Feeding 5,000 Strategy -> 2023 Redefined
Feeding 5,000 Strategy -> 2023 Redefined
by Scott Nordstrom
September 28, 2023
During last year’s Hands of Hope Gala in October, I outlined a five-point strategy for building our capacity to serve 5,000 children monthly, and to better position for ministry for the future.
At the time, we were enjoying steady growth, primarily from our Church Mobilization Initiative (CMI) launch in February 2022, and while serving 5,000 children was certainly reachable, CMI was new enough that we were uncertain as to whether the recent momentum could be sustained.
What the last 12-months has revealed to us is that CMI growth was more than an anomaly and that growth in reach of impact can be directly tied to facilitating Great Commandment Workshops in local communities. Furthermore, the activity of our GO! Ambassador Network seems to be self-propagating as these ministry leaders share their experiences within their communities.
CMI remains new enough that projected growth in the reach of our network cannot be done with a high degree of certainty. In addition, we cannot yet determine the longevity in which a GO! Ambassador will serve orphan children. What we can share is that in August, 56% of 2,200 GO! Ambassadors served orphan children, and that the average Ambassador served 10.96 children, however, these percentages and averages have not remained constant -though they are trending in a positive direction.
I share this today because the rapid growth in our reach this year does require us to adjust our thinking around our Feeding 5,000 Strategy and its meaning.
We do continue to directly care for 2,536 orphan children in our three primary care initiatives: Home-Based Care, Education, and Nutrition. As you may already know, we do this work in cooperation with 9 field partners that provision care day-to-day. Our adjusted Feeding 5,000 Strategy will have us working with our field partners to serve 5,000 children in our three care initiatives. We believe that we can scale to this level of care in the next two years, by the end of 2025, if resources are available.
In addition to the work in our three primary care initiatives, we will follow a slightly different growth track with CMI with the launch of four new countries in 2024. We project that this investment will allow our reach with our GO! Ambassador Network to grow to impact 25,000 children.
Additional resources will be required, but there are other factors to consider beyond this. The following is a snapshot of the annual resources needed to achieve Feeding 5,000.
* This will require 3.5x the funding we expect to receive in 2023
I will recap our five-point strategy for achieving Feeding 5,000. I will provide a progress report on each of these strategy areas, and how we intend to adjust moving forward in additional blog posts in the coming weeks.
Global Orphan Relief (GO) has been serving orphaned children since 2005. We have accomplished this work through local partners in each country that provides oversight and distribution of care. As of July, we impacted 12,821 orphan children in Asia, Ethiopia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Zambia within our Home-based Care, Scholarship, Nutrition, and Church Mobilization Initiatives.
Scott, Minister Isaiah, & Bishop Garang in Nairobi
Scott Nordstrom who leads GO! today and has done so since we launched in 2005. Scott has served with GO! for 18-years. Scott has been instrumental in deploying 174 volunteers on 29 teams to the mission field, and has personally served in DR Congo, India, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, South Sudan, and Zambia. Scott is a published author and speaks in the United States, as well as, internationally regarding child welfare and matters of faith, hope, and love.
You may send support or other correspondence to Global Orphan Relief, 16352 Prairie Farm Cir, Parker, CO 80134 or you may also give electronically to support orphan children at Global Orphan Relief.
Movement of FAITH | Voice of HOPE | Act of LOVE