The Orphanage Dilemma

What do you do when you don’t know what to do? This is the problem that we have right now. Although the orphanage has been great for us and we feel like we have made a huge investment in these kids, there might be a better option for them that would mean we are involved less and Angella won’t be able to see them nearly as often.

This is the situation. The orphanage was founded by a social worker named Jovenes about 4 years ago when she failed to find homes for Kenneth and Trevor. Instead of trying to put them in a larger orphanage, she found a home to rent and a woman to hire as a mother for their orphanage. A week or so later, Joshua came along and the orphanage began to grow. As many as 22 kids were there at one time, so Jovenes hired 4 mothers to take turns sleeping at the house. Most of the kids were adopted quickly because of their age or they were sent to a better home. Now there are the nine kids left that we all adore, but for them, there is a very uncertain future. They are past the age of likely adoption so the will most likely live there for the rest of their lives. But what happens when they are past the age of school? Will Kenny become a boda driver? Will Joshua sell fruit on the street? Will Arthur drive a Mtatu? These kids are very smart, but they won’t have the opportunity to go to school if they can’t pay for both books and uniforms at the government schools, and their chances of getting into university are even smaller than the chance of all of them having sponsors.

All of these questions came up last night because Angella has been contacted by Ruth. She is the person who is basically running the orphanage now, but she does an awful job of managing resources. Ruth was one of Jovenes’ best friends and she had offered to help when Jovenes invested all of her time and a lot of money into those kids. Then, a year or two ago, Jovenes got transferred to a city hours away from Kampala so she left Ruth in charge. Ruth has done little to make the orphanage better. Every three months, the rent needs to be paid, and you would think that after four years, they would have collected sponsors and raised funds to pay a bill that comes at the same time every year. She also sometimes does not sent food or money to buy food. Even the chickens, which were moved to Ruth’s house (not too far from the kids) are never send by the children. The mothers said that they never get eggs from them and that they have only eaten 5 or 6 of them. Ruth never calls Angella to let her know about the kids, nor does she ever go to check up on the kids. When the mothers tell Ruth there is a problem, she does nothing to fix it. The rent is due again soon and Ruth has called Angella a few times to ask her to cover the rent. If Angella did that, she wouldn’t be able to pay her own rent. The money is not the problem. The bigger issue is a future for the kids. If Ruth can’t manage to make a payment three months in advance, then how is she going to plan for any sort of future for the kids.

The alternative that Ruth has given is to give up and send the kids to the Watoto orphanage. This is a huge organization run by the Kampala Pentacostal Church. It seems to be a great organization. The kids live in a house of 7 kids with one mom (which means they will most likely be split up) They all become part of the Watoto children’s choir which travels around the world to raise money and awareness of the orphaned children of Uganda. They are close to a local school and Watoto trains the kids to learn a trade or go to some sort of school after they finish grade school.

This all seems like a good thing, but it would mean all of the children would have to move. They would no longer see their mothers or the two older boys that care for them. Angella would not be able to just stop by and see them because the Watoto has strict rules about visitors and outside help. I want what’s best for the kids and so do Angella, Ross, Rachel, and the mothers, but it really hurts your heart to have to send them someplace new, knowing that you may never see them again. However, it’s looking at what is best for them, and if Watoto is best for them, then that is what needs to happen.

I make this sound as if it’s a done deal, but we really don’t know what will happen and we are looking at options right now. We really love these kids and we are going to pray that we have the wisdom to do what’s best, even if it means letting them go. Please pray that we will figure out the best course of action and that we can help these kids move in a direction that will give them a hope for their future.