Village Care has work in more than 200 Villages and orphanages in East and West Africa. Our African leaders facilitate communities to mobilize around their most vulnerable children. Many orphans are abandoned in small villages around sub Saharan Africa when their parents die. The communities are so poor that help from within the community seems impossible, and outside help rarely reaches into these remote areas. We have taken a different approach by believing that people can take care of their own, and can marshal the resources necessary within their own communities to care for their children. Our trainers teach a framework of ideas we call Outcomes for Children and Basic Home Practices, each set presented in a one day setting where the village members define the meaning of five basic outcomes for children, and five basic home practices that are universally necessary for anyone to be successful and healthy.
I am glad to say that of the more than 30 villages I visited all the work taken on by these communities is even better than we imagined. It is sometimes hard to get reports back here to the U.S. that have the kind of details we, as Americans, look for. One key component of our Village Impact Teams, and Discovery Teams is the fact that the teams visit the homes and stay in the communities we partner with, and can inspect and verify the work. Teams also get to help by teaching basic concepts of health and nutrition, HIV/Aids facts, and engaging in building bonds of friendship across the ocean.
I traveled by local means, in African Busses, Matattu, Motorcycle, on foot and by animal transport of various kinds, which is an adventure in itself. Crossing Kenya, Uganda, and hopping over to Nigeria for a loop of the north and central regions gave me a great overview of our work, and a greater appreciation of the challenges our co workers in Africa face just getting from village to village. Other Village Care teams this year have worked in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. At this time between four to five thousand orphans are cared for by their communities entirely as a result of our work. Another 15 to 20 thousand children have been significantly impacted in positive ways by Village Care by achieving better sanitation, nutrition and health care, staying in school, and becoming involved in community activities.
We are unique and very “outside the box”. It is very hard to describe or define how we work with only the power of ideas, imagination, and the belief in the indomitable nature of the human spirit and the grace of God. And yet real people do real work and care for real children in ways we all have been taught are not possible. They keep doing the work even when we are gone. “Even if you never come again, we will be changed forever” is one of the most profoundly humbling things I have ever heard about Village Care, over the last couple of years that statement, made in a small community in Nigeria, has kept me going again and again.
When I first went to Tengale in Plateau State, Nigeria a year ago I found a group of orphans who literally were down to a few rags of clothing, no shoes, and no regular place to stay. A good week in the life of these children is one where they got one full meal. One child, a young teen, is partially paralyzed and was very close to death. I was amazed to see the whole group waiting to greet me as we completed a day long journey to their home area, and two older boys helping Ben, the paralytic into the room to see me. All the kids have decent clothes, shoes, and are eating at least two meals a day. They were noisy and giggly, and very much like children everywhere. I felt overwhelmed with gratefulness to God and the community that has come around these great kids. Over the years I have had this experience hundreds of times, but it never ceases to amaze me.
Join us, change a life, it is that simple. We need more help, and with more money we could go farther, and reach more people. We have invitations into a dozen or more countries, including Papua New Guinea, and countries in South and Central America. A few bucks in this program goes a long way.
On another note, for anyone who is interested, sometimes folks want to know if Village Care is a Christian Organization. We are founded around faith based principles, and I, as the founder, am a Christian. I do this work to honor Jesus Christ and hopefully my work reflects my belief. So yes, we are a faith based organization, and yes our key leaders are Christians, but no, VCI itself carries no label except Village Care (which is a registered trademark!). We who are Christians work in such a way that we hope folks will find our faith attractive, but we don’t preach. We also welcome anyone to join us who wants to help orphans and respect our approach. Each community decides how their faith is reflected in our work on their own. In some communities churches have been strengthened by applying Village Care community involvement in their own outreach programs. In a few communities churches have even been planted as a result of our work by those who live in the community. Every member, and every community has access to all of our information. In America churches have formed Village Care Chapters to more effectively achieve positive outcomes in communities they are reaching in Africa, or even here in the U.S. At the same time many of our members come from the community at large and provide critical and significant help to us in our core work. I thank God for all of you.
And I thank all of you for all of your support, your prayers, and your belief in this strange program! We have some spaces left on teams departing in the next few months, you can still sign up!
David Glenwinkel
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