About the House of Hope in Zambia, Africa
By Sheri Jones
Our goal is to take pieces of broken families and put them together to create a new family. This means we work with widows who've had their families torn apart through tragedy. In Africa any child who has lost a parent is considered an orphan. We don't take children who are living with a parent, because to us that's breaking a family apart. For the most part the kids we take are staying with elderly grandparents who cannot manage to care for the children. Either both parents have died or one has died and the other has abandoned them.
We work hard to keep children connected with their relatives. In Zambia the school year is divided into 3 terms and after each 3 month term comes a one month break. We encourage relatives to take their children for 2 weeks of those breaks. We encourage relatives living nearby to visit as often as possible. Many of my kids get visitors more than once a week. All of the children can recognize their relatives and talk about them.
Our perspective is that all children are a blessing from God. We don't want to take away someone's blessing. We've recognized that it is very difficult for relatives to care for young children. They are a lot of work and can't contribute very much to the family. But when a child gets older he or she can be a much bigger blessing than burden to the family. For this reason we keep children until the age of 14. Since nearly all rural people around here are farmers they are able to feed the children. The biggest burden they have is coming up with money to send a child to school. For this reason we continue to pay for the orphans' education. By the time a child reaches 14 they can cook, clean, haul water, work in fields and gardens and become a huge blessing to their families.
I've observed a lot of orphanages in my life and one common problem is what do you do with the kids when they reach 18 and finish school? In Zambia 70% of people are unemployed meaning they farm. This being the case it is unlikely that our kids will end up finding a job although we hope their wildest dreams will come true. I've witnessed plenty of orphans stick around at an orphanage for their entire lives not knowing what else to do. Also when kids have had everything handed to them for their entire lives they some times don't know how to work for themselves.
So while the kids are with us we want them to know unconditional love. We want them to know Jesus Christ and what it means to be a Christian. It's our goal to instill in the children values like taking care of the poor, loving your neighbor as yourself, and practicing humility and integrity. We want the children to speak English which will open up a new world of possibilities. Our expectation is that every child will know not only every process involved in local agriculture, but also why we do things the way we do. Critical thinking skills is lacking in Zambia, but we hope to nurture those skills in each of our children.
We built the House of Hope in a rural area because we wanted to be a part of a rural community. Although our primary focus is on the children we are raising the project serves as an open door into the community. We are currently doing a literacy program to teach the community how to read and write. I already have at least one family that is copying my garden and I hope more will benefit from it as well. We've only been open for 3 months so we are still putting things together, but the House of Hope is meant to benefit our entire community.
All of this is made possible by the generous donations of ordinary individuals. With everything for the children included (food, supplies, medical needs, education, clothes, and salaries etc) we can run the House of Hope for $75 a child a month. We ask people to commit to sponsoring a child for either $25, $50, or $75 a month. I can send information and facilitate correspondence between you and the child you sponsor. There are even opportunities for you to come on short term mission trips to visit the child you sponsor. We're at the point now that we need to find sponsors for the 9 children we have at the House of Hope before we will be able to take on any new children.
