What are Faith-Based Organizations doing to support orphans?

After extended families, Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) are one of the only means by which external support is reaching orphans and other vulnerable children (Foster, 2005).

How are Faith-Based Organizations supporting orphaned children in Sub-Saharan Africa? The graph from this powerpoint presentation provides an interesting insight.

Foster, G., "Religion and Responses to Orphans in Africa." A Generation at Risk: The Global Impact of HIV/AIDS on Orphans and Vulnerable Children. New York: Cambridge UP, 2005. 159-180.

Visualizing a Response

During my paper writing procrastination, I put a few more diagrams together.

The first diagram illustrates what research has consistently concluded on orphan care in Sub-Saharan Africa. 90% of orphans are being cared for by members of their extended family. The remaining 10% (highlighted in red) find themselves in orphanages, child-headed households, domestic servitude, or a variety of other unfortunate situations.

Diagram 1.

The second diagram illustrates the effects of building orphanages as a primary response to orphan care in Sub-Saharan Africa. This diagram is an oversimplification, but it illustrates an important point. The purpose is to provide a visual example.

Orphanages absorb children far beyond their intended target. The child surrounded with the red box (the 1 out of every 10 that has no competent extended family members) is often the segment of the population orphanages claim to be targeting. However, a significant number of children living in orphanages are far outside of this target population (as indicated by the larger red box). For example, the blue children are those with one or both parents. There is research that suggests that as many as 4 out of 5 children living in orphanages have a living parent. Building orphanages removes children from families (Causality is discussed in separate posts).

Diagram 2 also illustrates that orphans who have adequate extended family members to care for them also end up in orphanages. This often happens to provide the child with an educational opportunity.   The black dot indicates the target child for orphanages. The grey arrows demonstrate that orphanages draw children away from families outside of the orphanage's intended target.

Diagram 2

The third diagram illustrates the opposite approach. Orphans are supported by strategies that strengthen the families who care for them. The grey arrow demonstrates that as these support strategies are more and more successful, they will absorb additional children into families. This ultimately decreases the number of children who "need" to be institutionalized.

Diagram 3

Diagrams Anyone?

Diagrams adapted by J. Fraher from Foster, G. "The Capacity of the Extended Family Safety Net for Orphans in Africa." Psychology, Health, & Medicine 5.1 (2000): 55-62. 

I adapted these diagrams to illustrate two approaches to orphan care taking into consideration the extended-family framework. My intention was to illustrate two different approaches and their effects on extended families. As you can see, I argue that orphanages draw children away from extended families, weakening the safety-net. Conversely, there are a number of reinforcement strategies that strengthen the safety-net.

Colder Weather

Land Rovers vs. Mud Huts

In a study by Brigitte Zimmerman entitled "Orphan Living Situations in Malawi: A Comparison of Orphanages and Foster Homes," a community member is quoted as saying:

"We appreciate the outsiders taking care of our children, but of course, we always know that it is because they have so much money. They drive around in their Land Rovers and we just think, ‘Of course, if I had that much money, I could help my own children.’ If we could choose between having outsiders solve the problem with their money, and finding a way to get our own money and do it ourselves, I think most of us would rather perform the services ourselves (Zimmerman, 911)."

CLICK HERE to read the study. 

Any program that draws orphans away from extended families instead of strengthening those families is doing more harm than good.

Poverty as Entertainment

"They should be explaining to Kenyans why so many of the country’s citizens have no choice but to pee and poo in a bag."


The Daily Nation, a leading newspaper in Kenya, ran an opinion piece today on slum tours in Kibera.

"Poverty as entertainment: Please put to an end Kibera slum tours"

"The Invisible Cure"

After returning from my first trip to Kenya in December 2008, I began to read a number of books concerning issues in Africa that I had witnessed first hand. Wandering in the library one day, I picked up "The Invisible Cure" by Helen Epstein and read it cover to cover. Twice. The emotions I was not able to articulate were beautifully expressed in this amazing book. I learned an incredible amount of useful information and was never bored. 

I have included some memorable quotes [emphasis mine].

“He told us, perhaps only partly in jest, that they talk about two kinds of AIDS in Uganda: slim AIDS and fat AIDS. People with slim AIDS get slimmer and slimmer and slimmer until they finally disappear. Fat AIDS afflicts doctors, bureaucrats, and foreign-aid consultants with enormous grants and salaries; they fly around the world to exotic places and get fatter and fatter and fatter. Fat AIDS had become so common in Uganda, he said, that if you said you were working on HIV, people thought you were a thief” (Epstein, 27).

“Everyone seems to know what Africa needs, but sometimes I think our minds are not really on it. Most of us see only Africa’s contours, and we use them to map out problems of our own. Africa is a career move, and adventure, and experiment. It fades into an idea” (Epstein, 37).

“It was heartening that Western donors were now spending so much money on AIDS programs in Africa. But the problem with some large foreign-aid programs was that distributing the funds often involved negotiating with governments with a poor record of dealing with AIDS. In addition, the huge sums of money involved were often very difficult to manage, so that small community-based groups that needed thousands of dollars, rather than millions – like Inkanyezi in Orange Farm – were often overlooked in favor of overly ambitious megaprojects, whose effectiveness had not been demonstrated and whose premises were open to question” (Epstein, 140).

“…if you fire-hose poor countries with development dollars, you risk generating a mad scrum for money, and it’s no use blaming Africans (again) when the money is misused. Truly well-designed aid programs… involve hard, unglamorous work and have very pragmatic goals. They involve close monitoring of simple projects...” (Epstein, 208).

“As Elizabeth said, referring to NOAH’s takeover bid, “When the Americans come, we sing, we dance, they take our picture, and they go back and show everyone how they are helping poor black people. But then all they do is hijack our projects and count our children” (Epstein, 227).

If you would like to read a portion of the book online, check out an excerpt at the New York Times.

"One morning in November 2001, two officials from a Kenyan AIDS organization picked me up from my hotel in Nairobi and took me on a drive. We drove and drove all day, over muddy tracks, through endless pineapple and coffee plantations, rural villages and slums, through all of Africa, it seemed, to arrive at a small field, perhaps half an acre, with some weeds growing in it and an old woman standing there with a hoe.

"I had not expected this. I was reporting on AIDS programs for an American foundation, and most of the other projects I had visited were either medical programs, AIDS awareness campaigns using billboards, radio or television spots, or traveling roadshows designed to promote AIDS awareness or condoms or HIV testing. I was about to say something when one of my guides spoke first.

'We are very proud of this project.'

So I said nothing. About twenty women had saved up for two years to buy this land. All of them were supporting orphans whose parents had died of AIDS, and they hoped the land would produce enough food for about fifty people in all. On a nearby hill, one of Kenya's vast corporate-owned coffee plantations loomed like the edge of the sea. The old woman kept glancing at it as though it might sweep her away. I was moved by what I saw, although I didn't understand at the time how this project was supposed to fight AIDS. This book explains how I came to do so."