In order to deliver on our promises and commitments by our partners, CHF develops programs that align with the strategic and operational intent of the organization. Our programming is driven by the circumstances surrounding our main target population of Orphaned and Vulnerable people and thus programs serve as a vehicle through which we deliver a coordinated response to the needs of the orphans and Vulnerable children. This section therefore seeks to explain briefly why we are focusing on Orphaned children more, the programs currently in place including our approach to the implementation of the program and/or the outcomes attained so far where possible.

Why an orphan?

There are a staggering number of orphan children worldwide. In fact, more than 100 million children are considered orphans by one definition or another. Sadly, there are orphan children who are even abandoned by the statistics! Who counts those who live on the streets, in landfills and sewer systems? How could you?

First, we can address the obvious...things that we read and hear about in the news all the time: War, disease, poverty, natural disasters, abandonment, and accidents are among some of the leading causes. These can be directly associated with orphans by the definition of a child who has lost one or both parents. Within and aside from the aforementioned are: cultural pressures, neglect, abuse, child slavery, religious inequity, child prostitution, indentured servitude and more. These are more closely associated with children without parental care that may not be a child that has lost one or more parents. They may live with a relative or neighbor or are on the street or in the jungles and subjected to one of the prior mentioned abuses. Sometimes they simply live with a blind, ill or very old relative that loves, but cannot care for them. They are many varied combinations that contribute to a child suffering without parental care, but the results are the same, regardless of the cause. Statistically the subgroups such as these would not be counted as orphans, but by attributes associated with abuse and neglect, they are one and the same in terms of outcome for the child. Perhaps in some ways their status almost makes them invisible and the danger they are in, is misunderstood by many not familiar with their culture.

What Do You Think Happens to The Average Orphan Child?

Beyond suffering and the ultimate tragedy of death, the children that do survive, often do so in ways that demeans and criminalizes themselves and brings suffering to others as well. The sad reality though, is that if a good and caring person is not there to provide what they need, who is? Pimps, child labor bosses, terrorists, rebel armies with child soldiers, child traffickers, even less - than- good- willed- relatives who want a personal slave. The end result is truly heartbreaking as many of the orphan children out there will die of starvation and issues related to malnutrition. They will die from preventable diseases. They will die at the hands of others and themselves. They will spend much of their life in jail. They will do harm to others and impact the world in a negative fashion.

But It’s a Massive Problem How Can We Make a Difference?

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of all is that we know how to turn tragedy into triumph...we just need more help doing it! We know how to turn terrible statistics into wonderful statistics. And when you help the children, you are doing a wonderful thing, but the good you have done doesn't stop there. It spreads!

The world and global society benefit when we help orphan children.

Instead of harming themselves and others, they grow up to be responsible, healthy, adults that give back to the community they live in instead of taking away from it.

The good that is done, is generational.

When we give the children what they need to THRIVE, not just survive we break the cycle that creates orphans in the first place, and the next generation of children will have YOU to thank for the fact that their parents didn't abandon them...but instead raised them in a healthy and loving environment. There will be less crime, less disease and less orphan children to take care of!

Orphan Program Goals

The goals of our programs can easily be found in our mission statement "To bring hope to the orphans of the world by providing food, shelter, medical care children's Bibles, educational assistance, and more in a manner that breaks the cycle of dependence and promotes individual and societal productivity as well as charitable character within the community." The underlined portion of the mission statement is the driving force and motivation behind the cumulative many thousands of hours of research into the customs, cultures, available resources and history in each area of each country in which we work.

This is because our goals place far more emphasis on scope than on scale. Our goals apply to the individual, the community they live in, the region, the country and the world. That's also why we have maintained a staff of professionals who now have many years of experience working in foreign countries specifically with orphan children. We have staff with Social Service Degrees and even expertise in adoption. The leadership of Orphan's Lifeline International have all had success in business for many years prior to starting this organization and extensive backgrounds in advertising and marketing to help grow our faithful pool of thousands of donor/partners, therein providing financial stability to ensure continued growth of our programs for the orphan children of the world, while being sure the current scope and scale is sustainable as well.

