Raising Up Hope for Uganda (RUHU)

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Raising Up Hope for Uganda (RUHU) was started by Patrick Ssenyonjo more than 10 years ago. RUHU is dedicated to rescuing children living on the streets or those disadvantaged by poverty, providing them with food, a safe place to live, health care, education and love.

Vision Statement
To see the children saved from dangerous and hopeless situations by providing education, love, and belonging so that they are empowered to be a future generation of leaders in their communities.

Mission Statement
To help orphaned, abandoned, homeless, and vulnerable children by providing for shelter, clothing, medical, educational, spiritual, and other needs.

Our work
• Bulenga Home: The Bulenga home was the start of Raising Up Hope for Uganda and the original boys home. We chose not to call it an orphanage, but rather a home for all that enter its gates. Here we have children who suffer from poverty, illiteracy, abuse from their family, poor health and emotional strain. These children include AIDS orphans, ‘street children’ or children who’ve been abandoned and abused. At the Bulenga house they receive two meals a day, medical attention, teaching and opportunities to learn sports, crafts and music. We also have a house where we look after young mums and their children. This enables the mothers to go and learn valuable skills and trades while having the support of childcare and help.
• School and nursery: We have a nursery attached to the school to provide early child education and care for the children in the community who might not otherwise receive it. Many children suffer from illiteracy as their families cannot afford to send them to school. Further we have school ranging from baby class to P7, where we teach English, maths, science, religion and history. We also hope to foster good behaviours, team work and a strong work ethic. This empowers the children, their futures and the wider community and provides more opportunity for higher education and career development. At the schools we also provide two meals a day, ensuring the children have brain power to learn!
• Slum program: The slum program is based in Kisenyi where Patrick grew up and runs every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. The program consists of gathering boys from surrounding areas who range in age from 8 to 20 years old and taking them to a safe spot to run program. Here they play games with Patrick and the other volunteers, are encouraged to talk about their drug use and hopes for the future. Additionally they receive medical care and food. In addition to regular program we also run regular slum outreaches, where we treat anyone who comes. Here we provide HIV testing and counselling, malaria testing, basic wound care and also working with Faith Medical Clinic we care for people who need IV antibiotics and more advanced medical care.
• Village of Hope: Recently we purchased 4 acres of land in Bujukko, just outside Kampala. Our vision is to develop this property into a place that brings love, hope and a better tomorrow for the surrounding community and boys we care for. The purpose is also to unite the children and locals and encourage them to work together making their entire region a better place to live. So far we have a church, boys housing, a well and a soon to be completed community medical clinic. On this land we grow a variety of vegetables and food, and farm pigs and goats. This provides food for the boys living there and the local community. This also gives the boys the opportunity to learn agriculture and farming. Currently we have a few homes where the boys live, with the plan to build more volunteer and child’s housing. The aim of the clinic is to provide medications and serve the basic medical needs of the surrounding community. It will be staffed by a local doctor, assisted by volunteer nurses from around the world. We will provide services for the local community for a minimal cost to encourage the ongoing sustainability of the clinic.
• Medical work: Twice a week we visit the slums where we provide basic medical and wound care to the boys we care for there. Often these are small injuries that without prevention can become infected and very serious. We also take and treat anyone who requires further medical attention to the clinic we work with there. In addition to this, we aim to do regular outreaches in the slums where we provide HIV and malaria testing, wound care and medication to all who come.

Patrick Ssenyonjo is the founder, director and visionary of Raising Up Hope for Uganda.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.