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Mikwano. How is your life?
Promoting the health and well-being of the poor, destitute and orphaned children of Uganda.
Mikwano Children’s Trust Uganda
Mikwano Children’s Trust – Uganda (Mikwano) is a small non-profit making organisation dedicated to providing financial and advisory support promptly, efficiently and directly to the poor, needy and destitute children of Uganda. Mikwano’s mission is to help these children live happy, healthy and fulfilling lives, free from poverty, cruelty, exploitation, disease and hardship.
Founded in 2006 by two British volunteers; James Armson and Rachel Turner, both of whom worked with children’s charities in Uganda. Working with some of the poorest families, they witnessed first hand the enormous and wonderful benefits international aid was capable of achieving on a small, local scale.
The Trust is a non-profit making organisation, relying entirely on the kind and generous donations of supporters, patrons and friends.
Thank you for your interest in Mikwano and for any support you can offer, with your help we can continue to make a real difference to the lives of the children of Uganda.
A letter from afar
“Dear James Armson, My name is Rachael Nasaazi, I am in primary four and a prefect of English language, my best subject is science. I am nine years old.
Thank your for helping me pay my school fees. My father, late Mathias Batanda died in 1997 and in 2006 my mother, late Nantaba Agnes died too. I was also taken to Mengo Hospital and the counsellor told me that I was HIV negative. God loves me. Thank you for loving me too.
Yours faithfully, Rachael Nasaazi”
Projects
Current Projects.
Primary School Education Programme
The Ugandan government introduced UPE (Universal Primary Education) in 1997. This provides free primary school education nationwide to all children. However, the implementation of this policy has been slow and ineffective, resulting in most primary schools having to continue to charge school fees. Families are also required to pay for uniforms, scholastic materials as well as school maintenance fees, which makes primary school education prohibitively expensive. As a result it is far too common for children to drop in and out of school as family circumstances change and far too many never attend school. There is no legal requirement for children to attend school.
Since 2006 Mikwano’s sponsorship programme has put over 1,000 children through primary school education. The sponsorship programme covers school fees, scholastic materials, lunch and sundries, depending on the needs of the children and the schools. Nearly all the children on this programme are orphans and none of the children would be able to attend school if it were not for Mikwano’s assistance. The children are putting a lot of effort into their studies as they appreciate the opportunity they have been given by our donors.
It costs Mikwano approximately £100 to fund a child per academic year.
Providence Home Nkokonjeru
Providence Home is run by the Little Sisters of St Francis of Assisi. About 5 of these wonderful nuns care for about 100 disabled, destitute or orphaned children and a few destitute and disabled elderly, providing shelter, food, medicines and vocational training.
Mikwano has supported Providence Home since 2008, helping to provide these essentials.
All children who are able to, go to local schools. Some donors support individual children by paying their school fees, others by contributing to food and medicine costs. Much of the food is grown on their own farm and the children all look after each other.
Mikwano also pays for an occupational therapist who runs a programme for many disabled children in the community, with their families, to help them become self-sustaining.
In 2016 the Watson Family Charitable Trust made a very generous donation, followed by others in the next two years. This has made an incredible difference to the lives of the children, elderly and their carers – they now have solar power, clean water from a borehole and the children no longer wash outside with a jerrycan of water but have flush toilets and showers.
Children with Special Needs
Mikwano sponsors Patricia a beautiful young girl who when she was just four was diagnosed with cancer of the abdomen. Patricia spent over a year in hospital receiving chemo and radiotherapy, and though the cancer is in remission she suffered a stroke which left her right side paralysed. Mikwano now sponsors her physiotherapy, counselling and education.
Mikwano sponsors Richard, a deaf orphan, to attend Ntinda School for the Deaf. Richard is a full time boarder receiving an academic education as well as vocational training. It costs Mikwano approximately £500 per year to meet all Richard’s requirements.
Mukisa Foundation
The Mukisa Foundation was established 2006 to assist families with children with special needs. One in every ten children in Uganda is born with some form of disability and The Mukisa Foundation operates a comprehensive therapy centre for these families.
The centre provides a multifaceted family help system, focusing on physiotherapy, occupational therapy, counselling and education. For further information please click on the following link: https://www.mukisa-foundation.org/en/
Mikwano provides annual grants to Mukisa to fund their special needs school, help run their therapy centre and to provide vital medicines for the children.
St. Philomena's Orphanage, lganga
St Philomena’s is a lovely, well run orphanage at Iganga. Mikwano helps to provide formula milk for the babies and toddlers. Unfortunately, in Uganda, the international suppliers of formula milk are not allowed by law to donate or sell formula milk cheaply. As formula milk is very expensive to buy, the only alternative for babies who cannot be breast fed is watered down cow’s milk.
Uganda
Uganda - Facts & Figures.
34,856
POPULATION (2014)
241,038
AREA (SQ KM)
52
MALE LIFE EXPECTANCY
53
FEMALE LIFE EXPECTANCY
History
The Republic of Uganda is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, which is also bordered by Kenya and Tanzania.
Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompassed a portion of the south of the country including the capital Kampala. The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, when Bantu-speaking populations migrated to the southern parts of the country. Uganda gained independence from Britain in 1962.
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni (born c. 1944) has been President of Uganda since 26 January 1986. Museveni was involved in a war that deposed Idi Amin, ending his rule in 1979, and in the rebellion that subsequently led to the demise of the Milton Obote regime in 1985. With the notable exception of northern areas, Museveni has brought relative stability and economic growth to a country that has endured decades of government mismanagement, rebel activity and civil war.
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Museveni was lauded by the West as part of a new generation of African leaders. His presidency has been marred, however, by invading and occupying Congo during the Second Congo War (the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo which has resulted in an estimated 5.4 million deaths since 1998) and other conflicts in the Great Lakes region.
Rebellion in the north of Uganda by the Lord’s Resistance Army continues to perpetuate one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Recent developments, including the abolition of presidential term limits before the 2006 elections and the harassment of democratic opposition, have attracted concern from domestic commentators and the international community.
It is a member of the African Union, the Commonwealth of Nations, Organisation of the Islamic Conference and East African Community.
Health
Uganda has been among the rare HIV success stories, one of the reasons being openness. It has been reported that 95% of all Ugandans ages 15–49 claim to practice monogamy. This is supported by the findings of a 2006 study that modern contraceptive use in Uganda is low. Infant mortality rate was at 79 per 1,000 in 2005. Life expectancy was at 50.2 for females and 49.1 for males in 2005. There were 8 physicians per 100,000 persons in the early 2000s.
Uganda’s elimination of user fees at state health facilities in 2001 has resulted in an 80% increase in visits; over half of this increase is from the poorest 20% of the population. This policy has been cited as a key factor in helping Uganda achieve its Millennium Development Goals. However, a major problem for many people is the cost of drugs, which have to be paid for. This means that for serious illnesses such as cancer, people often depend on local healers.
Uganda suffers from high levels of malaria transmission. Children and pregnant women are most affected; malaria causes almost half of all deaths in under-fives and almost a third of deaths during pregnancy. Simple measures such as mosquito nets are not used universally – everyone has malaria from time to time.