Hi everyone, we wanted to share with you some ways we are inviting you to be part of changing little lives across the globe. It's time again that we make our biggest needs known so that those led to give, know how and for what! This is especially for those new but also, even for myself, it's always a great reminder of what we do and why.
So what is our sponsorship program all about? In order to meet all needs holistically at Mattaw Children's Village, we set up a sponsorship program whereby people can sign up to sponsor a child for $35 per month. In order to meet every need of the child, plus save back for their future education once they're graduating from high school, each child requires $175 per month. The children we rescue are orphaned, abandoned and/or mistreated but the children we raise up are no longer orphans but sons and daughters. We place them in families at Mattaw where they have a mother, father, brothers and sisters. We believe in restoring the family to how God created it to be in order to raise strong future leaders. So in every aspect of the child's life, we desire excellence. We provide the best schooling we can, a healthy nutritious diet, two school uniforms, adequate clothing, two or more pairs of shoes, salary for the staff at Mattaw Children's Village (this includes house parents, aunties, teachers, farmers, night watchmen and social workers). Those are just to name a few. It's also a great way to send extra love to our children. You can send extra little gifts, letters and pictures so the child you sponsors feels that much more loved.
Why a children's home? The cases we bring in truly have no other stable and safe place to live and that's why they are placed through the local government children's department into our care. We've heard the statistics and reasons why the last place for children to be is in orphanages. (side note: in some cases, where the motives for having an orphanage are wrong and the children are neglected and fed poorly, yes I agree it's not a good option. There are definitely some corrupt orphanages that do more harm than good for orphans.)
But the reality is, there's over 2 million orphans in this nation according to the UN in 2012. In order to even make a dent in this overwhelming statistic, we felt our mission was to work with local authorities, orgnaizations and our team of social workers and managers, to find the most desperate cases. The ones locked away. Forgotten. Not wanted. As much as we would love to do in home sponsorship care for orphans and see them stay with relatives, it's really not possible for the cases we find. So with that understanding, our mission is to take these children and see them beautifully restored into a family here at Mattaw Children's Village. We currently have 5 homes opened with a Kenyan couple as the mom and dad. There's a room for 6 boys and a room for 6 girls. They have a dinning room and living room. It's made of bricks and has a sturdy tin roof. We have a school onsite where the children learn. There's a church we've established where the children are part of. During the week the children go through our two year ministry school. They are now going out to serve widows in the surrounding villages as well as doing hospital ministry where they pray for the sick children. We now have a library for the children for the children to develop a passion for reading. We also have gardens to teach the children how to grow fruits and vegetables. We have a dairy and chicken farm as well to help with self sustainability. Some of the older kids are now doing a free graze chicken project. We are also setting up a hydroponics project to feed our cows. The too is a great learning project for the kids. Lastly, we have a basketball court, soccer field and a playground where the children are found often running, laughing and playing freely as children should. We don't believe our children are orphans any longer but truly in families.
So we are asking for you to consider being a sponsor. It has been a long time since we've done a big push for sponsors and made the need known. Currently we are able to meet the immediate needs but the funds we get through sponsorships is less than half the monthly budget needed. We have relied on one time donors and churches that have given to cover where we lacked but our prayer and hope is that all sponsorships will be full so that we can fully operate with the budget needed to provide for each child. If you are led to sponsor one of these precious lives, you can contact our sponsorship coordinator, Lisa: sponsorship@mattawchildren.com. Or you can go to our website and sign up on the sponsor tab. www.mattawchildren.com
Our sponsorship program does not provide Christmas presents for each child so each year we do a fundraiser. This year we budgeted $40 per child. They will receive a soda, chocolate, new chai mug, new towel, new clothes, new shoes, flip flops, and belts for boys and leggings for girls. We are super thrilled to announce that all 100 children have been provided for! A HUGE thanks to all that have given to make it one Merry Mattaw Christmas! On my last blog post, I shared the story of Sarah and Maggie with you. Last year our little Ryan was in our main Christmas picture and this year it went to sweet Sarah.
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In case you missed the sweet video of her, here it is again.
If you still wish to help us have a very merry day for our children, there are still a few needs we have. We would like to get our house parents gifts and bless our staff with funds that we know are much needed during this holiday season. Total we need $1,000, so any amount given towards this will help the families that pour into the Mattaw children and help us raise these kids throughout the year. We also are hoping to buy four goats to roast Christmas day. They are each $40. You can donate on our website through paypal and just send us a note saying what it's for: kimberly@mattawchildren.com.
We also hope you are having a great holiday this season. We pray that as you sow in prayer and finances to our children, that it would bring you much joy and hope this holiday.
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