Uganda needs our help

Uganda is located in East Africa and, with an area of over 240,000 kilometers, is about six times as large as Switzerland. The average life expectancy is 53 years, the GDP per capita is 2100 USD.

In the HDI ranking of development Uganda is ranked only 163 out of 188 (HDI = Index of Human Development of the United Nations, UNDP)!

The wounds in this country, caused by one of Africa’s highest HIV rates and a civil war between rebel forces and the civilian government, are slowly healing. There are still countless disadvantaged children, including many orphans. Of the 39 million inhabitants, 50 percent are under 15 years old. They all need a perspective and hope.

Because Uganda is alive and wants to keep on living, we are pursuing this goal with our aid project God helps Uganda (GHU) and provide sponsorships in order to accomplish it. That’s why the growing generation needs our continuous help.

Team

BoT: Board of Trustees
PD: Program Director
FD: Field Director
*In planning: YDTC: Youth Development and Training Center
FEP: Family Encouragement Program

GHU is a subsidiary of the Swiss God helps foundation. It is a non-profit Ugandan registered NGO run by the Board of Trustees (BoT). The BoT is made up of Ugandan, Swiss and German people, who are elected by the Swiss Foundation Council of the Stiftung Gott hilft. The BoT works closely with a Swiss commission.

Children's home Lira

A place of safety for the affected children and young people

Teenagers were traumatized by their experiences as child soldiers.

Lira is located in northern Uganda. In 2008, GHU opened a children’s home there with three houses for a total of about 40 children. A civil war with many victims had just ended. There were many war orphans. Teenagers were traumatized by their experiences as child soldiers. Drawings of the affected children showed the unimaginable suffering they had gone through. Initially, we worked with local trauma therapists. In the home, the children and adolescents received consistent relationships and reliable structures. They had enough to eat and were able to attend school. The home in Lira became a safe place for them and slowly their wounds could heal. Nocturnal nightmares and wet mattresses, which were put into the morning sun to dry, were signs that the healing process would take a long time.

Today, the God helps Uganda Children’s Home in Lira is a state recognized institution with 10 years of experience. Most of the children who are admitted are full or half orphans. In addition to having their basic needs covered, the children spend their free time taking part in meaningful projects. In the home, emphasis is also placed on personality development and growing in faith. After visiting the public schools, the young people are also accompanied until they have completed a vocational apprenticeship. Some of them are offered the opportunity to gain their first professional experience within God helps Uganda as a volunteer.

As the GHU home became their real home, many remain connected to the home after their stay and visit it with life partners and children. Some former students even work as educators or in other functions at the children’s home in Lira.

Location

God helps Uganda

Kantonsstrasse 6
7205 Zizers

Tel. +41 81 307 38 00
Email
Routenplaner

Foster family Luwafu

In 1999, the first Children’s home of GHU was opened in Luwafu, a district of Uganda’s capital Kampala. A young couple, Christopher and Correti Kimole took over the home management. Christopher worked part-time as a pastor, spending the rest of the time with the six orphans. Their own four biological children gradually joined the family.

Today, the couple looks after the next generation of five children. They do not see themselves so much as a home, but as a foster family and are recognized as such by the state. The foster family is characterized by its family atmosphere. Every member of the family has a permanent place with the corresponding chores in the extended family’s everyday life. They clean, cook and pray together.

The foster parents, who have since become foster care grandparents, understand their responsibility for the orphans entrusted to them as their life’s work.

Where hope wins

We create safe places for mistreated and severely disadvantaged children and adolescents.

We want to teach kids and teens that love is stronger than hate - and that hope wins.

Not only do we provide for their primary needs and comprehensive protection, but we provide them with a perspective for an independent future through education, training and vocational training as well.

Who am I? What can I do? Where do I belong? These questions guide us as we give our best to help our children and adolescents develop their identity, their talents and their ability to participate in society.

At the same time, we support their ethical and spiritual growth by promoting their physical, social and professional skills. We have strong faith in them and also in God. This confidence strengthens, contributes, stabilizes and helps them to self-help.
By strengthening our individual clients, we always have the promotion of their environment (extended family, village) in our field of vision. So every sponsorship becomes a project sponsorship at the same time.

In our management we act spiritually, professionally, humanly and economically. In merging these aspects, we are pathbreaking. Our intercultural management is characterized by trust and clear policies. We work closely with the families of origin, the authorities and the churches.

Contact

All areas
Betriebsleitung
Leitung
Administration & Spenden

Daniel Wartenweiler

President God Helps Uganda and Chief Executive Officer «Stiftung Gott hilft»

+41 81 307 38 00
Email

Matthias Liesch

Administration & Donation

+41 81 307 38 00
Email

Richard Derrer

+41 79 534 83 95
Email

Youth

Encouragement instead of discouragement

The transition into adulthood is also a major challenge for African youth, especially if they have to master it without parents. There are very few job offers available. The economy in Uganda consists of many self-employed people who run their own one-man / one-woman businesses.

How can our young men and women learn to assert themselves in the working world? It begins with values for coping with their lives that were instilled in them through God helps Uganda, such as money management, sexuality and the principle of acting honestly and fairly. These values guide them in their lives. The young people are given good vocational training, such as becoming a mechanic, carpenter, hairdresser, electrician or cook, all skills that are in demand in their society.

As soon as the young adults leave God helps Uganda after completing their apprenticeships, they receive the tools they need to practice their profession (a tool kit, hairdryer hood, fridge for catering …). GHU remains in contact with them in case of emergencies. Their former caregivers are there to coach and encourage them.

The transition into adulthood is a major challenge

History of our development project

After a meeting between a Ugandan pastor and the Foundation Director of the Stiftung Gott hilft in 1995, the vision to set up an institution for AIDS orphans in Uganda was born.

Since 1999, three socio-educational foster families and a family encouragement program have been set up in Kampala, the capital of the country. After the end of the civil war in the north in 2008, we opened a home in Lira. The home was soon followed by the establishment of another family encouragement program.

In 2012, GHU entered a phase of consolidation, which was completed in 2018 when the executive responsibility was transferred to an African field manager.