Phase 1: Critical Care- To move the children we work with from one statistical pool to another: Every child is an individual, with individual dreams and goals. Orphan children are no different. Once their environment has been stabilized, i.e., they have shelter, adequate food, medical care, love and nurturing, their basic critical needs have been fulfilled. This is the first key element our programs provide. This immediately moves them from the statistical pool that says that 50% of the orphan children will not survive to adulthood.

Phase 2: Beyond Critical Care- the next phase of our program provides opportunities for the children to act upon their own individual dreams and goals. We make sure that they receive a complete and thorough primary education, access to counseling and mentoring and nurturing. Whenever the natural resources of the geographic location of the home allow, we use agriculture and animal husbandry, sewing, baking, woodworking and metal working to provide the children with additional skills and make the home and community more self-sufficient. This sets the foundation for them to be an educated, and mentally, physically and spiritually healthy young adult ready for higher education, vocational training or immediate entry into the workforce based upon their individual abilities and achievements. The phase also moves them from the statistical pool that says that the majority of orphans that even survive will do so without even a primary education and that the vast majority will turn to lives of crime in order to survive.

Phase 3: Social Integration - Becoming a productive member of their society in turn provides self-actualization and the ability to provide for themselves and a family, a key element when couples with the knowledge that they received all of their childhood needs, not only from their direct caregivers, but from many caring individuals thousands of miles away. This builds charitable character that makes them want to give back to their community.

Local, National and Global Benefits: The community itself is improved in many ways: Fewer orphan children on the street, lower crime, the community is involved in caring for its own, (often in direct opposition to custom and culture) improved economy via injection of program revenues using local merchants and services to provide for the homes. Jobs as caregivers, security, directors, tutors, etc. are also provided that would not exist otherwise.

• This helps move the community from one statistical pool to another.

• The country itself and the world reap obvious benefits when the orphan children and the community move from one statistical pool to another.

• Lower crime, better economies and healthy young adults contributing rather than detracting from the world society means the programs are quite literally changing the world, one child at a time.

The Focus on Orphans

KEY PROGRAM FOCUS AREAS:

PROGRAM GOALS:

To serve and empower communities in Rwenzori region and Uganda at large through the promotion of innovative solutions in the areas of human rights, livelihood empowerment, HIV/AIDS, and reproductive and child health, and institutional capacity strengthening especially empowering orphans.

Reproductive and Child Health Program

Children from faith foundation is employing community-based approaches and health care system strengthening to address Maternal and Child Health challenges. The program promotes access to family planning and the Focused Antenatal Care Yield (FANCY) among Persons living with disabilities approach to make pregnancy a safe and satisfying experience. It works to strengthen community referral system and birth preparedness capacity of communities. Additionally, the program is working to increase access to youth friendly reproductive health information and services, and advocates for an improved policy environment of adolescent health services at all levels for the vulnerable.

Human right promotion:

Enhanced capacity of schools to integrate inclusive co-curricular activities that engage all vulnerable children and enhanced capacity of community and local government structures to mainstream needy children in planning and resource allocation thus leading to Positive change in attitude towards reporting and handling cases of abuse involving OVCs

Maternal Neonatal & Child Health (MNCH)

Maternal Neonatal & Child Health (MNCH) continues to be an integral part in Children from faith foundation’s programming; Specific interventions are focusing on Strengthening the delivery and utilization of the MNCH and Family Planning services through improved Community Health systems of young mothers and their children.

Our Approach:

Strengthening the referral systems right from the community to health facilities continues to show proof in timely and quality of MNCH service delivery. In response to this, 20 Community Health Workers (Village Health Teams) supported by 20 Facility based health workers were comprehensively oriented and are currently giving the best of MNCH services.

