St. Francis Family Helper Programme is a charity organization registered in Uganda, the UK and Ireland. Our German sponsors are recognized for tax purposes through Kindermissionswerk in Aachen. St. Francis FHP receives patronage and support from the Archbishop of Mbarara and is located on diocesan land on Nyamitanga Hill on the western outskirts of Mbarara (western Uganda).

Launched in 1984 with the Child Sponsorship Project, the organisation has grown over the years with the addition of a Tailoring School in1986 and a Counsellor Training Institute begun in 1999.Services have changed greatly over the years from paying school fees to carrying out a variety of projects with families in rural communities and to offering a number of trainings in areas all related to development.As needs of the family grew so did the response of the organization. We began to develop nutritional, agricultural, and counselling projects, eventually founding the present Counsellor Training Institute in 1998. Since then we have been offering training in counselling and psychosocial skills to communities, counsellors, catechists and development workers, continuously revising and optimizing our training methods. We have been lucky and happy to have been given an opportunity to offer psychosocial trainings in Rwanda, Tanzania, Burundi, DRCongo, and Ethiopia.  We hope to be able to give some trainings in South Sudan from which we have received two invitations.

St. Francis was registered as a National Non Governmental Organisation in Uganda in 1990, in the UK (2000) and in Ireland (2009). Kindermissionswerk of Germany gives tax receipts to our German donors.

St. Francis FHP has received financial or other support from sponsors and donor agencies from many countries including Uganda over the years.Volunteers from many countries have been coming to St. Francis FHP to offer services from a few weeks to a few years. For further information see section on volunteerism.