Origins of Friends of Bwindi Orphanage

Our group was founded by Joanna Simpson, who first visited Bwindi on a trekking holiday to see rare mountain gorillas at Bwindi Impenetrable Rainforest in April 2006. She made friends in the village, especially at the orphanage, 'Bwindi Orphanage Development Centre' (BODEC) and returned in April 2007 with gifts and donations from friends and family.

When she returned we set up 'Friends of Bwindi Orphanage' to support the orphanage in their work. The BODEC Committee have innovative, achievable and exciting proposals, including many that will enable the orphanage to become self sufficient and no longer rely on charitable donations. You can find out more about the planned projects on the BODEC website.

We also hope to support the sponsorship scheme by assisting with communications and transfer of funds. Many children are sponsored by a tourist but lose the funding after the first year, leading to disappointment and interrupted education. This is largely due to communication difficulties, as the village is very remote and staff must travel for 5 hours even to send email. Transfer fees can be expensive and we aim to reduce these by combining payments.

We are a charitable non-profit organisation governed by Trust Deed. We have appointed trustees and set up our organisation in line with Charity Commission guidelines. We hope to register with the Charity Commission and get a charity number as soon as possible, but the income threshold has recently increased to £5,000 which we have not yet achieved.