About UPLUS

Born from experience. Driven by purpose.

UPLUS Empowerment and Transformation International is a care leaver led organisation committed to ending child abandonment in Africa — founded by those who have lived the pain, and dedicated to ensuring no child ever faces the same.

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 and 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.

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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 & aftercare 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 vulnerabilityWe reach families and children at risk of abandonment due to poverty, crisis or instability.
ResponseWe provide urgent support including basic needs, counselling and protection services to restore stability.
Family strengtheningWe empower parents and caregivers with skills, livelihoods and guidance to keep families together.
Community empowermentWe mobilise communities to take responsibility in protecting children and supporting vulnerable households.
Sustain & follow upWe 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. Local residents rescued me, rushed me to a nearby police post, and from there I was taken into intensive care, fighting for my life.

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I survived by grace and was later taken to Sanyu Babies' Home before being transferred to SOS Children's Village, where I grew up under a family-like care system. While SOS provided safety, structure, and education, I faced the emotional realities of institutional life — identity struggles, emotional isolation, and the knowledge that love, though present, was shared with many.

Growing up surrounded by care but longing for belonging shaped me deeply. It taught me the pain of abandonment but also the power of compassion. I realised early that thousands of children faced abandonment not because they were unwanted, but because their families were unsupported, overwhelmed, or trapped in cycles of crisis.

That realisation planted the seed of my life conviction: no child should ever experience what I did. That conviction became the foundation of UPLUS International — a movement built on empathy, love, and resilience, determined to ensure that no child grows up without a family, and no caregiver is left to struggle alone.

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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Growing up without parents was painful, yet it forged in me resilience, self-reliance, and the courage to find hope where others saw only loss. Life in institutional care was a battle between survival and possibility. With the support of SOS Children's Villages, I fought through school, completed my education, and built my life without a family safety net — relying on small businesses and personal determination.

My journey was marked by the invisible burden of abandonment, the fear of rejection, and the strength required to rebuild stability. Through love, community, and lived experience, I found my calling in advocacy, determined to ensure that no child would ever feel the loneliness I once carried.

James and I first met at SOS Children's Village, brought together by the same system that raised us. Moses became James's mentor, guiding him through leadership, emotional healing, and identity. Through our conversations, we discovered we carried the same childhood wounds — a story almost identical.

Together, we confronted the truth that institutions save lives but do not stop abandonment. It was in these conversations that the vision for UPLUS was born. We stand today because two care leavers who were once abandoned refused to let their stories end in pain.

The founders’ promise

Our commitment

“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.

Join our mission

Two care leavers who were once abandoned refused to let their stories end in pain. Help us write a different story for children across Africa.

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