S.A.L.V.E.’s Big Give Christmas Challenge 2024

We are aiming to raise £20,000 for our Big Give Christmas Challenge 2024 to help some of Uganda’s most forgotten children: street connected children who have become addicted to drugs as a way of coping with their difficult lives.

Our 2023 research showed that 80% of children (aged 8-18) living full time on the streets of Jinja regularly use drugs. We know that these children need extra support to leave the streets, return to loving family homes and live happy, healthy lives.

Why do children turn to drugs?

Drugs like mafuta (aeroplane fuel) are readily available on the street and are cheaper than a plate of food.

Street connected children use drugs to:

• numb the trauma they have experienced
• stop them feeling cold and hungry
• reduce the pain of being beaten, raped or injured whilst trying to survive

Drug addiction is the biggest challenge we face in supporting a child to successfully leave the streets. Once addicted, they are less likely to want to return home due to the stigma of drug abuse and the need to access drugs.

How does S.A.L.V.E. help drug addicted young people?

We have a specialist Drug Rehabilitation Centre which was built in 2017 after extensive research, planning and fundraising. Our centre is the first of its kind to offer this specialist addiction support to street connected children in Uganda.

Whilst under our programme, they receive detox support, individual and group counselling, educational classes, health care, good nutrition and peer-to-peer support and education. This tailored programme aims to break the cycle of addiction and therefore improve health for young people, in line with the global sustainable development goal for ensuring healthy lives.

What does S.A.L.V.E.’s Big Give Christmas Challenge aim to do?

We know that to better help young people on the street, we need to expand our Drug Rehabilitation programme and increase our community education about the dangers of drugs. If we raise the full £20,000 we will be able to:

1. Assess up to 800 children met by our Street Outreach team for drug addiction and support needed
2. Provide residential rehabilitation for a minimum of 60 street connected youth. Approximately 360 family members will benefit from this family counselling and being re-connected with their child.
3. Provide 20 caregivers of children who have experienced the most extreme trauma on the streets will receive training on how they can best support their children
4. Run peer training sessions on the dangers of drug addiction to a minimum of 800 children currently on the streets and 300 children undergoing rehabilitation in our Halfway Homes and Education programme

If we raise the full £20,000 we estimate we will be positively impacting around 1,500 people.

How can you make a difference?

From midday on Tuesday 3rd December until midday on Tuesday 10th December, any donations made via the Big Give (up to a total of £10,000) will be DOUBLED.

This link will go live on Tuesday 3^rd December 2024. Please don’t give anything before then as it needs to be done through the Big Give to ensure that the donation is matched and therefore we can make double the impact.