Joyland Restoration Ministries — Soroti, Uganda
Privacy Policy
How we collect, use, and protect information about donors, sponsors, guardians, and visitors to this website.
Last updated: September 2026
1. Who We Are
Joyland Restoration Ministries is a registered indigenous NGO based in Soroti, Uganda, dedicated to bringing the love of Christ to orphans, the neediest, and vulnerable children in Uganda — caring for the whole child and investing in families and communities.
This policy explains how we handle personal information collected through this website (joylandministries.org), our donation and sponsorship forms, our WhatsApp community, and any direct communication with our team.
2. Information We Collect
From Donors and Sponsors
When you make a donation or sign up to sponsor a child, we (through our donation platform) collect your name, email address, phone number, country, and payment details necessary to process your gift. We do not store full card numbers or mobile money PINs — these are handled directly by our payment processor.
From the Contact and Support Request Forms
If you contact us or submit a request for support, we collect the information you choose to provide, such as your name, phone number, email address, and the details of your message or request.
From Our WhatsApp Community
If you join our WhatsApp community, we can see your phone number and any information visible in your WhatsApp profile, in line with WhatsApp’s own privacy policy. We use this only to share updates and communicate about Joyland’s work.
Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string, to help with spam detection.
Media Uploads
If you upload images to the website, please avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included, as visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images published on the site.
Gravatar
An anonymized string created from your email address (a “hash”) may be provided to the Gravatar service to check whether you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
3. How We Use Your Information
- To process donations and issue receipts or acknowledgements
- To keep sponsors updated on the children and programs they support
- To respond to support requests and general enquiries
- To share ministry updates, testimonies, and impact reports with our community
- To maintain the security and proper functioning of this website
- To meet our legal, financial, and reporting obligations as a registered NGO in Uganda
We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to any third party for marketing purposes.
4. Children’s Information & Safeguarding
Protecting the children in our care is central to everything we publish. We follow a strict internal Child Safeguarding & Image Policy for any content involving a child.
What We Publish
For children featured in our sponsorship program, we publish only: the child’s first name, approximate age or grade, general area of residence (district or sub-county level), a photograph, and a brief, positive description of their personality and needs — always with prior guardian consent.
What We Never Publish
We do not publish a child’s full name or surname, exact date of birth, exact home address or village, health conditions or disabilities, or sensitive family history. This information is kept in our private case records, accessible only to authorized staff.
Consent
No child’s photo, name, or story is published without a signed or thumbprinted consent form from their parent or legal guardian, specifying exactly what may be shared publicly.
5. Donations & Payment Processing
Donations made through this website are processed using GiveWP in combination with Flutterwave, a licensed payment service provider. When you make a donation, your payment details are transmitted directly and securely to Flutterwave for processing — Joyland does not receive or store your full card number, mobile money PIN, or other sensitive payment credentials.
We do retain records of the donation amount, date, donor name, and contact details for accounting, receipting, and donor communication purposes, in line with standard nonprofit financial recordkeeping requirements.
6. Third-Party Services
This website relies on a small number of trusted third-party services to operate:
- Flutterwave — payment processing for donations
- GiveWP — donation and campaign management
- Google Fonts — website typography
- WhatsApp — community updates and communication
- Gravatar — optional profile images on approved comments
Each of these providers has its own privacy policy governing how they handle data, and we encourage you to review them if you have specific concerns.
7. Cookies
A summary of the cookies this site sets, what they’re for, and how long they last.
Comment Cookies
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt in to saving your name, email address, and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
Login Cookies
If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices.
- Login cookies last for two days.
- Screen options cookies last for a year.
- If you select “Remember Me,” your login will persist for two weeks.
- If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
Donation Form Cookies
Our donation platform (GiveWP) and payment processor (Flutterwave) may set cookies necessary to process your transaction securely and prevent fraud. These are session-based and are not used for advertising.
8. Data Retention
We keep personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this policy, or as required by Ugandan law — for example, financial records are retained in line with standard nonprofit accounting and audit requirements. Children’s private case records are retained for as long as the child remains in Joyland’s programs, and afterward only as needed for continued care, reporting, or legal obligations.
9. Data Security
We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect the personal information we hold, including restricting access to private records to authorized staff only, and relying on secure, licensed third-party providers for payment processing. However, no method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
10. Your Rights
Under Uganda’s Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019, you have the right to:
- Know what personal information we hold about you
- Request a copy of your personal information
- Ask us to correct inaccurate information
- Ask us to delete your information, where this does not conflict with our legal or financial obligations
- Withdraw consent previously given, such as consent for a child’s photo or story to remain published
To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the details below.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this privacy policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page will reflect the most recent revision.
12. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your information, please contact us:
- Phone: +256 771 419 412
- Email: joylandministriesorg@gmail.com
- Location: Soroti West, P.O. Box 290184, Soroti, Uganda