Founded in 1984, Watoto Canada was formed through the Watoto Church, a community-focused church in Uganda. Watoto Canada currently works in Uganda and South Sudan to raise orphans, empower women, and rescue babies and child soldiers. Watoto has four main programs: Watoto Villages, Baby Watoto, Neighbourhood, and Girls in School. 

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. Each family is made up of a mother and eight Watoto children. Watoto provided a loving family, a home, an education, food, and medical care to 3,277 children in F2020. 164 of these children were new to the villages that year. 

Baby Watoto helps abandoned babies and toddlers aged 0 to 2, by placing them with a nanny. Each nanny cares for 4 babies.  The babies come to Watoto from hospitals, local authorities, child protection units, ‘good Samaritans,’ and other organizations. Watoto Canada reports that in F2020, Baby Watoto cared for 162 babies, 34 of which were newly rescued. 

Watoto’s Neighbourhood program helps vulnerable women in the areas of housing, healthcare support, employment, and education for their children. In F2020, Watoto provided 1,178 women with discipleship, business skills training, and an opportunity for employment.  

The Keep a Girl in School program gives out menstrual supplies so that girls can go to school while on their period. It also provides “Godly sexual education to girls and boys—teaching young boys to respect and protect their female classmates and reminding girls that they matter and their bodies are their own.” This program expanded from 45 to 56 schools in early F2020. During covid-19 it continued giving out menstrual supplies at community centres, and worked with 7,300 girls on discipleship and counselling in virtual sessions. 

Watoto Canada received $5.1m in donations in F2020. Administrative costs are 14% of revenues (excluding investment income) and the charity reports no fundraising costs. This results in total overhead costs of 14%. For every dollar donated, 86 cents go to the cause. This is within Ci’s reasonable range for overhead spending. Funding reserves of $824k can cover 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 30, 2021 by Asha McMullin.