Spotlight on Changing the Way We Care

Changing the Way We Care is a global movement that promotes family-based care by leveraging the experience and expertise of CRS, Lumos, and Maestro International in working with vulnerable children around the world.  The movement is about deinstitutionalizing  children and ensuring that they thrive in families. 

The experience of care leavers in Uganda speaks to the importance of movements like these.   One of UCL's core objectives is to advocate for deinstitutionalization, through the lens of care leavers' experiences in our network.   Their stories of growing up in orphanages build more credence to movements promoting family-based care.

Changing the Way We Care released this video, shedding light on the complications of deinstitutionalization.

Ruth Wacuka spent part of her childhood in an orphanage. During her time there, she says she got her hopes up and became attached to volunteers, but then was sorely disappointed when they left. She explains why she is asking people who want to volunteer in an orphanage to reconsider and to put their energies into programs that strengthen families instead.