AWEIL COMMUNITY ORPHANS FEEDING PROGRAMME (ACOFP)
NEED: South Sudan is the newest country in the world and is home to 12 million people with an orphan population that is growing.
Children here are born into a very unstable society; they face many risks, to include armed conflict and hunger, and need special care and protection. There are so many of these children that have lost 1 or both of their parents and many more live in abject poverty. With armed conflict and disease, to include HIV/AIDS, many continue to lose parents leaving no one to care for them. In addition, South Sudan has one of the world’s highest child mortality rates: 160 out of every 1,000 children die before reaching the age of five, and 1/3 of children under five are stunted and are more than 25% underweight. There are over one million children in South Sudan that do not go to primary school. Many are forced to work to have something to eat. Children also work in exploitative conditions, and those without protection -the orphans, are at risk of violence, abduction or recruitment into armed groups. CLICK HERE TO HELP NOW!
AWEIL COMMUNITY ORPHANS FEEDING PROGRAMME (ACOFP)
HISTORY: This program came out of a three-year long-distance relationship with Reverend Garang Chan who serves in Northern Bhar el Ghazal State in South Sudan.
The program involves a school feeding operations in two villages namely Adoor Village (Aweil East) and Beliek Village (Aweil South) and in turn increase access to education and improve nutrition for 300 orphaned children. Primary education net enrollment rate in Northern Bhar el Ghazal State is very low and the number of children completing primary education is low because of high dropout rates and minimal progression rates. Malnutrition is common amongst children and low attendance at school is predominantly attributed to sickness or hunger. Our program meets the development needs of Aweil South County and Aweil East County both in Northern Bhar el Ghazal State by contributing to the goal of universal primary education targeting children living in areas of poverty and food insecurity by removing barriers to education such as hunger.
Our partner in South Sudan is Christ Mission to the World. Together we are providing school supplementary feeding as a strategy to keep children in school, as well as, to get children who have dropped-out to come back and continue with their educational pursuits. Of greatest concern, however, is the fact that orphaned girl-children, some as young as 11 years of age, who are forced by circumstances to drop out of school to marry older men to enable them to support their younger siblings. These girls apparently turn to their former teachers for emotional support, openly admitting that early marriage is not the best option for their circumstances after all, and that they would opt to go back to school, where they can receive a second chance.
Aweil Community Orphans Feeding Programme (ACOFP) is in partnership with Christ Mission to the World, and we launched this program in February 2016 with no outside commitments for funding due to children that were going hungry in the Aweil, South Sudan area. This program was doing a similar work that ended in mid-2015 due to a lack of funding. Global Orphan Relief has stepped in to advocate for these hungry children based on faith alone. In addition to daily feedings (now 4-days per week) bible clubs and lessons will be provided to the children. $12 per month will feed one child each month and keep them in school. CLICK HERE TO HELP NOW!
OBJECTIVE: The overall objective is to improve access and retention of orphaned children to basic education, and particularly by those food insecure villages of Adoor Village (Aweil East) and Beliek Village (Aweil South).
We see real opportunity for orphaned children to stay with extended family, and have the availability to attend school that provides the nutrition that they need. There are so many benefits for the child to be with extended family, and not be relocated to an orphanage simply because the extended family has limited resources. In addition, there are real possibilities for the cycle of poverty to be broken given that these children will receive an education that is available and taken advantage of when food is an added benefit.
We hope that this is just the start with our partners Christ Mission to the World to provide food and biblical instruction to the orphans of South Sudan. When this funding is secured we can then consider an additional 300 orphans at two additional locations.
FUNDING SOURCE: To fund ACOFP we have relied on the GO! general fund for 96.65% of the funding of the $25,740 invested thus far in 2016.
BUDGET: Based on current expenditure and expected number of children in 2017 of 300 orphans enrolled in the ACOFP Program, our planned budget for this program in 2017 is $33,780.
CAPITAL: There is no capital planned for ACOFP, however, if two additional sites are deployed, construction of kitchen facilities will be required for each location.
You can go to our South Sudan Feeding page to start helping now by clicking this link!
Movement of FAITH | Voice of HOPE | Act of LOVE
Global Orphan Relief is a Christian relief agency serving Orphans in need and a recognized U.S. public charity, tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3). All donations are tax deductible to the extent of the law.