Following our recent appeal for help to improve facilities in our Children and Babies Home, we have now been able to extend and improve the shower and washing facilities for the babies.

Today, up to 40 children and 10 babies are cared for within the Children and Babies Home at any one time. They are cared for in family sized groups in a village like setting, and the homes are run by indigenous people according to local custom. Salem Uganda's objective is to demonstrate the best of Ugandan culture in caring for its' children and the environment and we have marked 2008 as a special year for the children here.

In accordance with the laws of Uganda, Salem social workers work hard to reunite children with their relatives. This work requires careful investigation and can take many years and requires the resources of expertise, time and money.

Our children are given loving and support, but our sanitation and water drainage facilities urgently need upgrading to improve upon the living conditions in the village.

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When children are resettled, they have a need for education support and/or vocational training to enable them to support themselves and their families in a sustainable way. Others, who live in the community, are in hard straits and, where funds are available, also need help to become self sufficient and so reduce their level of poverty.

Geoffrey and his sister Getu, for example, are orphans who spent some years living in Salem. Geoffrey spent 9 months training to be a carpenter in Salem workshop. He was given tools and is now resettled with his sister and earning sufficient funds to support both themselves, their elderly grandmother and his new wife!

In addition to those children in our care who need education, a further 50 children and their families are supported in the community.

Salem Uganda would like to enable more young people to benefit in this way. The need for such help is overwhelming!

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Salem Uganda receives children with disabilities into the care of the Children and Babies Home. It has been difficult to find suitable schools for our children, but we have been persistent and schools have been found.

In our local community, there are children who are denied their right to education, simply on account of their disability! Often they are confined to home and do the domestic work for the family. This is the fate of Robina, aged 15 years whose lower limbs are wasted and useless. But she is interested to learn and does her best to teach herself from the primary school books of her younger brothers and sisters. How can these young people fulfil their potential?
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Salem Uganda is surrounded by high levels of poverty, poor housing and sanitation. Every month malnourished children arrive for medical help at our Nutrition Centre. Such families have poor living conditions and follow up visits are made by the Salem social worker to offer advice and give some help.

Much was done by the early pioneers of Salem to make clean water accessible for local people who encouraged the building of latrines in homesteads and improved community health through the training of community health workers and traditional birth attendants.

Poverty of both the environment and the people, however, remains. To help remedy this, Salem is now embarking on a major community development programme to improve the tree coverage and also the economic welfare of people living in its' immediate neighbourhoods.

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Music arts, drama and recreational activities allow children to get to know their culture and others within their community. In addition, learning the dramatic arts enables children who have experienced problems to find ways to enjoy life and find healing of Spirit. Drama allows for different situations regarding health and social well-being to be played out before the local community. This can have a beneficial effect on the way communities live together.

In 2008, Salem Uganda is implementing music, arts and drama programmes for the benefit of both the orphans and the local community. This work is an important part of our Community Development Initiative.

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