Malawi RPCVs Garry Prime, Michael Hill, and Kevin Denny founded "Orphan Support" to foster effective and sustainable programs in Africa that improve the protection and well-being of orphans and vulnerable children
The Mission of Orphan Support Africa is to support communities in Africa through WORKING WITH effective and sustainable programs, which improve the well being of orphans and vulnerable children and nurture these children to become self-reliant adults. By 2010 there will be 20 million OVC in Africa, while today only 10% are receiving any kind of service.
In Malawi alone, the 4th poorest country in the world, with a population of under 12 million, There are nearly 1 million orphans. Orphan Support Africa is making a difference. It developed from two successful OVC systems of care. The Malawi Children’s (MCV) began delivering comprehensive services ten years ago in a structure that was replicated by The Mango Tree Orphan Support Programme (TMT) in southern Tanzania three years ago. Currently these two organizations serve almost 8,000 OVC in 66 villages. Each delivers services at roughly $30 per orphan per year. Each has a staff made up mostly of volunteers.
Orphan Support Africa is a new organization with deep roots. It's five founders have a combined history of over one hundred and fifty years of commitment to sub-Saharan Africa and have already established community based orphan care programs in Malawi and Tanzania which have become recognized as best practice models.
The lessons that have accompanied this experience are many, but can be boiled down to a simple unifying principal: Orphan Support Africa is in the business of saying goodbye. Each time Orphan Support Africa commits to help a community, it does so with the firm understanding that our role is nurture, not to direct. We present community leaders the opportunity for three years of support and resources that will allow them to develop to the point of self-sufficiency. At the end of that period it is mutually understood that communities will have evolved the leadership skills and commitment that will allow them to continue on their own.
Malawi Children's Village is a social services organization run collaboratively by American volunteers and local villagers
Malawi Children's Village is a social services organization run collaboratively by American volunteers and local villagers. It is on the outskirts of Mangochi, one of the poorest districts in one of the smallest and most impoverished nations in Africa. Malawi Children's Village provides food, medical care and money for school to more than 3,500 AIDS orphans -- those who have lost one or both parents to the disease -- in dozens of surrounding villages. Medical personnel treat the sickest and most malnourished children at an infirmary on the compound, but most of the work is done as outreach so that children can remain in their own villages where relatives or neighbors can help raise them.
To learn more about "Orphan Support" in Malawi visit their web site.