History of Kibooba Village Memorial Orphanage Care Centre

The Kibooba community was first hit very hard by conflicts spanning from 1980 to 1986, when many of their community were massacred daily. Their loss was so profound, the government erected a monument in the village to commemorate the tragedy.

The community believes that this was when AIDS was first introduced to the village. AIDS is now rampant in the village and you can scarcely pass a household which has not been affected by this disease. As a result, the population of adults is now sparse and there are many orphans; many of whom do not receive the care they require. NOTE: Orphans in Uganda are defined as children who have lost at least one parent. Fathers tend to be primary bread-winners in families, and mothers are primary caregivers of children therefore the loss of either parent is deeply felt by a child.

When a child loses both parents, usually from AIDS, they are often taken in by guardians in the community. The guardians themselves frequently do not have the means of supporting themselves adequately, let alone feeding additional children or sending them to school.

These orphans were the motivation for starting the Kibooba Village Memorial Orphanage Care Centre (KMOCC). The community joined together to generate solutions and formed an organization of volunteers. The Local Council Leader in the community donated 2 acres of her land to the project and the decision was made to begin meeting the needs of the orphans by building a school. They believed that through education, these children would have a hope for their future.

They made their own bricks, and together the community built a school for the orphaned children. They bought local materials and they used local labor to do the work. Today they have 120 orphans in the school. The children are taught life skills, basic literacy, and health education in addition to the regular academic curriculum. The children are fed while they are at school, mainly with the food grown in the village. For many children it may be the only significant meal they receive in a day. The director and chairperson Joel Gabula Ibanda, was paying the teachers and cook’s rent and salaries through money he was able to earn, but it was not always enough and it was hard to manage this consistently. CHECK OUT JOEL'S VIDEO IN THE MEDIA GALLERY

In 2005 Joel met Theresa McElroy (Tree) while they were jointly conducting research through Makerere University. Six months later Friends of Kibooba was formed as a Candian-based partner organization to KVMOCC. The partner organizations face the challenges together now.