How do we do this?
This is done by means of:
- Volunteer, trained, Home Based Carers that visit selected orphans in the children’s own home, weekly, to form a relationship; mentor; guide; protect and encourage.
- Monthly reports from the home based carers are overseen and handed in for accountability.
- Monthly recons and statements are audited and recorded.
- We provide the basic necessities, as best we can, until they are able to sustain themselves.
- We support them, if they go to school and receive school reports at the end of every term in order for us to check the children’s commitment, mental, emotional and physical progress.
- We also try to help them to get their identity papers in order, to receive government grants, etc. The goal is, not to run their lives, but to empower them.
- Prepare them for the working world by job shadowing and career planning.
- Build relationships between each other through fun activities and spiritual guidance to teach boundaries of behaviour; etiquette and to build character and EQ.
We work from a base of a church; school or house in the community and use it as a central meeting place to see the children and their caregivers on organised occasions.
This model on which we work we have found to be really sustainable in the following ways:
The children remain in their culture and family environs.
This is cost effective
The children are close to the Home Based Carers homes.
The child has one stable adult relationship for as many years as the child is with us.
If we had more hands(help), this model has multiple ways of expansion. Spiritual growth, youth mentoring, business skills, school tutoring, medical care, nutrition, character formation, teacher upliftment.
In 2008 we started small in order to perfect the model. Now we are looking after 50 orphans, with approximately 20 who have passed through our hands and are out in the working and tertiary education world.