Orphan Prevention is our GO-TO Strategy for Helping Vulnerable Kids
As the HIV/AIDS scene has changed in Africa, the need for institutional care for orphans is also changing. The AIDS crisis created many orphans, more than the community could bear. With access and availability of ARTs (medications to treat AIDS), and with a more open understanding of HIV, it’s cause, testing, counseling, etc., communities are no longer overwhelmed with orphaned children.
In order to meet the changing need of our communities, we’ve made a huge shift in mindset at the Grace Center. This is not an easy transition in the minds of families, communities, chiefs or social workers. Our practice has been to accept any child brought to us as an orphan or extremely vulnerable by taking them into full-time institutional care. But institutional care is not the best option for children, ever.
As our children have aged in the orphanage and we’ve begun the process of transitioning them back to village life, we’ve noticed some really big problems. The children are no longer accepted by their families; any farms or resources that would have belonged to them have long since been given to others; they don’t know people in the village; they don’t connect with their family members; they don’t have a local church family in their village and they have no friend/family/church network to help them; as a result they really struggle to live outside of the institution.
Our Orphan Prevention Program is in its infancy. We currently have 2 families in this program, preventing 6 children from being abandoned as orphans. Our first step is to identify a family member willing to care for the children with our assistance which immediately resolves a LOT of problems as the child is never removed from the home.
Our second step is to provide shoes and clothing for all the children in the family. This resource helps the entire family freeing up funds for the family to use for food or other daily needs. If the family is close enough to our center we also provide medical care at our health center. The third step is to be sure all the children are enrolled in school.
Our 4th step is to rebuild broken family, church and community relationships. It is so important for our OP families to have a strong local network, but often the very thing that landed them in such vulnerable places that they are unable to provide for their families is a broken network. Helping to restore families and community is a huge part of this journey. We’re just embarking on this step with our first family…so I’m sure we’ll have more to share soon.
Our next step is currently under construction! We are researching small business practices, roadblocks and success strategies in order to help our OP families start and build a small business for themselves. Again, I’m sure we’ll have more to share soon!
Changing the hearts and minds of people, including our own hearts and minds, is slow, painstaking work. We deeply appreciate your prayers and support as we move forward with our strategy to prevent orphans in our community.