ORPHAN CARE
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.”
James 1:27
Tour the orphanage and hear from our staff.
in 2016, COFA’s long term mission partners David and Janey Hannay donated their home, built by David’s father Cedric, to COFA in order to give new hope to orphaned, abandoned and vulnerable children of the Mhluzi community. COFA funded and oversaw the expansion and renovations of that home that converted it into what is now name the “Amajuba Child and Youthcare Centre.” As a government authorized Child and Youth Care Center, Amajuba can be entrusted with the permanent care of children.
Amajuba is guided by three core principles:
A Christian Faith-Driven Environment.
Love and Compassion through trauma-informed, relational care.
A Holistic, Balanced Lifestyle, focusing on mental wellness, physical health, education, and community engagement.
Amajuba Funding Requirement
Amajuba has a government grant to cover some of the costs of statutory compliance, social work services, management, and a portion of staffing costs. These are basic services, however, that are insufficient to meet the holistic child-development model we employ at Amajuba. Our aim is to provide the children entrusted to us with opportunities and life experiences comparable to those we have been privileged to provide for our own children.
We incur costs to celebrate birthdays, take the children on special outings, and provide for their medical needs. Moreover, we want all of them to attend Bethel Pre-school or St. Peter Christian College, which adds the additional cost of private school education and transportation expenses. Additionally, COFA has undertaken the responsibility of ensuring post-high school education and training for its residents. One is currently a student at Concordia University Wisconsin and another is training to be a flight attendant. Although the government of South Africa provides some funding support, COFA expects an annual shortfall that it must fund itself.
In order to ensure that it will always be able to provide the funds needed to support Amajuba, COFA has initiated a five-year campaign to raise a $1 million endowment that will provide continuous funding for these long-term funding needs. Click the buttons below to view the video and download the brochure supporting this campaign.
Why a $1 Million Endowment Campaign?
As the guardians of the children in our orphanage, we have a responsibility to ensure that they are healthy and that each reach their full potential. That responsibility adds additional costs beyond our regular operating costs. Thus, our endowment campaign will provide funds to meet our long term needs.
Health Care
The health care system in South Africa is underfunded and overutilized. We have relied on partners and donors in South Africa to minimize our health costs, but we must often postpone visits to doctors or dentists until funds are available.
Psychological Care
The children in our home all come from difficult family situations. We believe that we have an obligation to ensure their psychological and emotional needs are met. Thus, we would like to hire a Clinical Psychologist to work permanently with the kids, initially to assess and treat their mental and emotional state, and then to work on their behavioral needs. A Play Therapist may also add value at this stage as they can help children make sense of difficult life experiences orcomplex psychological issues, through play.
We would also like to hire a coach to help develop life skills that will enable the children to make informed decisions, solve problems, think critically and creatively, communicate effectively, build healthy relationships, and cope with and manage their lives in a healthy and productive manner.
Extramural activities
We believe our children deserve the opportunity to explore their talents and interests outside of their education. Therefore we need funding that would allow them to participate in extramural activities as they wish – music, singing, sport, dancing, horse riding, etc. This funding would also enable us to offer more frequent educational outings, holiday activities and trips that will also allow them to discover their interests.
Post Grade 12 Education
For many of our children, helping them reach their full potential will require providing them the opportunity to receive an education beyond 12th grade, such as university education or technical education. COFA is already supporting one of our former residents at Concordia University Wisconsin and another in flight attendant school in South Africa.
Young Adult Shelter
We want to provide for shelter after our children reach the age of 18 during breaks in their university education or until they are able to support themselves. The separate housing unit on our property for these young adults provides them a place to live and the opportunity to be a part of the lives of our young children, and in some cases, their siblings, still living in Amajuba.
Staff Training
Our staff plays a crucial role in the development of our children. It is crucial that we are empowering and developing our staff with mentors and training programs.