Who We Are
An indigenous NGO working in Kisoro District, South Western Uganda since 2011.
An indigenous NGO, rooted in Kisoro
ICWAC is a non-profit founded in 2011 in Kisoro District, South Western Uganda. Our mission is to release women and children from extreme poverty through programmes that address their physical, spiritual and economic needs.
We are registered under the Non-Governmental Organizations Act, 2016 of the Government of the Republic of Uganda, Reg. No. MIA/NB/2023/05/5664.
The centre began with a small group of children who had nowhere else to go. It grew because the households around us needed more than a meal — they needed school fees paid, skills taught, water made safe and a place where a child could simply be a child.
Our vision
A society where children and women live free from poverty, disease and injustices.
Our mission
To empower women and children with opportunities to overcome poverty, disease and injustices through education, economic livelihoods, and health and nutrition thematic programmes.
What we hold ourselves to
Compassion
We start from imbabazi — mercy. Every household we work with is met with dignity, not pity.
Integrity
Strict financial controls, regular audits and detailed reporting to donors and partners.
Empowerment
We do not hand out dependence. We hand over skills, assets and decisions.
Sustainability
Our own farms, poultry and soap production reduce what we need to ask for.
Community-driven
Caregivers, elders and children shape what we run and how we run it.
Why Imbabazi exists
Robbinah Hakiza founded the Imbabazi Center for Women and Children to address the challenges faced by vulnerable women and children in her community.
Growing up in a society where cultural norms often undervalued the education of girls, she witnessed how many young girls were married off at seventeen — treated as a source of income through dowry rather than as individuals with potential. She and her six sisters were fortunate: their parents recognised the importance of education. That contrast became the reason for this centre.
Today Imbabazi provides clothing, shelter and education for orphaned and vulnerable children, and it empowers their caregivers — many of them widows — with training and financial programmes so they can sustain their own families.
Registered and accountable
ICWAC is an indigenous Non-Governmental Organization registered under the Non-Governmental Organizations Act, 2016 of the Government of the Republic of Uganda.
Registration No. MIA/NB/2023/05/5664
The team behind the centre
A small staff, most of them from Kisoro, running programmes that reach far more households than our size suggests.
Robbinah Hakiza
Shalon Uwimana Makubuya
Lydia Kambabazi Manirakiza
