Exciting News about the Orphan Retreat Center/School--The Bridge, Bridges Academy,...we haven't nailed down the name yet. The vision for the Orphan Retreat Center is developing and we are now moving toward making "the property" a retreat center and a residential Leadership Academy for orphans. Boarding schools are super common here. Our orphans' caregivers as well as the parents of other children we come across often ask if we can help send their child to boarding school (gets them an education away from the filth and violence of the townships--as well as one less mouth to feed at home...). We know that orphan caregivers will be stoaked to have the kids in their care receiving a well-rounded and quality education. We have found a well-developed farm in a beautiful location (15 min. from where we live in Stellenbosch) and now need to raise the funds for the property (we've got a few potential donors in the pipe...). Please keep this in prayer as we move forward!
Along with several grant-writers in the US and a team of marketing gurus who visited us last month, we're rushing to put together a proposal both for potential donors as well as for the provincial government who will oversee the zoning and taxation and all that. This is an exciting time to be here and a sweet project to take on. We want this first school/retreat center to become a model for similar Bridges of Hope properties around southern africa, the rest of the continent, and the world (judea, samaria, the ends of the earth...feel the rythm, feel the rhyme...it's biblical!).
We've been getting our hands dirty in the social services side of things. We're learning how the system works and does and doesn't take care of kids--particularly orphans. This'll be a key aspect of "the property" the Bridge, Bridges...(what should we call it?). It's fairly straight forward really--our background with social work in the US helps, but the bottom line is: orphans have no rights and niether do any of their surviving family members. And this gets worse if the child can't prove he/she exists (lost birth certificate) or that he/she ever had parents (no death certificates). This, unfortunately, is the case with lots of the kids.
So maybe we'll invent an office where kids can walk in-we all agree that they exist and we can issue a certificate of existance. Hmmm. I think it could work.
Along with several grant-writers in the US and a team of marketing gurus who visited us last month, we're rushing to put together a proposal both for potential donors as well as for the provincial government who will oversee the zoning and taxation and all that. This is an exciting time to be here and a sweet project to take on. We want this first school/retreat center to become a model for similar Bridges of Hope properties around southern africa, the rest of the continent, and the world (judea, samaria, the ends of the earth...feel the rythm, feel the rhyme...it's biblical!).
We've been getting our hands dirty in the social services side of things. We're learning how the system works and does and doesn't take care of kids--particularly orphans. This'll be a key aspect of "the property" the Bridge, Bridges...(what should we call it?). It's fairly straight forward really--our background with social work in the US helps, but the bottom line is: orphans have no rights and niether do any of their surviving family members. And this gets worse if the child can't prove he/she exists (lost birth certificate) or that he/she ever had parents (no death certificates). This, unfortunately, is the case with lots of the kids.
So maybe we'll invent an office where kids can walk in-we all agree that they exist and we can issue a certificate of existance. Hmmm. I think it could work.
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