The Martin James Foundation (MJF) is pleased to announce our new partnership with the Child’s i Foundation in Uganda.
With MJF’s support, Child’s i will implement a two-year project called “Demonstrating Community-led Alternatives to Orphanages”. It aims to work with organisations to create a professional foster and kinship care community that will work with the Government to review and approve the National Foster Care guidelines. It will also develop best practice models across three districts, which will serve as learning resources to be used to raise national awareness of alternative care in Uganda and the region.
During this project, Child’s i Foundation, with the technical support of the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development, will identify and assess 120 potential foster carers and submit 90 for approval. The project will collaborate with six civil society organisations to document and demonstrate alternative care models in their practice to support the Government of Uganda to consider approval of the National Foster Care Guidelines.
Good practice lessons learned, and contextual adaptations from the six organisations will be documented and shared with the Government as case studies to demonstrate contextual practice in the manuals. Learnings gained from this collaboration will be used to develop foster and kinship care models and tools to capacitate other organisations with knowledge and skills in foster and kinship care and safeguarding.
In Uganda, Child’s i Foundation has consistently worked with various stakeholders and communities on child protection and safeguarding programs. In this project, it is anticipated that the initiatives will position both foster and kinship care as an excellent alternative to institutions.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with Child’s i Foundation, working alongside them to contribute to the incredible work they are already doing. We are confident that this project will enable children in need of foster care to be placed with safe and loving families and kept out of orphanages.” – Daniel Croft, CEO, Martin James Foundation
“We are grateful for this support from MJF. The grant will enable Child’s i to consolidate its footprint in the alternative care space in Uganda, specifically through our contribution to policy discourse with the Government and other stakeholders. We anticipate that our efforts in this initiative will contribute to efforts in achieving formal approval of the Foster care guidelines that will be critical in harmonised practice in foster care among program implementers”. – Susan Ajok, Country Director, Child’s i Foundation
Background
The Martin James Foundation (MJF) is a global network of organisations working in alternative care for children. We believe that children should grow up in families, not in orphanages, and we are working to deliver, empower and influence work to make this a reality. The Foundation includes independent fostering agencies in Australia, Canada, Japan and New Zealand (Key Assets), support to foster carers in the UK (FosterTalk), and projects that contribute to the global efforts in deinstitutionalisation.
Child’s i Foundation was established in Uganda in 2009, having transitioned from a children’s home – Malaika Babies’ Home. The organisation works towards addressing the root causes of why children end up in orphanages in the first place. Its main interventions include system strengthening for childcare reform which includes training foster carers, and a community social workforce as a sustainable alternative to orphanages. Further, Child’s i partners with the Government of Uganda to help build community structures for child protection and works alongside orphanages to support them technically in repurposing their operations into community hubs that serve the wider community.
