One glance at the Rafiki Children’s Home in Naalya and I was fairly certain all the children in there were in safe hands. I spot two guards as I make my entry to the double-storeyed apartments set in beautiful surroundings. It is an adorable environment all-round.
As I continue on my way to meet Joseph Kiwanuka, the founder of Rafiki, I witness lively staff happily engaged in different sorts of activities with the children. ‘Rafiki’ is Swahili for friend, and there is no doubt in my mind at this early stage that each of the children here is among friends.
Rafiki Children’s Home is one of the projects of Rafiki Africa Ministries—a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2009 by Joseph and wife Sara. The home, established in 2010, mostly serves as an emergency, transitional care facility.
“The inspiration was after me and my wife working with various charity organisations in the country, we felt with the little we had, we can do something to save the disadvantaged young generation,” Joseph said of the charity home’s beginnings.
“Before initiating this project, I had worked with various charity organisations where I got exposed to all kinds of lives, adding to my early childhood experience since I was raised from a humble background too,” Joseph, who is a director at the charity, added.
The home started with only four children and two staff members who stayed in a small rental in Namugongo but in just one year, the project found itself requiring a new and larger rental home in Naalya, in order to take in the growing numbers of abandoned or abused children the Kiwanukas had set out to give new hope. Currently the home has 16 children, after returning 28 children to their respective parents/guardians. There are 20-25 babies and children in their care at any given time, according to Joseph. To keep up with the growing needs as well as numbers, even the staff complement has risen to 10.
Finding each child a family
The home focuses on children from 0-5 years, and in addition to being abandoned or abused, the other criteria that qualifies a child for admission are if they are orphaned or disadvantaged. The plan, however, is to resettle these children into a family—ideally, their original family. Rafiki’s idea, the project’s desire, is that child will grow up in a loving family where they are cared for by parents, relatives, and the community. In cases where this will not be possible, the project seeks foster families.
“We engage police and other government institutions for legal possession of these children,” Joseph explained. The children kept at the home are given a Christian upbringing—there are even Bible stories and prayers every evening.
“By raising these kids in a loving, Christian environment we hope to give them a foundation that will help them succeed in life and one day be able to give back to God, their community and the world,” Joseph added.
How you can get involved 
He would, however, want to see Ugandans volunteering to be foster parents to the children at the Rafiki home, in a departure from the norm where the most willing foster parents for African children in such homes are most of the time from countries in the West. That is just one of the challenges. A strange one involves integration of children back into their original families; some parents intentionally decline to take their children on.
Additionally, the children’s home is constantly challenged raising funds to pay bills. “We spend a lot of money on the children. For instance, in a week we spend between Shs3m – 4m and this covers things like access to education, quality medical care, nutritional food, clean water as well as shelter,” Joseph told Matooke Republic.
For that reason, Rafiki welcomes any kind of donation because in Joseph’s words, “It is our collective obligation to nurture the innocent young generation. For any donation or assistance, one can visit our official website or come to our offices in Naalya.”
Big plans for the future
Rafiki will certainly need all the money they can get. In 2015, the ministry purchased six acres of land in Kakiri to aid their expansion. This is where Rafiki Children’s Village is planned to go up. It is a project whose cost is estimated at one million dollars (Shs3.6b), so you now know why you should get giving.