About us

St. Philomena supports orphans, vulnerable, and isolated children to be in families because every child deserves to be loved, safe, and have dignity.

Babies at St. Philomena

Caring for babies and children from the beginning

Since our beginning, we have cared for abandoned newborns and children whose mothers or parents have died or abandoned them.

St. Philomena Babies Home offers love, and care for the most vulnerable and abandoned children so they can grow and thrive.

St. Philomena is currently supporting...

Today, the home cares for 28 babies and children, coming from many different districts of Uganda and ranging in ages from 0-6.

Our goal is to help these children be in safe and loving families through kinship-care, family-reunification, and community-based care.

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.

Our Story

St. Philomena was founded in 1954 by the Institute of the Little Sisters of St. Francis - Jinja Region, with the sole aim of saving and sustaining life through providing security and other basic needs to orphaned and abandoned babies and children between the ages of one day old - 6 years old. Many of the children admitted to the home often lost their mothers during childbirth or came from unwanted pregnancies.

The Little Sisters - Jinja

The Problem

St. Philomena Iganga Babies' Home, a non-profit organization registered under the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development [MGLSD], was started in 1954 to reduce the number of abandoned babies due to various factors, including:

poverty
unwanted pregnancy
violence in the homes
parental death
mental illness
and other circumstances

The Solution

Over the past 68 years, more than 8.000 children have passed through St. Philomena. Some have gone on to occupy important positions in society. Most, if not all, have found their place in the broader community, gainful employment, a trade, have founded a family.

Vision

To help orphans and vulnerable children for future self-reliance by helping kids be in loving families

Mission

To give holistic development to the abandoned and neglected children through rehabilitation and education for future self-reliance. We also want to prevent family separation by sustaining and empowering families economically and give skills to better care for their children.

The Solution

To safeguard the lives of children and restore their dignity, especially the orphans, vulnerable, and isolated children. While doing the following:

Reuniting children with biological parents when possible
Placing children with next of kin
Recruiting and preparing foster parents

St. Philomena 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.