Sponsorship SALEM-Uganda

SALEM helps children and young people

SALEM-Uganda enables children and young people to regain their physical and emotional health and reunites them with their families and relatives wherever possible, bringing hope and happiness back into troubled lives.

SALEM helps children and their families find self sufficiency through:

• Residential care when there is no one else to care for a child or when a place of safety is needed
• Access to primary and secondary education
• Access to vocational training
• Help for children with disabilities in our local community
• Help for the most poor and needy in the sub county of Nakaloke
• Community development with families and young people

Residential care

At any one time, up to 40 children and 10 babies* are being cared for within SALEM. These are children who have been orphaned, abandoned or abused or whose parents are unable to care for them.

(*These are the numbers of children we are registered to work with at any one time. Many are resettled back in their own communities in line with Ugandan government policy which limits the time a child spends in residential care to no more than three years where possible.)

Access to primary and secondary education

There are children in our local community who cannot afford to buy even basic school requirements such as pens, exercise and text books or shoes and uniforms. Some children need to attend boarding school because of difficult family circumstances.

Priority is given to those who have been resident in our Children and Babies Home, but there are many from our local community who have been assessed by our social worker as being in urgent need of such assistance.

At present, SALEM-Uganda pays fees for 19 children in primary and secondary education and would like to increase this number by 20% during the coming year.

A further 10 receive funds to purchase their basic school requirements. We hope to double this this number during the coming year.

Access to vocational training

Young people often cannot afford to train in order to gain skills for work. It is important to increase the numbers of young people entering vocational training from the local community in order for more families to become self-sustaining. In addition, once trained, young people need tools with which to earn a living and funds are needed for these.

12 young people are currently being supported in vocational training. Courses attended include electrical installation, motor mechanics, agriculture, medical laboratory technology and medicine. SALEM would like to increase this number by 50% during the coming year.

Help for children with disabilities in our local community

It is common for children with disabilities in Uganda not to access the education that is their right. SALEM is working with local government to develop a unit for children with disabilities at the neighbouring primary school for those living in our local community.

SALEM would like to enable 10 children with special needs to attend school during the coming year through contributing to the upgrading of a classroom at neighbouring Kolonyi Primary School.

Help for the most poor and needy in Nakaloke sub county and neighbouring districts

Funds are needed to offer emergency relief and assistance to those suffering extreme hardship. For example, 50 euros can pay for the rental of a garden for one year and seeds to plant maize or ground nuts, enabling a family to feed itself. This action helps to alleviate both poverty and hunger.

Help fund SALEM’s work with children and families

The annual budget for the operational costs of running the children and babies home and the children and youth welfare services is over 33,500 Euros per annum. There is no government funding here in Uganda to support orphans and vulnerable children. So it is only with the continuing help from friends, many of whom contribute on a regular basis that SALEM-Uganda is able to continue this work.