ABOUT UGANDA CARE LEAVERS

About UCL

Uganda Care Leavers (UCL) project is a welfare project designed to support children, youths, and adults who have spent their half or all of childhood in institutional care such as residential facilities, child care facilities and orphanages.

The project is supported by Child's i Foundation, Better Care Network and Bula inc.USA
UCL was established in 2016 in response to the growing number of children, youths, and adults living in child care institutions.  UCL  set out to first learn from the experiences of care leavers before, during, and after care to gain insight on how institutional care impacted their lives and to determine what (if any) measures should be in place to support this specific group in Uganda. 

While conducting this research, UCL has formed a network of over 500 care leavers across Uganda.  Through this network, care leavers are able to share their experiences, learn from one another, and work together to pursue common goals. 

The collected research will reflect their experiences as well as their views on growing up in an institution.  The findings will be shared with key stakeholders such as governmental bodies as well as NGOs so that they can improve upon their approach to child care across the country.

The UCL project has taken steps to register as an independent NGO to better support its members and advocacy efforts.