I am Ibrah Ssembatya the founder and director of Yimusa Ministries.

When I was 9 years old, my father passed away and life became very hard. Me, my mother and two sisters. Sometimes we would go for days without food, she was a stay at home mom so didn’t know what to do but she started dong everything she would to support us but even getting work was so hard.

​We didn't have any money so my sisters and I couldn't go to school anymore. My older sister began work and my little sister was sent to our grandma. I stayed at home for nearly two years.

​But then a miracle happened. My auntie and her husband made the big decision to take care of me so I could go to school again. My mother immediately agreed, knowing this was the best thing to do so, she let me go, when they took me in, not only did I get to attend school again, but they loved me and supported me like their own child and they changed my life. My auntie’s husband became a father to me, they loved me and made sure, I got everything I wanted, I was able to eat every day and go to school again, after I finished school, I started working but I didn’t feel like I was supposed to be there, every time I sat in those offices, I felt like something was missing, I felt like I needed to do something rather than just work , every day job , in 2014, I felt called to serve and care for orphans and vulnerable childrenn, I was lucky someone was there for me but what of those that don’t have anyone! Whenever I saw these children, I saw myself and remembered how my auntie and her husband helped me in need. I prayed about it and felt that this was what God wanted me to do, that is when Yimusa Ministries was born, it was so hard because I was using my own money I was getting from work to support some of these children by getting them some food, and starting with three children, I took them back to school because they were not at school and they barely survived, I asked for God’s wisdom on how I can help these children, the more people knew that I was helping some children from the community, they started telling me about other children that had no one and need my help and they would bring children at my place , in a few weeks more than 16 children were looking up to me for what to eat and they needed a place to stay but I didn’t have the means to help them, I called onto God to guide me and give me wisdom on how I was going to help these children, I decided to quit my job to fully focus on these children and make sure, they are safe and well taken care of but I didn’t want them to grow up in an orphanage, I wanted them to have a family, as I was working part time I started looking for people that would help me because it was not possible for me to do it on my own, I first got a dance trainer who helped start training them which was my vision to help them mentally and give them something which would help bring out the light in them, they would sing and dance, once in a while we would get a few gigs where we would get some small money which helped us, get them some food but still it was so hard because we would fail sometimes to get them what to eat and they would sleep hungry but I couldn’t give up because its me they had and they felt like the world had left them, I kept on asking for help from different people, my family , friends and everybody that I could talk to, so I started reaching out to different  people from the community and search for some of their remaining relatives to help take some of these children in but so many would turn me down because it was also hard for them to feed their own families as well  but I insisted and tried my level best to get as many as I can to help me take these children and by God’s grace, I started  getting some people to accept and start taking care of them, I wanted them to have families, I would place them in a home and time to time check in on them to see how they were doing but I was to take care of their school fees and some times help with the food, once in a while but so many of these children had no remaining relatives or I was completely unable to trace them down so, we created the yimusa safe home, Yimusa is a place where these children can be loved, supported and cared for. I wanted to create a special environment where kids could sing, dance laugh, play and just let kids be kids. Some children weren't even allowed to play at home, and were told to use that energy to dig in the garden. Growing up in those homes, some children didn't know how to play or genuinely smile, so many of children at yimusa have been in so much, when they come at first, its so hard for them to even smile but by God’s mercy, we at Yimusa have changed many lives and we continue to do God’s work.