Life Beyond the Orphanage
Children in orphanages are already some of life’s most disadvantaged. An unspoken understanding of these children is that they are worthless, beyond help, and have no ability to learn. As a result, many are illiterate. The final insult is that these children are ill-equipped to cope with life and must leave the institution when they are 18. Our focus is on helping young women adapt to the world outside of the orphanage. By helping them find employment and accommodation, teaching them to cook and budget, and providing them with some basic skills (like how to tell time), will decrease the chance of them falling into prostitution, drugs or alcoholism.
We have been ministering to young children for a number of years in various orphanages by providing literacy classes, and life lessons on values, team work, and consequences, in addition to meeting some of their basic needs. Two years ago, we began a bridge to independence program for girls as they are sent out of the orphanage. For a four month period while living in our home, they learn how to find work, how to dress for work, how to budget, shop and cook, how to get around the city, and how to develop a support network and relationship skills. In other words, how to cope with life challenges. For example, we spent several hours trying to explain what an ‘address’ is to a 19 year old girl. She needed to find a place in the town but did not know that streets have names or what an address was. The simple difference between a building number and apartment number takes a lot of explaining and several ‘personal experiences’ before it will finally click.
We expect every person staying at the house, including the foreign and local house-parents, to pay rent and their share of the utilities. They must also purchase their own food and help care for the premises to combat the common ‘learned helplessness’ and ‘handout mentality. One night per week, our house also serves as a drop-in center to offer advice on dealing with government departments, health issues, new accommodations, or just to hang-out in a safe place for a few hours. In addition, we offer training programs for local volunteers who desire to help in our orphanage ministry. Our goal is to provide safe passage for six teenage girls per year. The cost is $1000 per program per girl or $250 a month per girl. Our classes at the orphanage for the younger children to begin the preparations for the life transition costs $50 per child.
