Uganda Care Leavers (UCL) is a social welfare project designed to support children, youths, and adults who have spent all or part of their childhood in institutional care (also known as residential facilities, child care facilities and orphanages.)  UCL is jointly supported by Alternative Care Initiatives and BULA.  

UCL was established in 2016 in response to the growing number of children, youths, and adults leaving in child care institutions.  UCL  set out to first learn from the experiences of care leavers before, during, and after care to gain insight on how institutional care impacted their lives and to determine what (if any) measures should be in place to support this specific group in Uganda.  

While conducting this research, UCL has formed a network of over 500 care leavers across Uganda.  Through this network, care leavers are able to share their experiences, learn from one another, and work together to pursue common goals.  

The collected research will reflect their experiences as well as their views on growing up in an institution.  The findings will be shared with key stakeholders such as governmental bodies as well as NGOs so that they can improve upon their approach to child care across the country.