda is to be prepared. This will be a 3
year to 5 year strategic direction for the National Association which will form a basis for annual
strategic plans stating 2015.
EVENTS CALENDER:
Given that previously each location executed individual events, there will be a change in this
practice. All locations will now be required to submit a schedule of events to the National Office
and one event calendar for the National association will be developed. This should enable the
organisation derive maximum impact and participation of as many as possible in every function
executed at both location and national level.
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4.4 Finance / Operation Department
The finance department is charged with managing all finances within the member association.
Total Income and Expenditure
Description
2014 Budget
Actual Y to Dec’13
Variance
1. Total Income
2. Expenditure
Ugx.10,256,649,173
Ugx. 9,401,756,787
Ugx.10,292,816,552
Ugx.10,694,463,508
36,167,379
Ugx.1,292,706,721
%
of
Budget
realizat
ion
0.35%
14%
1. The 2013 external audit was conducted successfully, though a qualified Audit report was
given as a result of failure to make provisions for the End of Service Benefits (ESB’s)
worth UGX: 823m.
2. A number of cost management strategies were recommended to the Board as a way of
strengthening our internal controls which included reducing cash transactions by
opening mother’s accounts and using online payment systems, reviewing the number of
bank accounts, reconciling the receivables and asset verification which was concluded
at the end of the year.
4.4.1 Internal Audit
The internal audit department was created during the year to run an objective independent
advisory function to the Board and Management. Following this new development, several miles
stones where achieved:
Pre-Audits were introduced to address issues relating to following procedure as
stipulated in the manuals
In the period under review, the internal audit unit developed the following policy
documents which were reviewed by the Regional Internal Auditor and are due for board
approval; (1) Internal Audit Charter – policy for mandate and authority (Terms of
reference) of internal audit function. (2) Internal Audit manual – policy and procedures
manual for internal audit function. (3) Finance and Audit Committee Charter – policy for
mandate and authority (Terms of reference) of the Finance and Audit Committee.
Annual Internal Audit Plan 2014 – Scheduled activities was conducted in the year 2014
by the internal audit unit. SOS Children’s Village of Uganda trust-GREIG PROJECT.
Internal Audit SOS Children Village Entebbe.
Internal Audit of Uganda Fort portal Children’s Village and FSP Programme.
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5.0
Information Technology Department
The ICT department registered significant improvements in 2014 with internet connectivity
available at all the locations with the exception of Gulu which will be finalised in quarter 1 of
2015. The national office and entebbe location is at 99 % uptime with support fromSmile
telecom which has offered free internet worthy UGX: 200,000 per month since November
2013.The internet connectivity uptime and downtime are 87% uptime and 97% uptime for fort
portal and Kakiri locations respectively We spent approximately $ 38,000 on internet
connectivity in 2014.
We registered several improvements including the implementation of the program databases
which was implemented, The FS database which was implemented in 2011 has seen a total of
2,357 beneficiaries entered and 732 caregivers.
Budget Utilization
The ICT department as of 2014 executed a budget of UGx 186,010,955 which is equivalent to
9% of the National Association entire budget.
Email Usage
There has generally been an increase in email usage by the staff both at management and
other co-workers. In 2012 the total number of email users was only 45 but as of 2014 the total
number of email users had risen to 147 and still growing.
Email Users
2012
2013
2014
45
84
147
Computers
The National Association has a total of 107 computers compared to the number of employed
staff 306. This means that about 3 people are to use a particular computer to effectively do work
within the designated timeframe given.
Internet outage and high costs:
The department experienced challenges including Internet outage and high costs. The high
cost of internet subscription from the different service providers affects the ICT Budget and NA
Budget significantly. The organisation pays a sum of close to 19,709 USD (UGx 52,228,800) for
internet subscription alone.
Power Outage
The various power outages in the locations of Kakiri, Gulu and fort Portal affected ICT systems
and connectivity.
Medical System
The National Association still lucks a system for the medical centers. This has made data
storage and reporting difficulty for these facilities.
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6.0 Conclusion
Ultimately, 2014 was a year in which SOS Children`s Villages Uganda moved forward to
recover the lost progress in the previous year 2013. We have realized key milestones both at
location and National level ranging from; the ever increasing number of children under our care,
strengthening the capacities of the families, establishment of community based partners and
increased networking with partners. We foresee positive progress in 2015 with a focus on
enhancing our brand visibility , reviewing our CVPP programme with focus on strengthening it
and incorporating efforts from the Institutional partnership Department (IPD) to tap into the
sizable donor funding. The growth in our kindergartens and some medical centres offers an
opportunity for self-sustainability. We hope to build on this foundation and realise more returns
in the coming year 2015 as we continuously learn from our past experience and embrace new
changes, new styles of leadership and most of all, new innovative ways of programme
implementation.
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