Mants’ase Children’s Home
Mants’ase Children’s Home is a bustling home providing for about 50 orphans who have no other viable options of care. Faith Foundation is partnering with Mants’ase Children’s Home in areas of sustainable micro-enterprise, educational support and spiritual formation.
Since 2005 Faith Foundation has accomplished the following initiatives at the home:
- Established a pre-school program that serves 21 children ages 3 to 5 from the home and the community.
- Purchased a machine, which makes building blocks from a mixture of soil and cement, for production of blocks for sale and for construction projects at Mants’ase.
- Provided building blocks for the construction of two dormitories.
- Totally renovated a small manager’s house on the property.
- Constructed a security fence around the 1.5 mile perimeter of the property.
- Established an egg production facility that will help cover Mants’ase’s operating costs and provide protein for the children’s diet.
- Planted an orchard of 45 fruit trees.
- Installed a drip irrigation system for the market garden.
- Started an after-school tutoring program.
- Contributed to the spiritual formation of the children through various programs.
WHY WAIT Program
Lesotho’s future weighs on its children. The breakdown of the traditional family and community cohesiveness has left young people vulnerable to continue the patterns of behaviour that has led to the current HIV/AIDS pandemic. In 2007, Faith Foundation introduced WHY WAIT, a life skills/character development curriculum, based primarily on the life principles taught by Jesus Christ, as part of our focus on HIV prevention.
The purpose of WHY WAIT is to equip youth with the information, character and life skills needed to make healthy decisions resulting in positive behavior and a better quality of life.
Beginning with the 2010 school year, WHY WAIT will be taught in 92 primary and high schools where it is directly impacting about 25,000 students and teachers.
Community Based Support Groups
Faith Foundation is working with community support groups who are responding to the impact of HIV/AIDS in their area. On their own initiative they provide meals and other needs to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). They also provide help and care to adults who are sick or dying of AIDS. In 2007, Faith Foundation began providing material support to these community based caregivers; however, our goal is to help local people develop local resources to solve local problems. Faith Foundation is
- Helping community based caregivers establish micro-enterprises, such as mending and sewing, a market garden or a poultry enterprise, that will generate income to help them more adequately provide for the needs of the children they are caring for and enable them to provide assistance to additional OVC.
- Providing emergency food staples for caregivers with insufficient personal resources, until we can help them establish a micro-enterprise. The groups we are working with provide for the children primarily from their own meager resources and only occasionally receive local donations of foodstuffs.
- Providing school tuition grants, uniforms and supplies for school aged children. School uniforms, tuition for high school students and supplies are a requirement for school attendance. Many OVC don’t attend school because their caregivers can’t afford these items.
- Providing mentoring for the children.
