Projects

Rahab Uganda

Rianna’s Fund is supporting a project that targets girls as young as 9, living alone in the slums of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, and trapped in a life of sexual exploitation.

The Rahab project was co-founded by Annette Kiribiri - also the initiator of the Buvuma Island school project that Rianna’s Fund supports. Rahab (whose name signifies transformation) seeks to identify and be-friend vulnerable girls within the slums, who are then offered rescue to the Rahab home. During a trustees trip to Uganda in March 2011 we visited the home and met with some of the 30 girls who are currently living there. As well as care and counsel, the girls have the opportunity to return to school, all with the intention of restoring their self-worth and empowering them to achieve a life change.

Rianna’s Fund is delighted to be working with the Rahab team, and to offer a regular contribution to the running costs of the home. Click here for more information and photos.

Buvuma

The second new school project is based on Buvuma Island, which is a large island in Lake Victoria. A team from Rianna’s Fund visited and were accompanied by Annette Kirabira (who initiated the school project with her husband) & Francis the Headmaster of the School.

For more information, please click here.

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Malongo

Rianna’s Fund is pleased to be supporting 2 new school projects in eastern Uganda.

One of these is with our partner, Paul Lubaale from CFE. Rianna’s Fund has been supporting 28 children (including some ‘child headed’ families) in Mawagala for a number of years. In February 2010 Paul took us to visit another remote rural community called Malongo.

For more information and to view gallery click here

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Bbika Primary School

Rianna’s Fund has helped to provide two new classroom blocks for over 300 children in Wakiso district Uganda, 45 kilometres west of Kampala. Wakiso is a poor rural area and there are very few schools available in the area. Rianna’s Fund has been able to provide for 6 new classrooms. Work is near completion and we will be visiting the new school facilities early in January 2010 and looking forward to seeing the children enjoying learning in their new environment. Click here for further details.

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Six Boys from Bangalore

We have 6 stories on some of the boys who have benefited from Rianna's Fund Support. The boys were all school drop-outs before going along to football training.

To read more about the boys click here.

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Sport & Community Development Project, Bangalore & Chennai, India

Rianna’s Fund is supporting a Sport and Community Development Project operating in the heart of slum communities of Sathyamoorthy Nager, Vyasarpadi and Kelley’s, in Chennai, and Doddigunta in Bangalore.

The sports project will reach young children from slums and aims to get them into school.

Many of these children are used as child labour by their parents. Amongst the few who do go to school, the drop-out rate is high (over 50%) - often due to mistreatment because of their low status.

Their circumstances make the slum children vulnerable to a range of health and social problems, including substance abuse, petty crime and trafficking.

The sports project gives the children the opportunity to gain an education and engage in more positive activities.

Click here for more information and view gallery

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Rianna’s Furaha Children’s Home, Yala, Kenya

Rianna’s Furaha Home opened its doors to 21 children in October 2005. Over the following months more orphans joined, and the new boys and girls dormitories soon became home to 42 children aged between 2 and a half and 9 years of age.

RFCH was the first project to be sponsored by Rianna’s Fund. The home was the vision and goal of Bishop’s wife, Eunice Aweyo, who already cared for many orphans in her own home. Rianna’s Fund trustees and representatives made several visits to help get the project off the ground and later joined the 500-strong community that gathered to celebrate the official opening in November 2006.
A return visit to Yala early in 2010 was a welcome opportunity to catch up with Eunice and her co-workers, including her son, Patrick, who now manages the day to day running of the home. It was great to meet up with all 42 children and see them content and much taller!

Rianna’s Fund is committed to supporting the home on an on-going monthly basis. From 2011 this contribution will include additional support for all the children’s primary and nursery school fees.

For more information and gallery click here.

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Children of Nakulabye

After completing the building of the new Nakulabye Junior School in Kampala, Rianna’s Fund was made aware of a number of children who would benefit greatly from our continued support. We are pleased to be able to provide funding for some of the pupils.

To meet and see photos of the children from Nakulabye we support click here.

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Nakulabye Junior School, Kampala, Uganda

Rianna’s Fund was delighted to be a main sponsor of the new Nakulabye Junior School in a slum area of Kampala, Uganda. The conditions of the old school were very poor with as many as 90 children squashed into dilapidated sheds. Rianna’s Fund saw the potential difference that a new, properly constructed school would make to the children of Nakulabye. We were delighted to join staff and children from the local community to celebrate the opening of their new school March 2008.

