African Widows and Orphans Project

 

We desire to help some of the neediest people in Africa.  The areas in which we work have high rates of unemployment, a large number of HIV cases, and a lack of training in sustainable income producing job skills.  Several of our partners have adopted children from African countries and have a particular heart for these people.  We recognize that the number of children who will be adopted is very small compared to the number of widows and orphans who need assistance.  Our desire is to identify the needs of families and develop an individual plan to help meet the needs of each family with whom we work on a holistic basis.

 

I.                   We thoroughly evaluate a needy family’s situation and present the family with choices of resources appropriate to their situation. 

A.     We target families with only one living parent as well as child-run households. We ask local police officers, government officials and church personnel to recommend needy families to us.  Our social workers meet with each family, visit their home, and complete an intake assessment to evaluate needs.

B.     We develop a suggested proposal for resources to assist the family and present the proposal to the family. 

C.     Our social workers follow up on each family at least once a month.

 

II.                We offer appropriate resources to meet the immediate and long term goals of needy families

A.    Hospice care.  Recognizing that many parents are HIV positive we offer hospice care to those who are in the latter stages of the disease and probably have no more than six months to live.  Hospice care is not designed to attempt to cure patients of their illness, but to provide comfort and assistance in a patient’s final months of life.  Our hospice nurses visit the homes of the severely ill HIV positive patients regularly and provide comfort care, resources such as food and pain medication, and other care as appropriate.  They also share the gospel with patients and offer Bible study to those who are interested.

B.     Training in sustainable income producing job skills.  After evaluating what job skills will be most beneficial in a given area, we offer job training to widows and older teenagers to enable them to become self-supporting and provide for their families.  

C.     Micro-loans to enable widows to begin small businesses.  Sometimes the only thing stopping a woman from being able to care for her children is lack of money to begin a small business.  Working in partnership with other NGOs we will select women to whom we give small loans in order to help them establish businesses.  Our preference is that these women work together in a cooperative setting to provide accountability to each other. 

D.    Feeding program.  Many families have immediate needs that cannot wait until the family has job skills.  We offer feeding programs in which children in the families with whom we are working can come twice daily to be fed.

E.     Sponsorship program.  There are many teenagers who are too old to make a successful adjustment to life in the U.S., and for whom remaining in their birth country is a better option.  Additionally, many desperate children from impoverished situations can continue to live with their families if their daily needs are met through a sponsorship program.

F.      Evangelism and discipleship.  This is the core around which all of our programs are developed.  We wish to offer families hope not only for this life, but for eternity as well.  Our social workers share the Gospel with each family with whom we are working, and staff follows up on new believers and offers them the opportunity to participate in Bible studies.

G.    Mission trips.  We recognize that many individuals and churches desire to have a part in ministering to African widows and orphans.  We welcome teams to volunteer with our projects.  Mission trips can range from two weeks to several months and involve training and follow up.

 

III.             We offer adoption as one option for orphans and semi-orphans.

We believe that in most cases it is preferable for orphaned children to remain with relatives if possible.  However, if our social workers assess a family’s situation and determine there is no one to adequately care for the needs of an orphan or sibling group we consider adoption as a possibility. 

 

Once we have determined that adoption is a wise option for a family, we interview the children and learn about their background and personality in order to recruit an appropriate family for the child or sibling group.

 

We have a photolisting and DVD of children needing adoptive families available to interested prospective parents.  Simply contact AWOP and request the DVD.

 

Contact us at AWOP / Kingdom Kids Adoption Ministries -  phone:  1-877-465-3520

                                                                                       email:   AWOP@KingdomKidsAdoption.org

                                                                                       U.S. Mail:  AWOP

                                                                                                       1417 N. Lincoln Street

                                                                                                       Spokane, WA  99201