 History
The Children's Project was set up in 1992, after a grant from the World Bank to the North Kigezi Diocese, to help children affected by HIV/AIDS.
The diocese invited Pat Gilmer, a missionary with the CMS, who had previously worked with leprosy sufferers, to set up the Project.
It began with a survey of the orphans – 25,000 thousand of them. During this survey Pat and her team were amazed by the sheer number of children with disabilities they encountered.
Most of these children had not had any medical help and their parents did not know how to care for them.
So, the Project developed into:
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Chilli growing for family income
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Club foot clinics
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Deaf school support and a boarding unit,
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Life learning skills clinics for brain damaged children
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Surgical camps for treatable deformities
Each year, there were surveys, in all districts, to keep records up to date and to learn of new children.
The Project is involved in the lives of 5,000 children through the different parts of the project which we call the five fingers.
The initial funding lasted 3 years, so Pat sought funding from churches and other donors in the UK and Ireland. In regular visits to the UK, Pat brought back news to supporters and prayed for funds.
When Pat Gilmer was to retire, she asked Becky Thorn to set up a charitable trust to handle the UK and Ireland end. By April 2006, the Trust was able to pick up the job of communicating the Project's work and needs, and in turn pass donations to the Project in Uganda.
View photos of Pat and the Project in our Picasa gallery >
Maps - How to get there
Map 1
The Children’s Project is in Uganda, Africa.
How does one travel from the UK to Uganda?
a. Book a return flight from Heathrow, London to Entebbe, Kampala.
b. Your aeroplane will take you over the English Channel, across France, The Mediterranean Sea and across the Sahara Desert into tropical Africa. Finally, you will land in Entebbe, Uganda, right on the Equator. Entebbe is on the shore of the huge Lake Victoria, and it is over 1,000 metres above sea level. The weather is very warm, but not hot, as the altitude makes it cooler.
Map 2.
Entebbe is the airport for Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Transport is needed from the airport at Entebbe to Kampala. This can be by taxi(a minibus in Uganda), or by arrangement with the Children’s Project or a friend of the Project may be available at the time you arrive. Generally, a day or so is needed to acclimatise to the weather and to the different culture and lifestyle that you find yourself in. Most visitors stay a day or two in a hotel during this time.
How does one travel from Kampala to SW Uganda?
a. A car or bus takes about six hours to travel to Rukungiri from Kampala. Often, the Project does not have the time, finance or facilities to provide transport for visitors. The cheapest and fairly safe way to travel is to take the Post Office bus, leaving early in the morning, from central Kampala. Usually, the Post Office bus is small and a visiting group may be difficult to accommodate on the bus. Scheduled bus services do run, but can be packed with many people and their luggage. A taxi or a chartered bus may be appropriate for a larger group of 5 or more visitors.
b. Be prepared for a bumpy ride, as the tarmac road is not maintained to a high standard all the way. The last third of the journey is likely to be on a non-metalled road surface. Generally, a couple of stops for relief and sustenance are taken in the major towns. On the first section of the journey you pass across the equator, from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere!
Map 3.
At Ntungamo town, your journey leaves the main tarmac road and heads eastwards to Rukungiri. In this latter part of the journey, the road climbs another 1,000 metres into the cooler hills of the Kigezi region, in SW Uganda. SW Uganda is a distant, largely subsistence farming region, but it is well populated. The hills are often covered with small fields, that run along the hillsides, on terraces that have been dug into the hill. The typical local cow is brown, with large horns. The roads can be dry and dusty, or wet and muddy, depending on the season. In general terms, there are two wet and two dry seasons.
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