As one of its five outreach programs, St. Joan of Arc Church in West Los Angeles sponsors the non-profit Uganda AIDS Orphan Children Foundation (UAOCF) to help AIDS-orphaned children in rural southwestern Uganda, in the Diocese of Kabale.

UAOCF coordinates two broad programs. The first provides basic support and education to orphans in foster homes; the second supports an orphanage-vocational school for orphaned and vulnerable children who have dropped out of school and have no hope for the future. An estimated one million-plus orphans live in Uganda, 30,000 of whom are in the Kabale Diocese.

UAOCF was founded by Father Fred Byaruhanga, in residence at St. Joan of Arc Parish, and its Los Angeles staff is made up entirely of volunteers, almost all St. Joan of Arc parishioners. Two paid program administrators in Kabale work with the children, under the direction of a volunteer Oversight Committee, headed by the Bishop of Kabale, and composed of prominent professional and business people in the community, representing medicine, education, social work, engineering and business.

Since its incorporation in 2003, the foundation has sponsored 260 orphaned and impoverished children, ages 4-17. Because many of them live in remote areas, where the schools are substandard, a primary focus is to place the children in good schools. With transportation difficult, most of the children live at the schools during the school term and return to their foster homes between terms. The schools are all government schools, open to children of all ethnicities and religions.

The orphanage/vocational school (Kabale Hope House) will open to admit 20 orphans in the summer of 2007. Through a grant of $42,000 from the Holy Childhood Association of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Kabale Diocese was able to renovate an existing building on 7.5 acres of land owned by the diocese. A grant from UAOCF enabled the diocese to furnish the building. UAOCF is actively working to raise $50,000 to cover Hope House operating expenses for two years.

The cost of caring for an orphan in a foster home is $300 a year, covering the child's basic needs, medical care and education expenses. Donations to support the Foster Home Care Program or Hope House Orphanage/Vocational School may be made to UAOCF, PO Box 64485, Los Angeles, CA 90064, or on-line by credit card at www.UAOCF.org. For further information, call (310) 479-8396.