Orphans Unlimited

THE VISION: AN OVERVIEW

"There has to be a Herculean effort made for these kids so we don't lose them. Otherwise...you will have a society where kids haven't been to school and therefore can't fulfill even basic jobs...a society where a large proportion can have anti-social instincts because their lives have been so hard. You have a generation of children who will be more vulnerable to exploitation and to disease because they won't have the same sense of self-worth." 

Stephen Lewis, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa 
Source: Africa Recovery (Oct. 2001) "AIDS Oprhans: Facing Africa's 'silent crisis'''

Practical Solutions That Build A Tomorrow For Africa’s Children

Current Facts About The Situation in Africa:

• Cholera and/ or Dysentery killing parents due to lack of clean water sources.
• Lack of education and job opportunities contributing to rampant poverty and disease.
• AIDS killing large portions of the population.
• Death during childbirth doe to the large absence of proper medical facilities.
• Malaria and/ or TB killing large portions of the population.

The Objectives:

1. Form an outreach model for orphan and widow rescue and rehabilitation which cuts the root causes perpetuating the orphan problem in this region.
2. Provide vital education and job skills for underprivileged and orphaned children through multi-level schools and a technical training facility.
3. Establish a financially self-sustaining economic system that will support the outreach model.
4. Duplicate this outreach model in other parts of Africa where the greatest needs exist.

These objectives can be reached with your help through the 6 real-world steps below.

SIX-STEP STRATEGY FOR THE FUTURE

Step 1. Expand our current orphan program to reach out to the multitudes of desperately needy children.

Issue: Our current orphan program is only able to handle 155 children. There are thousands of children needing help and Orphans Unlimited wants to assist as many children as possible. NOTE: Mozambique does not allow dorm type orphanage facilities. Foster care with Mozambican mothers is the only solution.

Solution: Raise the funding to expand the orphanage district-wide in order to assist 1,000 children by December 2006.

The Needs:

Orphan Program (cost per child, includes foster care) $351/child/year
Goal: Assist 1000 children by Dec. 2007 $ 351,000/year

A. Food/year:

• Corn $50.00
• Beans $21.00
• Rice $13.00
• Meat $24.00
• Oil $17.00
• Fruit/Veg. $11.00
• Bath soap $ 6.00
• Clothes soap $ 5.00
• Tooth paste $ 5.00
• Kerosene $ 5.00

B. Foster Care: $ 84.00
C. Clothing $ 20.00
D. Bed $20.00
E. Bedding $20.00
F. Medical $10.00
G. School material $40.00

GRAND TOTAL : $351.00/year OR $29.25/month
O.U. Child sponsorship is $30/month

Step 2. Expand our current malnutrition rehabilitation and prevention efforts.

Issue: We are presently assisting 160 malnourished mothers per year with severely malnourished babies. Each week, all the mothers walk with their babies to the Nutritional Distribution Center each week to receive a high protein food supply (many walk 10 to 20 miles). Every November each mother is given seeds and tools to plant their field (required for sustaining household). All recovered families are dismissed from the program at harvest time each April. There are over a 1,000 additional malnourished mothers with babies needing our help throughout the district.

Solution: Raise the funding to establish 4 additional nutritional centers throughout the district to serve a total of 1,000 mothers annually (a planned increase of 840 receiving needed assistance).

The Needs:

• Corn flour $ 44.00
• Hypo Plus $ 10.00 (nutritional cereal formulated for malnourished kids)
• Reliv Milk $ 40.00 (formulated for malnourished kids)
• Beans $ 17.00
• Oil $ 17.00
• Salt $ 2.00
• Seeds $ 8.00
• Tools $ 6.00 (hoe & machete for mother to get a new start)
• Staff cost/child/yr. $ 6.00
• FEEDING COST OF ONE MOTHER & CHILD: $150

GOAL: Assist 1000 malnourished children/year by Dec. 2007
Cost: $150,000/year

Construction of 4 food distribution warehouses in key areas of the county in order to serve the estimated 20,000 malnourished babies & toddlers needing assistance.

• 4 brick Warehouses (4meters X 20 meters)= $ 7,500 each, TOTAL: $30,000
• Warehouse manager per site: $720/year

Step 3. Formation of orphan prevention program in conjunction with the malnutrition prevention program.

Issue: There are many children becoming orphaned because mothers die from possibly treatable AIDs, TB, malaria and dysentery. Testing for AIDs and TB is not currently available in the Balama District.

Solution: Create a mobile clinic and staff to work in conjunction with food distributions (which attracts people) to give education and free testing/ treatment for AIDs, TB, malaria and dysentery. By decreasing the death rate of mothers with children, we decrease the number of orphans formed each year.

The Needs:

• Toyota King Cab - Basic model $42,000 to carry staff & supplies to the remote areas. It would also pull the mobile maize mill mentioned below.
• 3 member Mozambican Staff=$232/month $2,775.00/year
• Medical supplies to serve 1,000 kids/month $5,000.00/year
• Fuel/maintenance $250/month $3.000.00/year

Saving 1000's of kids lives for a yearly investment of $10,775.00

Step 4. Expand our present education boarding facility for bright, underprivileged students within the district.

Issue: We currently have a 72 bed dorm facility which allows the top underprivileged students from the district’s remote school system to obtain a higher education. We are projecting 8, 9 and 10th grade for 2006. Additionally, over 400 students per year are added to the waiting list just to enter our dorm facility. Many more are in need of a chance at making a better life for themselves and education is the key.

Solution: Expand by building dorms to house a total of 200 children by 2006 (with possibly further growth based on financial assistance for the children).

