How YOU can be part of the Village that Raises A Child,
The Village of Love!
CAREGIVERS like Josephine provide everything they have for the orphaned children they have adopted: committed love, safety, guidance. But they struggle to provide the material things of life: food and education. They need YOU to be a PROVIDER in the Village That Raises a Child. Together we can give orphaned children everything they need: both love and material necessities. Across the oceans, we can join together in the Village of Love!It’s small. It’s new. It’s innovative. It’s not been done before:
“Village of Love” provides support to children orphaned by HIV&AIDS within LOVING FAMILIES! Yes, really. Orphans are being cared for in families!
Since the 1990’s in Kenya, HIV&AIDS has decimated the adult population of child bearing age, leaving children in the care of elderly and often sick grandparents, or alone and destitute on the streets.
“Village of Love” has found a unique way of supplying FAMILY CARE and MATERIAL PROVISION for orphaned children.
United Nations Observers have affirmed that the best place for orphaned children to be raised is IN A LOVING FAMILY within their community. This is, after all, only common sense.
In Africa, where there is no foster care system as we know it in North America, families do care for orphaned children. Even in the slums of Kibera, very poor families are willing to share their meagre means, taking orphaned children into their one room shacks, along with their biological children. It is the African way, to take responsibility for one another.
The problem up till now has been of how to provide material support to these orphaned children within families. Supporting orphans within families can expose the orphans to the danger of exploitation. Until now, families taking in orphaned children have for the most part struggled without outside FINANCIAL HELP.
Up till now the main way of helping orphaned children is through orphanages, where the administration of funds and the care of children can be monitored. However, in an institution, the element of FAMILY LOVE AND BELONGING is always missing!
Imagine bringing together the best aspects of Family-Based Orphan Care and Institutional Care! “Village of Love” does just this, creating an entirely new opportunity: to FUND FAMILIES caring for orphaned children and to monitor child care and the administration of funds!
How does “Village of Love” achieve this?
An Innovative Solution!
In 2010 families caring for orphaned children formed a cooperative, “Kijiji Cha Upendo,” Swahili for “Village of Love.” They registered as a Community Based Organisation, Registration No. 11849 under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Services of the Government of Kenya. This means that
- The organisation is MONITORED, both by the Kenyan Government and by a social worker employed by the “Village of Love.”
- The families speak with one voice to let the world know their needs.
“Village of Love Achievements:”
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LOVE
“Village of Love” provides FAMILY love and belonging for orphaned children in a way that can be monitored and supported. To read how love can change the world, one child at a time, click HERE.
Moerover, all the children, orphans and biological, are funded to go to school. The orphans are not separated or marked in any way as different. The whole family is empowered to rise above poverty, the orphaned children along with the rest of the family. This goes a long way to overcoming stigma! Read more…
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LEARNING
We believe that education is the door out of poverty. As funds become available, all the children will be able to go school. Read about the urgent need for education.
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LIVELIHOOD
Microloans empower the guardians’ livelihoods, lifting the whole family out of extreme poverty. Even the poorest of the poor in “Village of Love” can access these small business micro-loans. Read how lives are being changed through microloans.
Our Dollars Go Further
An amazing benefit of this FAMILY BASED ORPHAN CARE is that our dollars GO MUCH FURTHER! Read more…..
How you can be part of The Village That Raises a Child:
All over the world it is the same. To raise a child, TWO kinds of support are needed: a CAREGIVER and a PROVIDER. Children in the “Village of Love” are already receiving love and guidance through CAREGIVERS on the ground. Their material means, however, is limited.
“Village of Love Canada” gives YOU the opportunity to be a PROVIDER in The Village That Raises a Child.
“Village of Love Canada” partners with compassionate families on the ground in Kenya so that children orphaned by HIV&AIDS can receive both the LOVE and the MATERIAL opportunities that a child needs!
TOGETHER we can provide all that is needed. Be a Provider in “The Village That Raises A Child!” Invest in this brave new venture.
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“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” Mother Teresa
“Kijiji Cha Upendo” is registered as a Community Based Organisation, Registration No. 11849 under the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Services of the Government of Kenya.