Trio Uganda who are based in the capital city, have recently returned from Uganda where they have been developing an outreach programme to work with the poorest families in the community, those living on under 65p a day.

The work by Trio Uganda and their partners in Uganda, Nauyo Community Action (NCA), aims to provide them with the essentials they need to survive and prevent the children from becoming abandoned by families who can no longer afford to care for them. This can range from practical things like ensuring they have food, beds and blankets as well as much needed immunisations for the children.

One of the challenges the project has been facing is that many funders of projects now prioritise income generation and self-help as solutions to poverty, dismissing ‘safety net’ initiatives fearing that they create a dependency.

Coordinator of Trio Uganda, Jon Sait, explains: “Because the level of poverty for these families is so low, they have no way of getting out of this cycle of poverty. Many of the impacts on the families we are working with are beyond their control such as their age, chronic illness and disability.

“Our intervention breaks the cycle of poverty and helps get them to a place where they can recover to have a basic level of living and improved health, then we can work with them to develop opportunities to become self-reliant and increase their income and improve their own lives.”

Trio Uganda and NCA have been monitoring the impact of their interventions to make sure they are effective and that the families they support are able to stay together and reduce the number of children who are abandoned or enter other forms of care.

The project was funded through the Welsh Government Wales for Africa programme with support from Hub Cymru Africa.

Liz Rees, Grants Support Officer at Hub Cymru Africa said: “Jon’s expertise, having worked with Home-Start, a leading UK family support charity, has provided an excellent foundation for him to be able to transfer his skills and knowledge to family work in Uganda.

“We have been impressed with what they have managed to deliver on a small budget and their commitment to developing sustainable community care in the Nauyo slum in the Mbale Region of Uganda.”