The Needs:

• Boy's Dorm (6meters X 20 Meters) $9,200
• Girl's Room addition (4m X 10 m) $2,400
• 2 Bath rooms (4m X 8 meter) $3,840
• 40 Bunk Beds $105 each $4,200
• 80 mattresses $40 each $3.200
• 80 blankets & sheets $25 each $2,000
• Food cost for 80 students $100 each $8,000

TOTAL: $32,840
 

Step 5. Expand existing orphan, malnutrition and education programs operating in the Balama District of the Cabo Delgado Province to provide a permanent solution.

Issue: Current schooling in the area only goes through the 9th grade but there are few job opportunities for graduates. This creates a poverty cycle that is hard to break.

Solution: The following 2 programs are TOP PRIORITY for 2006 as we have many orphans approaching graduation with no job possibilities. You can help- see below!

Build a technical training facility in conjunction with a jobs creation/small business loan program for graduates. Skills sets taught would include:

1. Auto/ maize mill mechanics- badly needed throughout the country.
2. Maize mill management- need management skills to run the maize mills when 
   built.
3. Welding- leading to jobs creation with agricultural tools needed nationwide.
4. Mechanized carpentry- to provide desks, tables, etc. for new school and hospital facilities to be built.
5. English as a 2nd language - interpreters badly needed nationwide.
6. Computer skills- computer classes for top students desiring jobs in government (which needs individuals with these skills now!), education or private businesses.
7. Construction- construction with hydroform press block manufacturing.
8. Education- pre-school teachers course (which we are in need of!).
9. Manual sewing- manual sewing machine classes for making inexpensive children’s clothing which is hard to get.
10. Agriculture- agricultural programs teaching poultry and greenhouse production for resale.
11. Small business management- money management and small business training will be required for graduation for all technical courses.

Already Provided:

The Provincial Governor has already donated 12.5 acres of land for the building of this technical training facility to start construction as soon as possible in 2006.


The Needs:

• 1 Roofed Work shop, concrete floors, with a 4m X 6m storeroom $3,500
• 2 Classroom building (6m X 10 m each room) $7,200
• 2 Toilets $ 500
• Tools for Carpentry, Auto Repair Classes
  • Hand operated Carpentry tools $225/set X 10 sets $2,250
  • Carpentry: Power tools: Circular saw- Commercial $200
  • Commercial hand drill $ 80
  • Auto mechanics tool sets $150@ X 10 sets $1,500
  • 1 trolley jack $ 130
• Diesel Generator (power plant) $4,000 (we have no electricity for power tools)
• Welding equipment already donated
• Lumber for carpentry shop $2,000

Teacher's Salaries for Mozambican Masters in their field
(Moz. top salary is $1,500/teacher/year X 3 teachers) $4,500/year

Computer classes:

• 5 laptop computers already donated
• Power Source needed: 4 solar panels & 4 batteries $1,820
• Lumber & paint for Tables & chairs for 2 classrooms (to be built by carpentry students) $1,000

TOTAL PHASE ONE: $28,680

PHASE TWO:

• 1 Roofed Work Shop, with concrete work pit for auto mechanics & welding $3,900
• Brick Kitchen & Lunch Room for students $3,500
• provisional lunch room will be built in phase one from local materials

TOTAL PHASE TWO: $7,400

Step 6. Jobs creation to form a financially sustainable program.

Issue: The current efforts of the program outlined above are reliant on generous annual donations. The model should become a self-sustainable within 6 years and provide a successful working example to other areas of Africa.

Solution: The formation of Sustainable Micro Macro Enterprises (SMMEs) would provide financial sustainability for Orphans Unlimited and jobs for the graduates of the public schools and technical training facility. In this manner children could be brought up from young orphans to be fully independent and model citizens of their country. The goal would be to have each program become self-sufficient within 5-6 years of its formation.

The Needs:

• MOBILE MAIZE MILL: $7,000
• Trailer mount: $1,200
• Total: $8,200

To provide a much needed service to the remote areas of the county. Graduates from our auto mechanics (diesel engine) classes would be offered experience & job training by working with this mobile mill project. Many of these areas have no way to mill their corn, & this could be used as a drawing factor for the mobile clinic.

WHOLE CORN milled in a hammer mill is much more nutritious than the home processing method of beating the corn by hand. Much of the hand milled corn must be thrown away as the human body cannot absorb the hard shell unless is it pulverized by a mill. Milling corn is a way of helping to improve the general nutritional level of the village kids.

Provides jobs in each village, as local people would be trained to help run the mill when it visits their area.

This is one of O.U.'s projects that will eventually help the program become more self-sufficient.

FURNITURE BUILDING PROJECT for graduates of the carpentry school.
Materials needed to give a start to 10 graduates:

• Lumber $100/ student $1,000
• Hand tool set $250/student $2,500

TRUCK GARDENING PROJECT FOR WIDOWS

• Seeds, hand tools, watering cans, etc. $2,000

POULTRY PROJECTS FOR WIDOWS

• Basic set up for breeding stock at O.U. farm $2,500

HOME BUILDING TEAMS with Hydraform bricks

• Materials needed for basic building $2,000

Graduates from our builder's course will be encouraged to form their own teams & build housing on contract. They would purchase their bricks from the O.U. brick factory

How Can You Help?

This amazing vision of Orphans Unlimited has real solutions to real needs. Become a part of the solution by sponsoring the project of your choice through annual or monthly love gifts. Orphans Unlimited is a 501c3 registered charity with the IRS and all gifts are tax deductible. Please make donations payable to:

Orphans Unlimited, Inc.,
11152 Westheimer Rd., PMB#391,
Houston, TX 77042

Or donate online at http://www.orphansunlimited.org  using a major credit card or PayPal..

Please feel free to contact our team at (832) 671-5530 or email us at: office@orphansunlimited.org.

Thank you for your time and consideration!