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Rwenzori Special Needs Foundation

Uganda

Ugandan children learning

Life is tough for Ugandan children with disabilities.

 

 

More than half of all children in Uganda live under the poverty line. It’s not easy for them to get medical treatment when they need it. For children with disabilities, life can be extremely difficult.

Eighty-five percent of children with disabilities in Uganda do not receive an education. There are only a few special needs / special needs-inclusive schools in a country of 21 million children.

Marks of Mission

Tend

Treasure

Transform

Cleft lip and disabilities in Uganda

Cleft lip is a common disability in Uganda; 0.5% of babies are born with this condition. It can be fatal to infants because it inhibits their ability to feed. Cleft lip in babies is linked to a lack of folic acid (vitamin b) and iron in the diet of their mothers during pregnancy. Access to supplements is difficult because of poverty and lack of access to health services, especially in rural areas.

Some families try to support their children but lack the funds or knowledge to support them adequately. Other families fear the very real stigma associated with disabilities in Uganda, and do not feel free to get the help their children need. Many children with disabilities, especially in remote areas, are abandoned by their families. The cultivation of nutritious food is another major challenge. This is because of unregulated lands, tribal conflicts, and climate change.

How the Foundation is helping

In 2021, a New Zealand special needs teacher called Dot Muir began RSNF in Uganda’s Fort Portal.

Since then, RSNF has reached an average of 20 new special needs children per month. They’ve supported hundreds of children with physical and/or mental disabilities. They provide surgeries and transportation, post-surgery care, vocational and education packages, and home-based support.

RSNF also offers seeds, nuts, fruit plants and livestock to ensure the children’s families can sustainably support themselves. For cultural reasons, families pay 5-10% of livestock costs to ensure that official ownership is recognised and kept safe.

RSNF needs your support

RSNF and their small team have a lot of passion and persistence! The COVID-19 epidemic has increased pressure, as has the number of families and children that require support. They need to employ more social workers and special needs teachers.

They also want to be able to partner with government health centres to train Ugandan mothers in home agriculture. That way children can be born without nutritional deficiencies.

Your donation can help make all of this happen. Give and make a difference today.

Meet Kengonzi Regina.

Regina and family

Regina (far left) with her family.

She was not able to go to school because her family couldn’t afford the tuition and because she was physically disabled. Regina was also neglected by her siblings because she was unable to walk to school with them.

Between 2017-2018, the Foundation registered Regina, and her family, as a beneficiary of the garden project after their need has been assessed. Among other types of support, the Foundation provided Regina’s family with 20kgs of groundnuts for planting.

Their first harvest was a fruitful one with 100kgs of groundnuts that was sold and earned them 550,000 UGX (which equates to around 223.5 NZD). This money was used to pay for Regina’s school uniform and material so that she could finally go to Kinyabuhara primary, a government-aided school in her area.

With this success, Regina’s family invested in a piglet and continued gardening. From groundnuts to Irish potatoes, their business grew and they were able to buy a small solar panel. The panel was used to power 3 light bulbs in their home which illuminated Regina and her siblings’ study sessions at night.

When Covid-19 hit Uganda, the Foundation was supplying food for families living on the margin and not knowing when their next meal will be. Understanding their struggle, Regina’s mother shared her stock of beans with the Foundation so that it can be distributed to three other families. That act of kindness helped those families go through the most difficult time of the pandemic.

This is the very story of “Give a person a fishing rod and they are fed for life”. And this is how the Rwenzori Special Needs Foundation is changing lives for the better in Uganda.

Your donation to the RSNF Project will enable many more success stories like Regina’s.

Donate to the Rwenzori Special Needs Foundation