House of Faith Orphanage – School Update
Update Zambia | House of Faith Orphanage (HOFO) | Silembe, Zambia
Via communication from Linda Jones located in Zambia: We believe our kids are truly coming up since we departed the community school and had the children stay at the school at HOFO for teaching only with our teachers. What this means for the students is that they are with us all day versus splitting up the day between the two schools.
Our kids from our first class that graduated grade 7 from our school are doing much better than our grade 7’s from the year before. Plus, this class of grade 7 graduates used the iSchool tablets in their classes.
We have asked our teachers to teach more math and English along with their English reading skills. This is what we have found to be needed to continue on to grade 8 in Kalomo. Keep our kids in prayers; Chimuka, Brian, and Priscar are all repeating grade 7 (three of our HIV positive kids). Derick is repeating grade 8 in Kalomo. Seems he is doing much better this year and the teacher here felt he needed to repeat to keep him from continued struggling. School will be finished with first term on the 13th of April. We should have results before schools starts again the middle of May.
Our lower grade level classes are also improving, and have started their learning with the tablets. Our preschool teacher has said thank you for his teacher tablet. It has helped with many lessons for the children that he was not teaching before.
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NEED: Zambia is a country of nearly 14 million people with an orphan population of approximately 1.4 million. Many of these children remain with extended family and most of these extended families have biological children as well. Ultimately, when resources don’t allow for food, clothing, and education as needed, these orphan children are last in line -not having the same rights as the other children. Approximately 10% of the population, or 1.4 million, are orphaned children, and 10% of these children are considered AIDS Orphans.
Through 2016 we have provided funding of $834,669 that has been invested in capital infrastructure, program development, and for the care for the children. Today we are caring for orphaned children in Zambia via orphanage-based care, foster care, scholarships, and through a feeding program.
You can sponsor an orphaned child at $25, 50, 75, or 100 per month just CLICK HERE. We will then assign you a child and send you the details. Please use the notes sections to note you are sponsoring a child and include any preferences you may have.
You can provide support for our scholarship program just CLICK HERE. For $27 you support one of these children with their education through the end of the year.
You can provide support for our feeding program just CLICK HERE.
HOUSE OF FAITH ORPHANAGE (HOFO)
HISTORY: We began development at the location for HOFO in 2007 in an area called Silembe. This village is located approximately 90 minutes North-Northwest from Kalomo, Zambia. There were no structures on the land; only a vision of what could be created to serve orphaned children.
In August 2007, we established a water source by drilling a well and construction began in earnest at that time. We received our first child, Sibajane Mudenda, on March 14, 2008, who was received into our 1st home.
Since this time, we have received over 60-orphans and care for 42-orphans from this campus today. At HOFO we have invested $200,000 in capital development, received over a dozen work teams to invest their time and resources in this work, employed dozens of local workers for construction, and today employ 12 Zambian Nationals for the care of the children.
Our HOFO campus today consist of 6 homes where we can host 12 children and a housemom, an under-roof kitchen and laundry facility, 2-latrines (1 per 3 homes with boys and girls), 2 under-roof playgrounds, a transition home, a teacher’s home, 2-water wells, and a Community Center. This Community Center consist of one large class room, 3 dormitory rooms able to host up to 18 people, and a director’s apartment.
In addition, to move toward sustainability, we have established maize fields, gardens, chicken facilities, an area for livestock, and have fenced-in a large portion of the almost 30-acres that encompasses HOFO.
ACHEIVEMENTS: This project is our longest running project and is at the center of the heart of this movement. From our first visit in 2007 with our partners, Noah Ministries, the development of this project has been absent any set-backs. Families have been created in 5 of the 6 homes and 100’s of people have been blessed.
What started as providing a place of comfort and safety for orphans has evolved into a thriving community not lacking in the physical and spiritual food that is required for life. These types of development projects are difficult to quantify in terms of financial return on investment, but I can say that we have successfully reduced ongoing costs of care with HOFO becoming more sustainable over time with increasing food requirements being grown locally. Not only has this reduced the costs required, but the children are learning the critical farming skills that will required for their adult life.
Education has always been a key area of emphasis for the movement, and at HOFO this is no different. Outside of the children with learning disabilities or physical challenges, most all the children at HOFO have advanced in their education. Currently we have 8 of these children attending school in Kalomo.
OBJECTIVE: We provide a place of comfort and safety for orphans that have no other options until such time they can be reunited with their extended family. In addition, we have a commitment to support each orphaned child in our program, whether they are living on campus or with their families, to assist them with school fees if they are progressing in school.
This commitment is so important to us that we have hired a teacher to provide instruction on campus where our children attend school.
FUNDING SOURCE: To fund HOFO we rely on a mixture of sources to include child sponsorships, team visits, and the GO! general fund. To date, our projects and programs in Zambia are the funded to a higher percentage by donors that earmark their support for this effort. We have raised $676,173 in funding to serve the orphans of Zambia.
BUDGET: The optimum level of service that we’d like to provide for the children located at HOFO is $100 per month. The costs breaks-out as follows:
Food & Nutrition $25 per month
Care Supplies $25 per month
Care Givers & Clothing $25 per month
Medical Care, Educa- $25 per month
tion, Transport
Based on current expenditure and expected number of children in 2017 our goal and need for a fully funded budget is $34,190.
CAPITAL: We do not have any large capital projects scheduled for HOFO at this time. We will plan on $5,000 in capital for 2017 as it relates to maintenance issues for the various facilities and the water pumps. In addition, there are several other sub-projects under consideration, but not yet committed to start and or complete in 2017.
With the planned for deployment of a GO! Team in 2017, we do plan on $12,500 for capital though this is not included in our budget.
ACCOUNTABILITY / OVERSIGHT: We receive monthly reports from our partners in Zambia that include line-item expenses. In addition, receipts and back-up are kept in Zambia. We also receive updates on various aspects of the project as needed.
Since 2006, we have deployed 13 teams to Zambia and regularly assess personally how the work is progressing.
Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. Isaiah 43:18-19
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.