About us

Holy Innocent Ibanda Babies Home is a faith-based organization that supports orphans, vulnerable, and abandoned babies between one day old to three years old to be in families because every child deserves to be loved, safe, and have dignity.

Children celebrating Holy Innocents Day with Ibanda Babies Home staff

Caring for babies and children since 1967

Since our establishment, we've been safeguarding and protecting abandoned or orphaned babies and children regardless of creed, culture, and tribe. In addition, our work is also approved by the Ministry of Gender Labour and Social Development.

Ibanda Home is currently supporting...

Today, our home cares for 30 babies, coming from many different districts of Uganda and ranging in ages from 0-3.

We're also providing support and family strengthening to 10 reunified families.

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.

Serving more than 10 districts in Western Uganda

We receive babies and children from more than ten districts in the western part of Uganda, ranging from day one to three years of age.

Our goal is to do more tracing to find children's families, advocate within our community and beyond for fostering and adoption, counsel and psycho-educate parents, reunite children with relatives and promote family strengthening.

Most of the children we care for now have been abandoned, orphaned, or born to parents with substantial mental challenges or illness.

Our Story

Holy Innocent Ibanda Babies Home was founded in 1967 by Sr. Sylvia and the Daughters of Mary and Joseph (DMJ) to safeguard and protect abandoned or orphaned babies and children regardless of creed, culture, and tribe. Our home also functioned as a crisis center where parents with severe mental illness could ensure safe care for their children.

In 1974, the DMJ sisters handed over the home to the Sisters of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

These women managed the home up to 1979, before handing over the home’s management to the Missionary Sisters of Mary Mother of the Church, who are currently in charge.

The Problem

There was a great need to safeguard and protect abandoned or orphaned babies/children. There was also a need for a crisis center where parents with severe mental illness could ensure safe care for their children.

The Solution

Throughout our 55+ years of operation, we've provided more than 7,000 babies and young children with care, protection, immunization, medication, clean water/sanitation, legal support, tracing their families, and resettlement into kinship care.

Sr. Sylvia, the founder of Ibanda Babies Home (She was with the Institute of Daughters of Mary and Joseph).

Vision

To help orphans and vulnerable children attain future self-reliance by helping them be in loving families.

Mission

To safeguard the lives of children and restore their dignity, especially the orphans, vulnerable, and isolated children regardless of creed, culture, and tribe. 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 babies and young children. While doing the following:

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

Ibanda Babies Home 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 home.