Meaningful Giving Tuesday Celebration: Last year’s Giving Tuesday became a heartfelt day of hope and celebration for children in conflict with the law at Naguru Remand Home in Uganda, emphasising the importance of community support.
Since August, we have been offering Art therapy and psychosocial support sessions for juveniles (Mental health support for children) sessions for juveniles aged 12–17 at Naguru Remand Home, a Juvenile detention centre in Uganda. Week after week, we sat with them, painted with them, listened to their stories, and watched walls slowly come down. In those art classes ( Art therapy for youth ), we didn’t just share colours and brushes, we shared laughter, silence, trust, and moments of deep vulnerability, thus extending Psychosocial support for vulnerable children and youth. Over time, these young people became more than participants. They became family, young people healing through art, trust, and trauma-informed care.
As the year drew to a close, we felt a strong pull in our hearts. Christmas was approaching, and while the world outside was filling with lights, music, the smell of curries, and joyful noise, these children would be inside. They knew Christmas was coming, but they didn’t know what it would mean for them. Would it be another quiet day? Another reminder of what they were missing? Would they lie awake hearing distant celebrations, well
Knowing they had no share of anybody, it was all.
As a child-focused nonprofit working in juvenile rehabilitation in Uganda, we couldn’t let that happen.
We wanted them to have something to hold onto, a memory that said, “You matter. You are seen. You are not forgotten.” And so, the idea of a Giving Tuesday campaign was born. We called it “From Your Heart to Theirs”, a Christmas charity project for vulnerable children, children in conflict with the law.
We planned to take games, prepare a meal, exchange gifts, laugh together, and simply be present. Not as visitors. But as people who genuinely cared. And we invited all others to join us with their financial support.
That day, the detention centre was filled with laughter. There was dancing. Karaoke. There were smiles. There were plates of food shared, games played, and gifts opened with wide-eyed wonder. For a few hours, they were not “juveniles in detention.” They were children. Teenagers. Young people are being celebrated.
Some smiled quietly. Some laughed loudly. Some simply watched, soaking it all in. But in every face, you could see it; they felt loved.
The pictures from that day say what words sometimes fail to express. They tell a story of dignity restored, of forgotten hearts remembered, of light finding its way into a place that rarely sees it.
And for us, that is what Giving Tuesday truly means.
From your heart, to theirs.