For more information and to view gallery click here

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School Fees, Kenya

Rianna’s Fund is supporting a School Fees programme in western Kenya. The project aims to give orphaned children the opportunity to receive an education by paying their academic fees throughout their schooling.

2011 marks the eighth year of Rianna’s Fund support for the programme. Currently fees are being paid for 32 children including 10 at nursery school, 4 in primary boarding, 8 at secondary boarding school and 10 students at university in Kenya and Uganda.

For more information and to see some of the students click here.

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Rescue & Restore, Hyderabad, India

Rescue and Restore is a home for street and impoverished children, located to the north of Hyderabad in India. It is home to 45 children - mainly boys aged 5-18.

Bhaskar Kamakodlamane runs the home and lives there with his wife and two children. He works with the local authorities identifying vulnerable children including runaways who arrive by train from other parts of India. Bhaskar has a particular empathy with these children as he was rescued from the street himself aged 14.

Rianna’s Fund began to offer monthly financial support to Rescue and Restore after visiting the home in 2008. In 2011, due to rising prices in India and the children's on-going needs, Rianna’s Fund has increased its regular financial contribution enabling Bhaskar to continue providing good care and education for the children.

Click here for more information, gallery and children’s stories.

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Child Headed Families, Mawagala, Uganda

Rianna’s Fund has been supporting 31 children in Iganga, eastern Uganda since March 2008.

We first met the community of a small rural village called Mawagala in November 2006.
A‘child headed family’ is where both the children’s parents have died and the eldest child brings up the rest of the family.

We have been providing funds to support some of these children.

Earlier this year we went back to Mawagala and met up again with some of the children. It was fantastic to see the families again and to hear what has happened to them over the past year.

Click here for more details.

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Tumaini Children’s Home, Kakira, Southern Uganda

Rianna’s Fund is supporting the Tumaini Children's Home by contributing to the monthly food costs for the 72 children at the Home.

Click here for more details.

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Annai Fathima

Mrs Rani Krishnan has been running the Annai Fathima home for nearly 30 years and being Amma (Mother) to all the 169 children.

Of the children at the home 56 are orphans from the Tsunami in 2005, most of the other children are orphans or dustbin children (yes, babies literally left in dustbins). The home is also a school for Primary school children, with the older children going to the local senior school.

Whilst the children are well-cared for by Mrs Krishnan and her workers, a lack of funds meant the home site had fallen into a desperate state of disrepair. This situation exposed the mostly bare-footed children to a number of health hazards including the threat of illness and mosquitos because of poor sanitation and stagnant water. Rianna's Fund worked with the Home's trustees and agreed to support a programme of work to be carried out at Annai Fathima that would create a safer, healthier and more sustainable environment for everyone at the home. Click here for more information and photos.

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English Medium School - Dornakal

Work is soon to be completed at the English Medium in Dornakal, India – Rianna’s Fund first helped to build two new classrooms in 2007 and has since sent further fun ding to provide a further three more classrooms at English Medium School in the desperately poor region of Andhra Pradesh, India. All of the children who attend the English Medium School are from the local peasant communities, and some walk as far as 7 – 8 km each day to attend school. The school is free for the children and they are very grateful to receive their free English Education

Rianna’s Fund first helped to build two new classrooms in 2007 and has since supported the project by sending further funding to provide a for three more classrooms at English Medium School in the desperately poor region of Andhra Pradesh, India. All of the children who attend the English Medium School are from the local peasant communities, and some walk as far as 7 – 8 km each day to attend school. The school is free for the children and they are very grateful to receive their free English Education.Click here for more photos.

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Mumbai Children’s Home - Way True Life

After a wait of several months, Way True Life, the charity run by Rianna’s Fund partners, Pastor Raju and Shilpa Ram, has been granted the necessary FCRA certificate to receive overseas funding for their work in the poor Kalyan area of Mumbai. We are currently working with WTL on their plans to build a dedicated children's home for 25 street children. Raju and Shilpa have alredy undertaken to build a larger family house so that they can offer a home to ten children immediately.  From June 2010, Rianna's Fund is pleased to offer Raju and Shilpa support to provide care for these children.

We first met with Pastor Raju and Shilpa during a trip to India in October 2008. Their dedication to helping street and railway children in the poor community of Kalyan really touched us and we are delighted to be working with them in bringing assistance to extremely vulnerable children who would otherwise be destined for a life of begging.

The couple have lived and worked in Kalyan for several years, getting to know the local people and their needs and Rianna’s Fund is already supporting a pre-school nursery in the slums, and a balwadi (pavement school) for street and railway children begun by Raju and Shilpa. Click here for more details.

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