Why Start an Orphanage?

It is no secret that AIDS is devastating the continent of Africa. Since the outbreak of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Kenya in the 80’s, nearly every family has been affected in some way. According to information provided by UNICEF, there are currently over 34 million orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa, 1.6 million of them residing in Kenya.

Most of these children are now living with extended family members—aunts, uncles, or grandparents. But many of those families are struggling to provide food for their own large families and cannot divide the portions any smaller to include extra children. Others are held tightly in the grip of alcoholism and cannot provide a safe and loving home for their orphaned relatives.

The ministry of Empowering Lives Kenya is situated in the rural villages surrounding Eldoret, a fast growing town in the western part of Kenya. The statistics and stories of orphans are no different here than in other parts of Kenya. Though there are other orphanages in the area, there are not enough to meet the overwhelming need.

The leaders of Empowering Lives, both American and African, saw that providing a permanent home for orphans would fulfill the ministry’s call to “empower the poor and oppressed that they may know, serve, and worship God without hindrance” in yet another way. What could be more empowering than to raise a group of children in a loving family environment so that when they are grown, they will know the love of their Heavenly Father?

The mission statement is to provide emotional healing, spiritual nurture, education, and basic needs to orphaned and destitute children in a family setting using Christian principles of honesty, integrity, and respect for man and God, and to provide them with relevant skills and knowledge to be God-fearing, successful, and responsible people of Kenya, East Africa, and the world.

In Sudan, where Empowering Lives founded a training center in 2006, needs and challenges are different than in Kenya. Twenty-one years of civil war has robbed numerous children of parents. We are in the process of opening an orphanage in Southern Sudan. This home will be similar to our ones in Kenya, though in Sudan, we might also take care of vulnerable children who have been separated

Objectives:

  1. To provide spiritual guidance and Biblical principles to develop hope in the orphaned children. To raise children in the fear and love of God and to bring to them “God’s fatherhood to the fatherless.”
  2. To provide orphaned children with a family environment including parents and siblings, restoring the model of a Kenyan family.
  3. To provide proper nutrition, adequate physical exercise, and medical care to develop healthy children.
  4. To provide orphaned children with a formal education and social skills from pre-school to the highest level a child can attain. To provide vocational training towards self-dependence, preparing them for their lives as adults.
  5. To provide counseling to meet the emotional needs of orphaned children who have been affected by negative past circumstances and experiences.