About Us | UPLUS International

Who We Are

Committed to Ending Child Abandonment

UPLUS International is a care leaver led organisation committed to addressing child abandonment by fighting the root causes through lived experience as victims of child neglect and abandonment and deep community insight.

Our heart is to see every child grow up in a safe and loving family with a mother, father, and siblings, supported by strong and stable households.

We are committed to respond to community crises that drive family and community social economic instability such as poverty, lack of clean water, health challenges including HIV/AIDS, and limited access to basic needs.

We are also radical advocates for care reforms and long-term better care options both at a local and global level.

Partner With Us Our Work

Care Leaver Led

Founded by survivors, for children

Direction

Vision & Mission

VISION

Our Vision

A future where every child in Africa grows up safe, loved, and raised within a stable family.

MISSION

Our Mission

To prevent child abandonment by strengthening families, responding to community crises, and empowering vulnerable households through practical support, education, and community-driven transformation.

Our Objectives

How We Achieve Our Mission

Strengthening Families & After Care Systems

UPLUS focuses on keeping families together by addressing the pressures that lead to separation and also supporting the transition process of care leavers. This includes economic empowerment programmes, parenting and life skills training, and access to counselling and psychosocial support.

Building Sustainable Communities

We rebuild and strengthen community support systems. This involves community awareness programmes, strengthening local child protection structures, and supporting vulnerable households through networks of care. We also promote social inclusion and address harmful stigma that contributes to child abandonment.

Advocating for the Best Care Options

UPLUS advocates for reducing reliance on orphanages by promoting family-based alternatives. This includes reintegration of children into safe family environments, supporting kinship care, and working with stakeholders to shift systems away from institutionalisation.

Our Strategy

How We Work — The Impact Cycle

UPLUS works through a continuous cycle of prevention, response, and transformation that addresses vulnerability before, during, and after a family crisis.

Identify Vulnerability

We reach families and children at risk of abandonment due to poverty, crisis, or instability.

Response

We provide urgent support including basic needs, counselling, and protection services to restore stability.

Family Strengthening

We empower parents and caregivers with skills, livelihoods, and guidance to keep families together.

Community Empowerment

We mobilise communities to take responsibility in protecting children and supporting vulnerable households.

Sustain & Follow Up

We track progress, offer continuous mentorship, and ensure lasting transformation so families remain stable.

Our Founders

Story of the Founders & Birth of the Organisation

UPLUS was built on lived experience and an unbreakable promise to every child who has been left behind.

James Ssekitto

Founder & Executive Director

My story began not with comfort, but with survival. I was abandoned at three months in Nansana — frail, sick, and suffering from kwashiorkor. I survived by grace, was taken to Sanyu Babies' Home, then transferred to SOS Children's Village where I grew up under a family-like care system.

Moses Maanyi

Co-Founder

My story mirrors James's in striking ways. I was abandoned at three years old at Mulago hospital corridor, left without a name, a family, or a place to belong. My earliest memories were of a children's home where caregivers became the closest relatives.

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The Founders' Promise

"We will dedicate our lives to ending child abandonment by strengthening families, empowering communities, and restoring hope to every young person who has been left behind or forgotten. We promise to stand with care leavers, vulnerable children, and families in crisis to provide support, skills, and opportunities that restore dignity and build lasting independence. We promise to work with honesty, compassion, and determination until every child is safe within a loving family and every young person has a fair chance to build their future."

— James Ssekitto & Moses Maanyi, Founders of UPLUS International

This is our commitment. This is our responsibility. This is our promise.

Born from Experience.
Driven by Purpose.

Committed to Ending Child Abandonment