Our Work

Wa Mimma Razaqnahum Yunfiqoon

Every single human is unique and deserves equal access to HUMAN BASIC needs (Food, Shelter, Healthcare, Education and Freedom).

WHAT WE DO

Ukca Foundation’s primary objective is social well-being and we strongly encourage humility in giving and caring. Our practice is the voluntary giving of help to those in need, as a humanitarian act, unmotivated by self-interest. We mainly focus on basic human needs, including physical, psychological, and social needs. We provide for Orphans/people in desperate poverty/need, and we need to find those without a voice. Our efforts are aimed at finding appropriate ways to ensure that their needs and rights are met. We offer regular, consistent support, including Daily healthy meals, clothing, shelter where necessary, education, healthcare, and leisure. We know these are central to human survival, growth, and development.
We provide variety, significance, love, and connections to cater to clients’ psychological and social needs. We know if we fail to satisfy these basic survival needs, it will dominate their interests and concerns. Need satisfaction is as significant for us as our clients for healthy development, engagement, motivation, and well-being. We have the privilege of serving orphans and families in need. What brings meaning to the Ukca Foundation is the user transformation and development through our care. We are thankful to all our supporters who believe in what we do for their kind hearts.

FEEDING

Hunger is the world’s top health risk. Hunger kills more people every year than any disease. We believe that when poor people die of hunger, it is because we (society) never provided for them what they needed. Hunger knows no boundaries, and there is a population of hungry people in many areas of our world. Ukca Foundation dares to believe that humans should have at least two meals per day for their bodies. Food? Yes, Food. We cannot do anything meaningful when we are hungry. We provide healthy meals for all clients in our care as a priority (breakfast and 2 main meals per day). Ukca Foundation outreach team caters to several families in the community through our feeding program.

Ukca Foundation’s healthy diet has these characteristics: A high intake of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, fat-free dairy, sea-foods, and nuts, and a low intake of meats and sugar-sweetened foods. The task of Ukca Foundation is to provide enough healthy food for those who have nothing. We do the best we can within our budget. Currently, our clients are happy with the feeding program and are healthy. Together, we can reach zero, as in zero hunger throughout the world.

In Uganda, we should count ourselves lucky for our strong-familial and tribal ties. Our communities, families, and friends are motivated to look after children in their surroundings who require care and protection. This is much truer than in other cultures around the world.

Unfortunately, these families face poverty themselves but have the best hearts and can only help the children survive. Ukca Foundation is mandated to speak out for those in genuine need of care.

HEALTH

Mankind’s first and foremost priority is to be Health without any Disease/Pain. The greatest gift, contentment, wealth, and relationship to Mankind is good Health. Humans, we have not yet grasped the true value of health until we lost it. That is why health is taken for granted till sickness comes. Health affects every single one of us on this planet. The groundwork of all human happiness is good health. Ukca Foundation works on PREVENTION. Preventing illness is a major challenge, however, one ounce of prevention is better than one pound of cure.
We do this through nutritious food, education, hygiene-wash hands/body, picking litter, providing clean drinking water, providing hygienic sanitation facilities, and medical checks.
Ukca Foundation provides love, joy, laughter, and faith so that our clients can have peace of mind and peace in their hearts. Hope and good health will make their minds stronger and clear. Our interventions, care, love, and respect have made a big difference in the lives of our clients.

Together we will create an effective system of care for all Orphans and those in desperate poverty/need and provide communities with access to necessities and tools they need to empower themselves towards healthy living.

HEALTH

EDUCATION

Ukca Foundation believes that increasing children’s access to Education can improve the overall health and longevity of society, grow economies, and even combat climate change. The foundation has made Education a priority for all its clients because it is the best way to end poverty and child exploitation. Poverty keeps accessing Education out of reach because of numerous factors. Some are obvious, like poverty, and not having a school to go to, while others are subtle, like Educators at schools have not had the training needed to help children learn effectively. Language barriers, gender roles, and reliance on child labor all stall progress for quality education.
In Uganda, Education is affected by poverty, Distance to School, Having no classroom/No teacher or untrained teacher, Lack of learning materials, Having a disability, Being the ‘Wrong’ Gender, Hunger, and poor nutrition. As a result, many poor families cannot improve their quality of life to break free from poverty. We need not forget that only when children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged, will they be able to master the knowledge and skills they need for a brighter future. Our world’s most vulnerable children from disadvantaged communities are more likely to miss out on school. This also includes young girls and children with disabilities. Outside School, we focus more on practical knowledge (Hands-on skills). We skill them up today for a better future with opportunities tomorrow. We try to show them the practical implications of theories they learn from Schools. This we do because; Knowledge from which no benefit is like a treasure out of which nothing is spent in a good cause.

