Our Challenge:
Breaking The Cycle Of Poverty Through Education
“When I first taught at Kanyashande primary school, many of the children would come on an empty stomach, with no book or pencil, no uniform and such kids would be dozing while conducting the lesson.
The same kids would frequently be sent home due to the lack of payment for school tuition, and their performance at the end of the term would often be poor regardless of how bright they were. Extreme poverty is the inescapable present and future of many children in the Bwindi area. This poverty leads many children to drugs, alcohol, prostitution and human trafficking. ” -Francis Byamukama, Founder
Even those who are fortunate enough to make it into a school program often don’t have enough means within their families to continue over the long term.
Hungry and without supplies, many children fall out of school and back into the cycle of poverty.
Bwindi Uganda Children Charities (BUCC)
is a nonprofit organization striving to change this and create a better, brighter future for these children and ultimately the community
To accomplish this the leaders of BUCC, in partnership with BECU Founder Francis Byamukama, have been working since 2013 to set up a framework to house, feed, and educate orphans and vulnerable children from the region. After registering the organization with the Ugandan government, Byamukama and others established a small home for orphans and vulnerable children, chartered a private school, and set up some income-generating projects to move toward a self-sustaining operational model.
In just a few years, though, the orphanage and school has experienced rapid growth and demand, as more orphans and vulnerable children were taken in and parents or guardians who could not afford school sent more children.
Key Challenges
1. Limited Funds
We receive many orphans and vulnerable children every year who need our help. Funding for meals, clothing, healthcare has increasingly become a challenge.
2. Lack of Transportation
Children walk from neighborhoods as far as 6 to 8 km away, which limits their regular attendance and affects their academic performance and commitment.
3. Lack of Descent Accommodation for Boys
We lack the space to provide proper housing accommodations for the orphan boys.
4. School fees
Although we have established our own private primary school, teachers need payment and we also meet other operational costs to ran the school and again our first products will be joining secondary school next year and due to a growing population of the orphaned and vulnerable children joining us every year paying school fees is becoming a big challenge.
5. Food and Clothes
Due to limited funds and lack of sufficient income-generating activities at our children’s home, we are finding it difficult to provide for the growing number of needy children.
6. Health and disease
In cases of disease, care becomes a major challenge. Quick response to the attacks and later settling the hospital is always challenging. The common diseases are malaria, scabies, and measles. We have a few children with HIV.
7. Lack of Modern Technology
We are currently using fairly outdated equipment such as computers, photocopiers, cameras, etc. Improving our equipment would make operations much easier and efficient.
Partner With Us
We welcome anyone looking to join a wonderful mission to consider partnering with us as we take care of and educate the least of these.