Results:

150 women in the last 10 months have been able to access maternal health services such as; family planning, Antenatal, facility based-safe delivery, post-natal checks & access of related services through referrals.

250 children have been supported to access a number of services such as; Vitamin A supplementation, food supplements, de-worming, immunization against the six killer diseases, growth monitoring, Antiretroviral Therapy treatment and ensuring that all children sleep under an Insecticide Treated Net (ITN) to prevent malaria.

Care and support to OVCs:

At Children from faith foundation, we continue to be cognizant of the existing situations of OVCs i.e. orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda.

Children from faith foundation work to deliver welfare support to target beneficiaries and economic empowerment to solidly impact the communities in which we operate. We work with parents of special needs children, the local council authorities, community and national level leaders to advocate and champion the causes of special needs people.

Children from faith foundation has a tagline ‘Realising the Potential of the Neglected, Transforming Lives’ with which we believe that vulnerable people can be fully integrated into the communities where they dwell and can further contribute to its advancement once empowered.

We aim at empowering beneficiary poor and disability affected parents to provide an additional and reliable income for their households through the proceeds realised from their projects; to enable them meet the costs of basic needs such as: household utilities, food, and fuel for lighting, clothing, and costs of their children’s schooling such as uniforms, books and exam fees.

Educating a blind or deaf child costs US$ 240 per year and there are three terms in a year. This is the cheapest school fee charge. There are a number of blind and deaf children in staying in villages without education and therefore subjected to all sorts of abuse, without support they have remained there and yet many yearn to make a step in school.

At Children from faith foundation, we continue to be cognizant of the existing situations of orphans and vulnerable children in Uganda. This area of focus is highly embraced through our programming due to the outcomes it may bring if not attended to with strategic planning and support with feasible resources. As a result, we are thus able to;

• Improve the quality of life of disabled Orphans & other Vulnerable Children affected and infected by HIV/AIDS through access to educational opportunities including sponsorship, vocational skills and apprenticeship training.

• Provide psychosocial care and economic support to Orphans & other Vulnerable Children and caregivers for improved livelihoods.our text here...

Rehabilitation

Under the Rehabilitation Program, SCSP ventures with the slogan ‘Ability From Disability’ to deliver early intervention, therapy, academic instruction for orphan children with special needs and equipping them with self-care and self support skills, spiritual support, counselling and guidance.

• Therapy services include; physical, occupational and speech therapy which are based on the international standards and practices.

• Physical therapists address the gross motor needs of the student such as learning to walk; occupational therapists address the fine motor and daily living skills such as writing, eating, dressing; and speech therapists address all areas of speech and communication skills.

• These services are provided for all of the organization’s children and for individuals of the local community who are in need of this kind of service

Children from faith foundation offer the following services to the disabled children,

• Orthopedic surgery

• Plastic/reconstruction surgery

Therapy services i.e. Physiotherapy,Occupational,Speech,Nutrition, Rehabilitation of disabled persons.CBR outreaches, advocacy for the rights of PWDs, Orthopedic workshops

HIV PREVENTION AND MITIGATION PROGRAM (HIPMAP): Through a combination prevention approach, Children from faith foundation is working to prevent and reduce HIV/AIDS through behavior change strategies, increasing access to HCT services, and referrals for other biomedical services and care

COMMUNITY BASED SAFE MOTHERHOOD PROMOTION:

At Children from faith foundation we promote community based safe motherhood initiatives and strengthen the capacity of communities to demand for services.

At Children from faith foundation, we promote community based safe motherhood initiatives and strengthen the capacity of communities to demand for services and accountability from Maternal and Child Health duty bearers. As a result of this approach, we are able to; Promote access to family planning services so as to reduce unplanned pregnancies and improve the health of mothers and the entire family. Promote Focused Antenatal Care Yielding (FANCY) approach for expectant mothers in order to make pregnancy a safe and satisfying experience. Strengthen an effective community referral system and birth preparedness capacity of individuals, families and communities to promote maternal, newborn and child survival