Our clients shall be exposed to skills they need that will benefit them in the future. We thank and support the Uganda government program of free Universal Primary Education (UPE) BONNA BASOME. Its only downfall is greedy, corrupt School heads who have turned Schools into businesses for their benefit. Headteachers do put pressure on parents to divert from the UPE program and make them agree to pay sums of money to facilitate weekly tests and monthly exams for better academic performance. Looking at their PLE national academic performance proves that the money parents pay does not make their children improve. We support and advocate for this free Education program for all children, especially Orphans, Girls, and children with disabilities. This gives them a healthy start and the chance to learn, grow, acquire new skills, and create opportunities for their future whilst their parents/guardians can go to work. We know that a small chunk of children’s learning takes place at School, and we recognize the importance of practical learning, interactive teaching, and learning methods. We have set up partnerships with educational institutes and have community projects such as Ukca Foundation Litter Day; to teach and inspire the community/children to do good things for themselves and their country/community thus making a change. Ukca Foundation encourages its clients and the local community to take part in activities that strengthen development through work and social skills. The more we teach and involve children when they are young, the better for all humanity.

WATER AND SANITATION PROGRAM

Clean water is a human right; giving it is righteous. Our communities have suffered the consequences of unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, and unhygienic habits that play a major role in child mortality. We shall not defeat any of the infectious diseases that plague our communities/world until we have won the battle of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and basic health care. We live in a world where every two minutes, another child under five years old dies from water and sanitation-related diseases.

The provision of safe drinking water, adequate sanitation, and basic health care will transform lives and boost child survival in many regions. It will also combat the long distances children from poor communities have to travel to collect water and leave them time to go to school as well as improve the ability of community members to earn livelihoods through work.

Ukca foundation’s water and sanitation projects include the construction of boreholes, providing water pumps and equipment in villages where they still travel long distances to fetch water. We advocate and campaign to make sure that the public, governments, and international organizations understand the water needs of poor people, and work towards improving their lives.

Ukca foundation advertises and prints awareness messages in public institutes and Educational facilities. We request the government to intervene and develop quality local water infrastructures. We advocate for upgrading all community toilet blocks, and all schools to have and maintain safe water and toilet conduct schemes, improving the lives of slum dwellers to combat malnutrition and disease, many of that are linked to a lack of clean water and improved sanitation.

Ukca foundation safe house is equipped with clean drinking water, decent toilets cleaned regularly, and cleaning utensils. All Ukca foundation’s sheltered clients must adapt to strict hygienic rules. (General cleaning, keeping drainages clean and flowing, not touching food with dirty hands, washing hands after toilet, no littering).

ORPHANS COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT

Ukca foundation uses health professionals to assesses the cognitive functioning of the children in our care to help their development and progress towards independence. We look at their perception, motor skills, learning, memory, problem-solving, attention span, and executive functions (Abilities that enable goal-oriented behavior, such as the ability to plan and execute a goal) including Flexibility, Theory of mind, Anticipation, Problem-solving, Decision making, Working Memory, Emotional self-regulation, Sequencing, and Inhibition. We also play games that require thinking and remembering using board games, mental math, card games and other.

