Budaka Cheshire Home helps vulnerable children and youth with disabilities to thrive through rehabilitation and quality services for greater self-sufficiency and self-development because every child deserves to be loved, safe, and have dignity.
Budaka Cheshire Children post for a photo
How we help children
We serve children with physical and psychological disabilities—polio survivors, Clubfoot, Spina Bifida, Hydrocephalus, and Cerebral Palsy. We also care for post-amputees due to accidents, snake bites, and diseases like chronic Osteomyelitis and those with post-injection paralysis.
Budaka is currently supporting...
Today, the home cares for 41 children and 24 adolescents, coming from many different districts of Uganda.
We're also providing support and family strengthening to 85 reunified families.
Note: We're currently transitioning our model to support family-based care. Us transitioning our model will reduce the dependency on institutionalization so that we can help and impact more children from within their families.
The children and some of our staff members pose for a photo in front of the dining room at Budaka Cheshire
Serving our community and advocating for children
We cater to children with disabilities from: Budaka, Mbale, Pallisa, Tororo, Butalaja, Manafwa, Iganga, Buikwe, Busia, Butebo, and Kibuku Districts.
We seek to be advocates for the rights of children with disabilities while advocating for family-based care and preventing unnecessary family separation in our community. To this end, we conduct community education on disabilities to dispel lingering stigmas or taboos.
As a result, our Home has already made great strides in facilitating mindset changes toward disability within the community.
The Story
St. Francis Budaka Cheshire Home is a catholic-founded organization started in 1970. It was an effort by two Mill Hill Missionaries, Rev. Fr. Benebek Benard and Rev. Fr. Hans Smeets. They worked in St. Anthony's Catholic parish Budaka (the first parish in Tororo Arch Diocese).
During their pastoral work within the community, they saw the realities that children with disabilities faced and wanted to make a change. Sadly, all physical disabilities were seen either as a curse or a taboo in society, causing many children to experience familial and societal neglect.
The pastors saw that before they could shift community mindsets, they needed first to help children with disabilities that were left behind in society or abandoned and give them a fair chance.
In the 70s, the community perceived poliomyelitis (polio) as the leading cause of physical disability in children and adults, so the home was initially started as a polio center.
Later on, the home became affiliated with Leonard Cheshire Global Alliance - now known as Cheshire Services Uganda. Leonard Cheshire, moved by our children's home activities, generously showed his support.
The Problem
Our organization started to reduce the number of children with disabilities left behind in the school system, communities, and families lacking support and resources.
The children needed a safe space with love, medical care, rehabilitation, assistive devices, education, and their essential needs met.
Many children with disabilities faced familial and societal neglect due to stigmas that saw disability as a taboo or a curse.
The Solution
Now, the home is owned by the Arch Diocese of Tororo, managed by the Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi.
We seek to be advocates for the rights of children with disabilities while advocating for family-based care and preventing unnecessary family separation in our community. To this end, we conduct community education on disabilities to dispel lingering stigmas or taboos. As a result, our Home has already made great strides in facilitating mindset changes toward disability within the community.
Over the past 52 years, over 7,000 children have passed through Budaka Cheshire. Many have found their place in the broader community and thrive within their families.
Current Leadership
Dr. Emmanuel Obbo (A.J.) - Archbishop of Tororo Archdiocese
Little Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, with the administrator of the Home, Sr. Margaret Itadal in the middle
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Vision
To see all children with disabilities having access to quality services, rehabilitation, and support to feel empowered within their community and thrive within family-based care settings.
Mission
To safeguard the lives of children and restore their dignity, especially children with disabilities, creating opportunities for holistic development through rehabilitation and skill-building for future self-reliance. We also want to prevent family separation by sustaining and empowering families economically and giving skills to better care for their children.
The Solution
To safeguard the lives of children and restore their dignity, especially the vulnerable and isolated children with disabilities. While doing the following:
- Reuniting children with biological parents when possible
- Placing children with next of kin
- Recruiting and preparing foster parents
- Community/familial education and sensitization
Budaka Cheshire is making an impact in our community and beyond
Studies show that children thrive in families. Our dream is to be able to impact and transform the lives of more children by serving them from their homes and families rather than having them live at the centre.
Some of our donors pose for a photo with child beneficiaries
Leadership Team
Most of the leadership team from St. Francis Budaka Cheshire outside the home
Sr.Margaret Itadal
Administrator
Sr.Ann Moraa
Warden
Sr. Regina Namubiru
Nurse
Sr.Clovia Namboga
Social worker
Sr. Sylvia Nabikubo
Bakery Manager
Stephen Mwaka
Cook
Mary Goretti Nambeya
Matron
Francis Jamwa
Patron
Okwir Samwel
Watchman
Francis Musakubawo
Driver
Richard waako
Farm Manager 1 - Crops
Julius Ejiet
Farm Manager 2 - Piggery
Charles Musamba
Compound
Laura Donato Wairagala
Volunteer - Para social worker
Organizational Structure for St. Francis Budaka Cheshire Home
Organizational Structure for St. Francis Budaka Cheshire Home