Kanaama Interactive Community Support (KICS)

Kanaama Interactive Community Support is a charity which aims to help the people of Kashare county in Southwest Uganda, where nearly 20 per cent of the people live below the extreme poverty level. More than 800 children are orphans, often living in the poorest households with elderly relatives and a third of the women cannot read or write. We raise money in the UK to change lives in Kashare through a series of small locally run projects, including a supporting 60 orphans and vulnerable children to attend school, improving teaching in local schools, literacy groups for women, building rain-fed domestic water tanks and a micro-credit scheme for women. Uganda is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranking 164th out of 187 on the Human Development Index. Of the 23,000 people living in Kashare, 4,000 live on less than $1.25 a day. KICS helped 60 children with school levy fees, breakfast, schoolbooks and uniforms, counselling, extra lessons and a weekly meal in 2020. When schools were closed due to the Covid pandemic, we provided food, seeds and other staples to their households. We also provide radios to some children to allow them to continue studying by following radio broadcasts. Our literacy classes have helped more than 500 women, and a flourishing microcredit scheme made more 110 loans in 2020, but will provide over 250 in 2021, if the lockdown restrictions allow. We have built 17 rain-fed tanks since 2021. The teachers of two schools have received intensive training in interactive teaching methods. We are providing menstrual hygiene education to all adolescent girls in the subcounty. Help us to strengthen and extend this vital work