SAFE-GUARDING

Ukca Foundation is committed to client safeguarding. Every child should have a safe place to grow and thrive. Our main safeguarding issues include physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect.
We watch, recognize and have a clear understanding of what the different signs and symptoms of potential abuse, harm, and neglect can be.
If there is a safeguarding concern, we respond appropriately and do not ignore the situation. We record, report, and refer.
Ukca Foundation safeguarding policy is in place to protect clients from maltreatment; prevent the impairment of client’s mental and physical health or development; ensure that our clients grow up in circumstances consistent with the provision of safe and effective care; and take action to enable all clients to have the best outcomes. Our challenge is to ensure safety in all areas of our work. We have a zero-tolerance approach to breaches of our safeguarding policies. We thoroughly investigate all breaches of our policy because we work with people who are vulnerable and at higher risk of harm, including children and adults.
We do One-to-one talking with all clients. We also watch for signs such as a bruise on a child, Changes in a child’s mood/behavior like withdrawal, or aggressive or inappropriate behavior from an adult.
Ukca foundation shelter is a place where we encourage children to show up as they are, feel at home, play, dance, be silly, open their hearts to another, listen and be listened to, cry, laugh, rest, tell the truth, and trust they are not alone. We do not use corporal punishments however, we set behavior boundaries and live together as a big family unit.
We shall equip our shelter with CCTV and other modern technology for the safety of ourselves and our clients.
Ukca Foundation takes steps to assess risks and avoid any adverse effects of our work that might expose children to danger or lead to abuse. We have a vetting process for clients, staff, volunteers, and consultants and a complete Disclosure through the national system. All staff shall undertake an online safeguarding course including a comprehensive in-house safeguarding training session. We follow guidance from the Government and the charity commission protocols for child safeguarding.

OUTREACH SUPPORT

Ukca Foundation outreach support team uplifts Orphans and their guardians as well as poor families into self-reliance and independence within their own environment. Our goal is to provide assistance and promote confidence and skills for independent living. Ukca Foundation is reluctant in sheltering orphans and prefers caring for them with a trustable guardian within their own family settings. We leave those who still have guardians/family relations, in their home environment and provide the tools and the assistance they need to develop. Our shelter only caters to those that have no other option and those the guardians have requested us to shelter. However, we still encourage them to keep in contact with the family members they are left with. We aim to keep families together where possible and are keen on promoting family ties (family bonding). This is because children do thrive more in family settings. They might be facing poverty and in need, but children always see their parents as kings/queens and the parents see their children as the whole world. That is what money cannot buy. However, for the Orphans we shelter, we respect them and show them that they are loved, accepted, and belong. We have learned that physical health and development are among the many components of life affected by Orphanhood. Children in institutional settings may from stunted growth, even with plenty of healthy food. Children who struggle with poor growth usually also encounter a wide range of medical problems.

QUALITY STANDARDS

Ukca Foundation works to the highest possible standards with integrity and transparency. Our quality management standards establish a framework for how to manage our key activities.
These are details of requirements, specifications, guidelines, and characteristics that our services and processes consistently meet to ensure: the quality of care we
provide matches client expectations and needs. They identify an agreed way of managing the process and delivering quality care. There are embedded within our core values and provide us with a framework that serves as a tool for staff recruitment, induction, training, and performance management. We apply our standards to partner capacity development, project monitoring, management, and continuous improvement. We are what we say-transparent, honest, reliable,
patient, and caring. What we say, what we do, and how we do our work is open to public scrutiny as we work towards the whole life transformation of our clients. We stand against all forms of unlawful conduct as exploitation, abuse, fraud, corruption, bribery, and others. We strive to transfer power to the people we serve to enjoy life as their right.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Ukca Foundation to achieve its mission and ensure that our work has an impact, we need to be accountable in all areas of our work. This helps to avoid corroded public respect for our work.
Accountability is an assurance that Ukca Foundation evaluated its performance for which it is responsible.
We are accountable for our actions, behaviors, performance, and decisions. That is why we are transparent, share information, invite the community in some decision-making, and work on better evaluation and complaint mechanisms. This increases our commitment to work, staff motivation, and the quality of service we provide.
We make public statements that call for support from the wider public. We ensure that what we say is based on our mission to overcome the poverty and suffering of Orphans/poor people. To make more informed judgments about us and what we say, the public is entitled to know whether what we say is exactly what we do and to know the reasons. If concerns are raised that our claims are inaccurate or unfounded, we will investigate and respond appropriately. We are committed to an open and accountable management system in which all our staff members are line-managed. We also have human resources policies, to which clients/staff with grievances or those wishing to disclose information about malpractice have recourse. We ensure our work is effective by involving the community, other organizations, and partners. They monitor what is delivered and assess the impact. If there are concerns, we want people to be able to make a complaint and to know that it will be acted upon. We publish information about our work on this website. We produce a variety of reports, including the Annual Report and Accounts and the Annual Review, as well as other materials such as newsletters and email messages.
We pledge to continue working in a transparent manner that provides evidence of efficiency and effectiveness and sustainable programs that shall bring progress to our clients. We have a commitment of care to our clients. We have to provide a unified approach to the quality of care across the organization.
The most comprehensive and current source of information is our website. We have specific processes to deliver accountability to our supporters. We provide regular reports/feedback. Finally, we are accountable to the Charity Commission and its regulations. We are also accountable to the government where we operate.

