Founded in 1984, Watoto Canada was formed through the Watoto Church; a community-focused church in Kampala, Uganda. Watoto Canada currently works in Kampala and Gulu, Uganda and Juba, South Sudan to place orphans in families, empower vulnerable women, and rescue babies and child soldiers. Watoto has four main programs: Watoto Villages, Baby Watoto, Neighbourhood, and Sustainability & Development.

Watoto believes that when orphaned and vulnerable children are placed in a loving family environment with a mother and siblings, they find a place that they can call home. Watoto Villages are clusters of nine houses and provide all the essentials of a basic home. Watoto provided a loving family, a home, an education, food, and medical care to over 3,000 children across its three villages in Uganda in F2017. Watoto provided education to 2,843 students at its schools in F2017. Additionally, 162 Watoto students are continuing their education at university. In F2017, Watoto Villages medical clinics had over 31,800 visits, and vaccinated over 1,500 individuals.

Baby Watoto cares for abandoned babies and toddlers aged 0 to 2, doing everything possible to give them the best start in life. The babies come to Watoto from different sources including hospitals, local authorities, child protection units, ‘good Samaritans,’ and other homes and care organizations. Watoto Canada reports that in F2017, Baby Watoto cared for 273 babies, changed 597,870 diapers, and prepared over 760,000 bottles.

Watoto’s Neighbourhood program helps vulnerable women in the areas of housing, healthcare support, employment, and education for their children. In F2017, Watoto provided 629 women with discipleship, business skills training, and an opportunity for employment. The Keep a Girl in School program reached nearly 5,500 girls in 30 schools in northern Uganda by providing sanitary products, igniting their passion for education, and inspiring them to become women of purpose and influence.

Watoto Canada is a ­­­­large charity, with total donations of $5.8m in F2017. Administrative costs are 14% of revenues (excluding investment income) and the charity reports no fundraising costs. For every dollar donated, 86 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Funding reserves of $744k can cover less than two months of annual program costs.

­­This charity report is an update that has been sent to Watoto Canada for review. Changes and edits may be forthcoming.

Updated on August 13, 2019 by Lauren Chin.