KITEGA COMMUNITY CENTER

Kitega Community Centre is about 40km from Kampala, the capital of Uganda. It is located in Kitega village, Kawolo Sub-county, Mukono District. The neighboring town is Lugazi.

Kitega village is a rural area and the main activity in this area is agriculture, which employs a number of people. However, a majority of the population is unemployed and the standard of living remains low.

The Kitega Centre was initiated by the Christian Church and was implemented by Rev. Canon Silas Musoke, with the help of the Kingserve Trust in Scotland. From 1999 to 2004 the centre was under the umbrella body of the National Association for the Mentally Handicapped. In 2004 it registered as an independent NGO in Uganda.

For a long time, the centre has focused on children with learning difficulties who have been rejected by their parents. The parents believed that the children’s disabilities were linked to curses and evil spirits, and thus many parents overlooked the children’s needs, well-being, and basic human rights.

Kitega Community Centre intervened to show that with the proper educational and social-emotional support, children with disabilities can learn the skills to be self-sustaining and to make positive contributions to their families and communities.

The centre has achieved positive results by changing the attitude of the community towards such children. Now people look at them with a different perspective.

However, there is much that needs to be done to solve the underlying causes of the neglect of children with disabilities, including widespread family unemployment and poverty, illiteracy, and lack of access to quality health services.

Kitega therefore carries out many programs that are aimed at improving the living standards and the socio-economic conditions in the community, thereby helping the children and their families to escape from chronic poverty.