This past week we went to an orphanage. It’s set-up and mission fascinated me. This orphanage was about more than just providing food and shelter for the kids. A huge emphasis was put on what I consider to be the most important things: a family unit and vocational training. It is the stated purpose of this organization to make these kids successful even after they leave the orphanage. Carol said that they want the kids to be employers, not employees. Those are not idle words, they are backed up with consistent teaching and actions. During the short time I was there I witnessed the staff teaching, reprimanding, affirming, and doing everything possible to change the mindset of the kids from worthless and helpless to valuable and capable.
The way the dorms are set up is amazing. In fact, dorms isn’t the right word – they are homes. The houses are built in circles, eight houses to a circle and eight kids to a house. Each house has a “mom” that lives with the kids. Each house cooks its own meals. Every effort is made to create and sustain a family unit in each house and a community for the entire orphanage. I was impressed that the members of each household referred to each other as family.
Over the course of our stay we met some kids with horrifying, crazy, amazing stories – kids who had seen their family murdered before their eyes, kids who had been captured but escaped from the LRA, and even a child who had been forced by the rebels to kill other children. I was most impressed by two brothers, Abraham and Joshua who each have a horrendous past but who have settled things in their own minds. They have somehow found a way to deal with it and to not let it prevent them from living successful lives.
Out of all the places and organizations we’ve seen so far on this trip, this is the one that I would most want to come back to and spend my life working at.
Ben Nissley - Monday, January 29, 2007
