The latest statistics indicate that Malawi has over 1.2 million orphans-largely due to the AIDS crisis that is sweeping the country. This is a crisis that cannot be ignored. Presbyterian World Service and Development Fund (PWS&D) partners in Malawi are working to support orphans.

Community based orphan care programs

Care for Orphan Families

How your support helps


Community based orphan care programs


Your generous contributions are supporting community based orphan care centres in Malawi. These centres provide care for pre-school children during the day, allowing their care-givers to work on income generating activities.

The children range from three to six years of age, and are usually at the centers from 7:00am to 3:30. Pre-school activities include music, counting, language skills, drama and spiritual development. Children finger-paint, sing, play games, learn to count, and enjoy two nutritious meals each day along with a healthy snack to ensure basic nutrition at this crucial age.

The main goal of the CBOCs is to promote the survival, good health, loving care, and physical, intellectual and spiritual development of orphaned children. The children (60 per cent of whom are orphans) attend pre-school classes, and receive free health care through special under-five clinics. The centres are managed by a volunteer committee and supervised on a day-to-day basis by a fulltime community worker.

Along with providing daily orphan care and nutritious meals, activities at the centers include pre-school education, community health, small enterprise development, adult literacy, support of orphan families, and income generating activities for orphan caregivers. It is hoped that while children are at the center caregivers have time available to earn a living and provide food for the family. Skills' training for youth is available to members of orphan families, as well as education sponsorship for older orphan children or child caregivers. The government and community stakeholders in the area utilize the CBOC centers for other functions as well such as weddings, church functions, and local community events.


Observations from a recent evaluation done on the Blantyre CBOC program show that:

Children are happy, free, relaxed and active, which is not the typical behaviour of other orphaned children in the community (who are not in the CBOC program)
 

• There is reduced stigma between orphaned children and non-orphaned children from the mix of orphans and non-orphans at the center
• Children's physical development was measured with monthly weighing, and checking for visible signs such as weight gain and less frequency of illness. Improvement in children's health was seen.
• Many groups identified the spiritual component as an important factor in the children's development, which included memorizing Bible verses, learning bible stories and learning to pray before meals.
• Children are better prepared to enter Primary School after graduating from the centres (CBOC offers developmental activities such as reading, arts & crafts, drama, etc.)

Caregivers are free to engage in income-generating activities instead of staying at home to care for the children - they have also observed that the children are better behaved at home, and have better personal hygiene (compared to before they started going to the centres)

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Care for Orphan Families

In Malawi, the orphan crisis has created thousands of orphan families where 5 to 16 children live alone or in the care of a single guardian (usually a grandparent or sick relative) who may not have the capacity to care for them. With no regular means of income, these families live in houses with one or two tiny rooms, no furniture, crumbling mud walls and inadequate roofing. The mud floors are often covered in rainwater. When it rains, children are often seen huddling in a corner, or standing under shelter. Food is bought only when one of the children can find odd jobs to do, and many children are often exploited as cheap sources of labour. In desperation, some children resort to begging or prostitution.

To meet the urgent need to help communities care for orphan families, PWS&D has also developed programs to provide emergency food rations and improved housing for families where several children are at risk. Orphaned youths are offered training in literacy, business management and practical skills like carpentry, welding, tailoring, business management to help them become self-reliant. Small no-interest loans help orphans and guardians run small businesses to increase their capacity to improve the livelihood and security of their families.

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How your support helps

$10 provides beans for one meal for 300 children
$15 buys fruits (bananas or oranges) for 400 children
$20 buys bread for 100 children for one week or meat for one meal for 100 children
$25 provides 200 children with a fresh egg each or rice for one meal for 500 children
$30 gives fresh milk to 200 children (250ml per child)
$45 provides 200 children with fresh vegetables for one week
$100 buys blankets for ten orphans
$200 buys 22 bags of maize to feed 720 children in seven centers for a month
$950 covers housing and food subsidy costs for orphan families for four months
$1000 provides a no-interest loan for an orphan family to run a small business

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