WHO WE ARE
A small non-profit with a big impact, we work with governments, national partners and our worldwide network of supporters to highlight the harm and cost of orphanages in Uganda and globally.

OUR BEGINNING
Child’s i Foundation was established in 2009 with dreams of setting up the best orphanage in Uganda. Our Founder Lucy Buck had volunteered in orphanages across Uganda, witnessing first hand how children could so easily get caught up in the system and forgotten.
So Lucy set up a babies’ home and called it Malaika, meaning angel in Swahili, to prove that children could leave an orphanage, that every child can grow up in a family. Through Malaika, Child’s i supported families, reunited families and found adoptive families for hundreds of children.
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But as soon as one child left us, their bed was soon filled with another. It grew clearer and clearer - orphanages are not the answer. Not even while children wait for families. Not ever.
We learned. And in 2017, we completely pivoted our organisation. We closed Malaika Babies’ Home, and started working to address the root causes of why children end up up in orphanages in the first place. Now we train foster carers as the alternative to look after children, we partner with the Government to help build community structures for child protection, and we work alongside orphanages who want to repurpose their operations into community hubs.
So that this time, really, every child in Uganda has the opportunity to grow up in a family, not an orphanage.

OUR MISSION
Our mission is to enable Uganda to fully commit as a nation to curb the spread of orphanages, repurposing the orphanages that exist and reimagining the way it cares for vulnerable children and young people.

OUR VISION
One day, in a Uganda free of orphanages, all children will belong and grow up in safe and loving families.

OUR VALUES
WE DON’T COMPROMISE
Children come first in everything we do. We only do what’s in their best interest.

WE COLLABORATE
We work in partnership and harness the collective wisdom that emerges when individuals work together.

WE INNOVATE
We reimagine solutions and alternatives to orphanages.

WE ARE FEARLESS
We stand up for children and we’re fearless in challenging practices that are harmful to them.