Arise works in a small community on the edge of a large city. Kampala Uganda is home to almost 2 million people. It is the largest city in Uganda and the capital of the country. Arise offices are located at the southwest edge of the city in a community locally referred to as Kosovo.

The Arise Community program assists struggling families practically in order to create a community where children can thrive. Rural families often move to the city with the hope of employment. Instead they end up struggling to survive in difficult circumstances. Without some level of intervention, some of these families will break apart and children will pay a high price.

A typical family in our community is a mother with 3 to 5 children. These children may all be hers, but some may be from a relative after a family breakdown. Often the father has left the family. They rent a 10’x10’ brick room with a metal roof, windows and door. If they are lucky the floor in their home is cement but often there is a dirt floor. Dirt floors sometimes leak when it rains forcing this family to move their belongings onto beds and tables to keep them dry. Families cook outside in the lane and use a community latrine shared by many families.

Life is not easy for a single mother supporting children in this community. She often lacks education and even the capacity to return to her rural home. Here in the city, she is forced to find simple work washing clothes, selling something in the street, or cooking. The income she gets from these basic tasks is hopefully enough to pay her rent and feed the family one simple meal each day. A phone, electricity, clean water, meat, medical care or an education for the children are all unattainable.

When Arise encounters the worst of circumstances, compassion compels us into action. Living and working in this community, Arise is able to assess each situation and develop strategies to help. Arise has built homes, tracked down family for abandoned children, created employment, started businesses, and provided micro-loans. In each case we encounter, a solution specific to the family and their circumstances must be found.