Thanks to your prayers and support God helped us to change the lives of 98 orphans in one of the poorest parts of Kinshasa - in Kisenso.
Here is a little insight into the life of these orphans: When their parents die (AIDS, malaria, war, etc) the children are often sent to their relatives in the city who are barely surviving themselves and hardly have enough money to feed their own children. They have basically no funds for health care, much less schooling. After we left Kinshasa in December 2004, fifty orphans died in one year because SABEC didn't have enough resources to care for them. In general if these children survive and manage to grow up, some of them probably end up on the street and join the many existing street children. Kinshasa is supposed to have already about 10 thousand of them and their life is a chapter in itself. In order to stop this vicious cycle we came up with a plan. We didn't just want to "feed them a fish, but rather teach them how to fish".
For the immediate help we bought some food supplies and also got some donated, including some urgently needed medicine for all the children from a dear pharmacy friend. We also bought two sewing machines so they can teach the older kids and earn a little money this way. But our main investment went into an agricultural project. Kinshasa is surrounded by lots of fertile land, so, thanks to various donations we received, we bought two hectares of land near Kisenso plus the tools to clear the field and seeds to plant maize, beans, green vegetables, potatoes and peanuts. The future plan includes breeding fish, raising animals and growing more crops, bananas and fruits. We are also praying for a building for the orphans so they can take better care of them.
Some of the produce will be for immediate use to feed the children, the rest should be sold to buy more seeds for the next crop and to get other supplies for them. This is only the beginning as to support 98 orphans takes a lot and the proceeds of what we started only covers a small amount of what is needed. They need a lot more food plus medical care, school supplies etc so that in the future they can get training i.e. to become farmers instead of looking for jobs which are hard to find.
Here is a little insight into the life of these orphans: When their parents die (AIDS, malaria, war, etc) the children are often sent to their relatives in the city who are barely surviving themselves and hardly have enough money to feed their own children. They have basically no funds for health care, much less schooling. After we left Kinshasa in December 2004, fifty orphans died in one year because SABEC didn't have enough resources to care for them. In general if these children survive and manage to grow up, some of them probably end up on the street and join the many existing street children. Kinshasa is supposed to have already about 10 thousand of them and their life is a chapter in itself. In order to stop this vicious cycle we came up with a plan. We didn't just want to "feed them a fish, but rather teach them how to fish".
For the immediate help we bought some food supplies and also got some donated, including some urgently needed medicine for all the children from a dear pharmacy friend. We also bought two sewing machines so they can teach the older kids and earn a little money this way. But our main investment went into an agricultural project. Kinshasa is surrounded by lots of fertile land, so, thanks to various donations we received, we bought two hectares of land near Kisenso plus the tools to clear the field and seeds to plant maize, beans, green vegetables, potatoes and peanuts. The future plan includes breeding fish, raising animals and growing more crops, bananas and fruits. We are also praying for a building for the orphans so they can take better care of them.
Some of the produce will be for immediate use to feed the children, the rest should be sold to buy more seeds for the next crop and to get other supplies for them. This is only the beginning as to support 98 orphans takes a lot and the proceeds of what we started only covers a small amount of what is needed. They need a lot more food plus medical care, school supplies etc so that in the future they can get training i.e. to become farmers instead of looking for jobs which are hard to find.
