30+ Years of Restoring Lives

Story Behind CRO

Child Restoration Outreach (CRO) was founded in Mbale in 1992 by a Dutch woman, Ingrid Wilts, together with three Ugandan Christian leaders. Ingrid first came to Uganda in 1981 as a volunteer in a children's home, during a time when the country was highly unstable and dangerous. After two years she had to return to the Netherlands, but Uganda never left her heart.

In 1989, she returned to Mbale in Eastern Uganda to establish a vocational training school for orphans. When her contract ended two years later, she chose to stay. She began spending time with street-connected children on the streets themselves, sitting with them, listening, and slowly building real relationships. Through this, she came to a simple but powerful realisation: no one in Mbale was truly reaching out to these children. That realisation became CRO.

The early years were not easy. Ingrid faced strong opposition and false accusations, was arrested, and was even shot. By the grace of God and in the name of Jesus, her life was saved, and her work continued.

CRO kept growing. A second branch opened in Jinja in 1997, followed by Masaka in 2002 and Lira in 2007, extending the work across the country.

In 2003, Ingrid handed over the leadership of CRO to Christine Kamiti and founded MTO MOYONI ("river in the heart" in Swahili), a Christian and spiritual retreat centre on the banks of the River Nile in Jinja. She remains part of CRO today as a member of the board.

Christine Kamiti

Christine had worked alongside Ingrid as a social worker before taking over as National Coordinator. She led CRO for more than fifteen years and shaped it into the organisation it is today.

The children of the street were her whole life. She never started a family of her own. For years she took no leave, and even at Christmas she went into the slums to see which children needed help. Girls were a particular focus of her work, and during her years of leadership around a third of the children at CRO were girls.

Christine died suddenly in July 2019 after a short illness. More than a thousand children and young people came to her burial in the village. Those children are adults today, and they still carry her in their hearts. Talk to any of them, and her name will come up.

Today

Today, CRO is led and run by Ugandans. Since Ingrid handed over in 2003, the organisation has been in Ugandan hands, and our social workers, teachers and counsellors come from the communities we serve. They speak the same languages as the children, know the villages they come from, and stay in touch with the families long after a child has left the streets.

Since those early days, CRO has rescued more than 15,000 children from the streets, walked with them through rehabilitation, and helped restore them to loving families. Through education, vocational training and holistic support, we help them rebuild their lives with dignity, purpose and hope, breaking the cycle of the street for good.