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The local church owns the childrens homes, provided by World Orphans funding, and runs the orphan ministry. They provide dedicated live-in caregivers, including widows from within their own community and congregation. The church body comes together to provide food, schooling and other training to allow the children to remain fully integrated within their community as godly, well-rounded individuals.
As part of our mission to see churches strengthened, we resist this temptation and instead opt for the orphan homes to simply be viewed as part of the partner local church.WORLD ORPHANS will never put its own ministry name or the names of donors on an orphan home. We want the indigenous church to fully receive the credit, appreciation and opportunity.
The image of the traditional orphanage is one of a large bleak institution where children are herded into as part of a miserable existence. In contrast, WORLD ORPHANS’ church-based homes provide children small groups of children with a sense of family, a sense of community, a sense of hope. They are showered with love, attention and the knowledge of the Father who loves them and promises to not leave them as orphans.
Depending on the country, type of construction and availability of builders, WORLD ORPHANS’ church-based children’s homes typically cost from $25,000 to $70,000 depending on any associated infrastructure (external bathroom, kitchen, etc). These homes care for approximately 20 children. Most of these buildings will last for multiple generations of children, providing shelter and love for hundreds of orphans.
The cost of materials and construction is significantly less in developing countries than in the Western world. In a country like Kenya, with a per capita annual salary of only $330, such costs would seem exorbitant. But to us in the West it is a very inexpensive proposition indeed. The costs are further kept down because they are built on existing church property that typically already has the necessary electrical and water utilities in place. Church members often help out with the construction, reducing costs further.
WORLD ORPHANS will only partners with indigenous churches that have demonstrated an active commitment to orphans and stand ready to provide care to these most needy of children.Extremely meticulous due diligence procedures and accountability processes are undertaken to ensure a church’s heart and dedication to this noble, God-honoring task.
Absolutely. WORLD ORPHANS is committed to mobilizing western churches and individuals to participate in God’s work through orphan care all over the world! To learn more about organizing a short term orphan care trip for your church or for individual international ministry internships, contact Kate Borders.
WORLD ORPHANS is not involved in the international adoption processes. We have instead sought partnerships with local indigenous churches that not only care for the children, but look to place the children into the Christian families of the native community.
We do believe that adoption into a Christian family is the ultimate objective for any orphaned child and that international adoption is ONE piece of the solution to the global orphan crisis. In fact, five World Orphans staff members, including the President and Vice President, have each adopted children into their families from overseas.
There are many reputable domestic and international Christian adoption agencies. However, it is the policy of WORLD ORPHANS to not recommended specific agency alternatives.
All children are extensively interviewed to try to uncover the possibility of being reunited with extended family members. However, in many cases the children have been abandoned by the extended family. We impress upon our church partners the need to take every effort to find relatives that are ready, willing and able to care for the children. In these cases, the churches assess whether the child would be in danger in such situations.
Unlike traditional institutional orphanages that are set outside of communities, WORLD ORPHANS’ homes are an integral part of the local town or village. This makes it easier for a child to be reunited with an extended family member that might be searching for him or her.
Absolutely. WORLD ORPHANS is committed to mobilizing western churches and individuals to participate in God’s work through orphan care all over the world! To learn more about organizing a short term orphan care trip for your church or for individual international ministry internships, contact Kate Borders.
WORLD ORPHANS does not offer a child sponsorship program because of the large infrastructure and related costs needed to support them. You can, however, make regular monthly contributions to either the Bridge Fund or a specific project.
The local church partners typically recruit the caretakers directly from their congregation. We are told in Scripture that “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27, NIV)
Typically, widows are included as caregivers that live with and care for the orphans in homes. Like the orphans, these widows are often disenfranchised, abused and exploited by their societies, so they truly understand the sense of loss and pain that the orphaned and abandoned children feel.
The children live in context with an active church – a body of believers committed to teach the children about God and to encourage them to make personal decisions for Christ as their Savior. Bible teaching, prayer and worship are part of the children’s daily regimen. Pastors, teaches and lay leaders are all involved in the ongoing spiritual growth and guidance of the children.
Since church-based orphan homes are fully integrated into the communities in which they serve, the children typically attend the local schools with the other children of the town or village. In some cases, the home also functions as a school for local children to attend. The church building and other educational facilities that are used by church-goers on Sundays, become the school during the rest of the week. All these scenarios exemplify the benefit of rescuing and caring for children, not only in context with a body of believers, but in context of their community.