NETWORKING

Ukca Foundation requires networking with many organizations, our supporters, and the general public. This helps to exchange information and ideas in an informal social setting. We aim to make new relationships as well as foster existing ones. Through the new relationships, we hope to strengthen work connections, exchange ideas, learn, and make progress in our work. We get involved in charity networking events and conferences.

We try to connect with and reach out to relevant professionals to get fresh ideas, access new information, support and get support, gain a different perspective and develop long-lasting work relationships.
Our practical networking strategy is to meet people through our existing networks. We are open to all opportunities and connections. We make offers before asking and follow up after meetings.
Our rules for effective networking include joining groups with the same interests as us, volunteering to do work for our partners, giving, not just receiving, broadening our social circle, and being aware of our image.

We use our Office for face-to-face communications. We also use technology such as in-office phones/mobile phones, this website (www.ukcaf.co.uk), and laptops with an internet connection. We know that working with honesty and patience is the only way to our success. We are determined and committed to the long journey that requires patience, but there will be success. We can see progress in our clients.
We address the drivers of vulnerability and are client-hearted, compassionate, resilient, courageous, and truthful. Together we will support people and communities in developing resilient livelihoods that are economic and environmental. We are not worried about failure because it is the best way for Mankind to learn.

HOW WE MEASURE IMPACT

Ukca Foundation does not follow up its’ charity work with reminders of generosity or insult to clients. We respect the people we care for. All Orphans and families we support have complex needs. The care we provide is no different from our own children/family. Our impact can be measured by the improvements within the foundation and our clients.
The support from the general public is a big motivation for us and a success. When we see a smile on clients we care for, when children play/work, get educated, leave primary School for Secondary School, willingly engage in home activities such as washing dishes/clothes, cleaning, and all the simple home affairs.
We tailor our support to suit our clients’ needs. Every Orphan or family we care for has an initial assessment of needs. This ensures that we understand individual requirements allowing us to plan for their needs. Then a care plan is set up. Then we deliver care/assistance (interventions) following the care plan. We evaluate the care plan after at least two months to check progress. Evaluation helps us to determine the next step. We work closely with guardians, families, and other professionals, such as local officials, social workers, doctors, teachers, and similar organizations. This multi-disciplinary team provides us with a wealth of knowledge and what changes may be required. It’s much easier to make changes happen when we know what you’re aiming for.

WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED

Ukca Foundation cannot care for all Orphans/Poor people. We can only do what is within our means. We are the hope for our clients not for profits. We need more supporters Nationally and Internationally because our success depends on you. We need funds and tools. Tools will help us and our clients learn and do work quickly and efficiently. We are aware that cleaning prevents illnesses as well as the spreading of diseases. We need cleaning tools such as outside hoovers, pressure/power washers, mowers, wellies, gloves, generators, toolboxes, and more. We are against the biggest threat to poverty.
(CORRUPTION)
Corruption is a virus and its connections to poverty are far more numerous and pervasive. Corruption delays, distort and divert economic growth and development. It comes in all forms and has conjured up images of people getting quickly rich instead of working hard with honesty. In Africa/Uganda, the links between corruption and poverty have affected individuals, businesses, and the government. They run in both directions: Poverty invites corruption, while corruption deepens poverty. It is only benefiting the haves at the expense of the have-nots. Whatever the sum of money corruption schemes may yield, it keeps the poor people poorer. Trust-essential to economic growth, production, and development is difficult to build in rich/poor and corrupt societies/communities. Poor people have few economic alternatives, and where corruption is the norm, they are even more vulnerable to exploitation. Sadly, this virus (Corruption) has spread into our communities. This means that every client that requires our care has to be screened/clearly checked and proven to be in need. Our society has learned unwelcome corrupt behaviors (Cunning). This is so they achieve monetary gains at the expense of others. Many have come to Ukca Foundation for help, only to find out later that they are telling lies and have also trained their children to do so. Ukca Foundation, our country, and the world at large have a massive challenge to end the corruption that feeds poverty.