Little Light Children's Center

To provide opportunities for education, health and economic growth to vulnerable children, youth and women living in the impoverished settlements in Kampala.

Little Light was established in July 2007, as a self-help community center at Namuwongo Zone B, one of the largest and poorest slums in Kampala, Uganda. The program is operated by a local voluntary non-profit organization, 'Little Light UG', an organization that grew organically from the collaboration between local community and volunteers.

Over ten thousand people live in Namuwongo in conditions of extreme poverty. Most of them are displaced people from Northern Uganda or refugees who fled civil wars in Kenya, Congo, Sudan and Rwanda. The majority of Namuwongo residents are unemployed, and those who manage to find jobs earn an average income of Two(2)USD/ day. Most people have almost no access to health services, educational institutions or sources of stable income. As a result of poverty and the environmental context, many people suffer from malaria, HIV / AIDS and other infectious diseases that cause high mortality rates, hunger, malnutrition, depression.

Children and youth constitute over seventy percent of the Namuwongo population. Half of them are orphans. Since most families cannot afford education, children are commonly left to wander unsupervised among rubbish and open sewage, exposed to countless dangers posed by the environment. Needless to say, the majority of these children are unprotected, without opportunities for advancement or development.

Observing these hardships and rough daily existence, a team of volunteers from around the world and locally established a small sanctuary for the neighborhood's children and their families: a community center and informal nursery school: Little Light. The nursery provides a free educational environment for approximately sixty children aged 1-6 from the most deprived families in the neighborhood. In addition, Little Light operates a number of projects that foster community development, including:

• A feeding and nutrition program for the nursery school children and local staff.

• An empowerment group for women focused at education, empowerment, life skills, professional studies and employment through manufacturing, marketing and selling of handicrafts.

• An infirmary providing free medical care, including emergency and preventative Health education as well as family planning.

• A scholarship program to support nursery graduates into primary school.

• A tutoring program for children in primary school.

• Youth group which creates accesses to education, empowerment, life skills, adolescence sexual reproductive health and professional studies.

• An empowerment and training program for adults – mostly the local staff - Including workshops, university scholarships, supervision and encouragement of local leadership.