WORLD ORPHANS is a non-denominational Christian charity. We work with a variety of denominations and also with independent churches, agencies and para-church ministries. Our Statement of Faith emphasizes the things that define and unite us as believers, while putting aside secondary issues that can serve to divide.
You can specifically designate your contribution to a specific project, a country or toward the support of one of our staff. You may also choose to designate it for “where needed most” which gives World Orphans freedom to use the donation wherever it is needed.
Absolutely. Since general costs are “unglamorous,” they are usually the hardest to raise, consuming more time and energy. Donors who cover these needs help out in an even greater way: they not only cover our operation costs, but allow us to take that same time and energy to realize multiple times more in contributions designated for orphan rescue and care.GIVE NOW towards World Orphans'
Currently World Orphans uses 10% of each donation for overhead expenses – things like rent, utilities, payroll*, benefits, travel, etc. As a staff we are committed to being wise stewards of the money entrusted to us and work hard to keep the overhead percentage well below the national average for charities.
WORLD ORPHANS is a 501(c)3 charitable organization recognized by the IRS. All gifts are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Whether or not your gifts are deductible on your tax return may depend on your own financial situation and the tax form you use.
Many of our church partners offer to put World Orphans plaques on buildings that we have funded. We also occasionally receive requests from donors to place “donated by…” or “in memory of…” plaques on projects that they have provided significant money to.
Although we certainly believe in honoring our financial partners, and love the heart and motivation behind wanting to pay tribute to a loved one, this is a practice that is detrimental to our goal of having the local church’s neighbors see the orphan care as an extension of that church’s ministry. This enables that church to have a greater attractiveness to its community. That, of course, translates into increased opportunities for outreach and ministry to those who live around the church.
Plaques, unfortunately, can also lead to community misperceptions that it is an “American” ministry that is raising the children. During the many years in orphan ministry, we’ve heard all kinds of statements from the surrounding community regarding orphan homes where western ministry and donor plaques are involved. These comments range from, “They’re indoctrinating our children with Western propaganda” to “They’re selling our children’s kidneys to Americans who need them.”
At World Orphans, we want to avoid any of these misperceptions, unhealthy statements, and footholds for the enemy.
We are truly blessed to have such generous and compassionate souls as part of our ministry. However, we also love our church partners and need to protect them from huge temptations that Satan can use to twist and destroy. Many of our partner pastors live on $2 or so per day. To receive even a $100 gift personally, or for the benefit of children, could cause a pastor to stumble or cause dependency.
Although well-intentioned, such gifts can also cause church members and the surrounding community to harbor and foster jealousy and gossip. Pastors might be accused of beings “puppets” of the West or gain the perception of being “above” the rest of the people in the church and community.
Besides being counter to our goal of supporting and protecting the church and its leaders, we simply don’t have the accountability systems to ensure that such gifts are wisely applied.
Again, we appreciate the motivation behind a person wanting to dialog with and encourage one of our church partners. But, like the issues above, this can lead to significant difficulties. The temptation to ask for money becomes too great; authority/accountability structures can break down; and unhealthy dependency and perception issues can again creep in.
The project portion of our web site is the best way for you to receive updated information on our projects. The bottom line is that we care too much for our partners – both here and abroad – and the children they so graciously help, to do this any differently.
One of the greatest resources we have to grow WORLD ORPHANS as an organization is our current partners, especially significant prayer and financial supporters.
You are our advocates! For those of you who are interested, we desire to help train, equip and mobilize you to be our champions for the ministry in your region.
Please let us know if you are interested in serving in such a special capacity for this ministry and the numerous churches and children we represent by filling out a contact form.
Our overseas partner network PRIMARILY consists of US-based mission agencies and para-church organizations. Their in-field personnel are our eyes and ears in the areas we serve. They are the people who are best positioned to understand, recommend and monitor our projects.
In order to help coordinate the different areas in which we operate, we have field offices in key strategic areas – Kenya, Ethiopia, Haiti & Iraq. In the case of Kenya, Ethiopia, and Haiti, we employ national workers. Our Iraq director is an American missionary with several years of experience in the Middle East. These in-field personnel are not funded through general ministry donations. They have raised support to fund themselves.
