Our Story
In 2013 Dr. Alan Konyer helped fulfill his daughter Alicia’s dream of working at a children’s home in Africa. They contacted the director of the Bright Kids Uganda home and fell in love with the country, its’ people, and particularly the children. Their friends and family were tremendously interested and supportive, so this was followed with fundraising activities to support the home, and several return visits accompanied by friends who offered a variety of expertise.
Uganda has many challenges, including extreme poverty, a lack of social support networks, and a population of whom 50% are under the age of 16. Government schools are very overcrowded and challenged to provide services. Families recognize the paramount importance of a good education, and will sometimes send kids to a children’s home just in the hopes of obtaining a better quality private education.
While continuing to support the Bright Kids’ institution individually, we identified several children with competent single caregivers who would be happy to have their children at home if they could be assured of a quality education. We proceeded to form the Kulikayo Organization for the Support of Children in Uganda with the goal of allowing vulnerable children to remain in a loving home while benefiting from top-notch schooling.
We have been gratified to watch these children develop and flourish while assisting their competent and highly-motivated caregivers to become more self-sufficient.
“Kulikayo” (koo-lee-keye-oh) means “welcome back” in the Lugandan language.
Philosophy
Our children and families practice a variety of religions, reflecting the diversity of the Ugandan population. We do not impose any external set of dogma and try to be sensitive to their beliefs and practice
We do encourage values we consider fundamental, including kindness and respect towards others, honesty, tolerance and gender equality. We try to promote a sense of self-worth and empowerment.
Our goal is to foster the development of future leaders who will help shape their society and culture as we move further into this young millennium.
Initiatives
Our organization operates several fundraising activities in the Lindsay area each year.
We welcome and encourage sponsors for the individual children.
We hire a Ugandan employee (herself a single mom) who arranges transportation, negotiates school fees, purchases supplies and uniforms, facilitates medical and dental care, communicates with sponsors, looks in on the caregiving families and negotiates microloans for their small business ventures (along with dozens of other tasks).
We organize volunteer trips back to Uganda to visit the families, oversee our projects and investigate new opportunities. No organization funds are used for volunteer travel or expenses.
Future Directions
Our mandate is to ensure we provide the best service possible to the children under our care. We foresee further exploration of business opportunities for the caregivers in Uganda and future growth in the number of children supported will be incremental and gradual.
Mission & Vision
Kulikayo's constitution includes Mission, Vision and Values statements
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