“Unthinkable”

Andrei Skylarov sits in his home in Barnaul, Russia as he types out an email and attaches reports and photos that document his work done on behalf of Orphan’s Lifeline International.

As an Orphan Lifeline Child Care Facilitator and the President of “Love to Children”, our Russian nonprofit organization in the Barnaul Region, he has been sending emails just like this every month for 10 years. And for the last 10 years, he has purchased and delivered almost identical items to the sam orphanages and hospitals every single month for the entire time.

He will admit that it is frustrating …and fulfilling all at the same time. Frustrating that these same facilities that care for orphan children still need the same critidcal items as they did all those years ago…frustrating that there are still so many abandoned children and that the government still can not afford to provide these places with items and services that are necessary just to keep the children alive and healthy. But fulfilling in the sense that Love to Children…Orphan’s Lifeline International has been there every month saving children’s lives…improving children’s lives and showing them that people care and that they matter.

From time to time Andrei worries through…because Andrei is connected and understands that the economy in the United States is not good…that people here have lost jobs and the decade long boom and flowing money has subsided…perhaps for a long time.  His worries come across in his emails and I do my best to reassure him because I know and he knows that if Orphan’s Lifeline were unable to continue working there…the results would be unthinkable.

To the East of Barnaul, in Khabarovsk, Russia, our Far East Director and president of LifeRing, the offical nonprofit name of Orphan’s Lifeline International there, also sits at his computer and responds to an email I have sent him…an email with a question I ask once a year. I asked him:…”what is the current status of the orphan situation this year as compared to last…are the numbers up or down and what are the conditions of the orphanages and hospitals that we do not yet help? Is it better or worse?”

I can picture him squinting and pushing his glasses up on his nose as he considers his response…because Eugene, even the optimist will carefully craft his response to make me feel good about what we are doing…and yet he must still answer honestly. His answser…is pretty much what I expect, because it is the same answer he has given me each time I ask the questions…but each time I guess I just hope it will be different.

He writes: “Dear Friend, Things are not changed here. The number of orphans is the same, no worse or better. Greg, I rarely visit homes we do not support because it is too hard to see Russian children living in those conditions. The government has made orphanages in the cities much better because that is what people will see, but places in the country are no better than they ever were except maybe for food, otherwise they have nothing.”

Reading his email takes my mind back eleven years…back to my first experience in an orphanage when we were there to adopt our daughter in the tiny Russian village of Pelyaslovka.

I can remember almost not believing it was possible that the crumbling brick building we parked in front of actually had children living in it…and I remember shivering in the cold AFTER we entered the building as damp stale air touched my skin and the smell of mold and mildew entered my nose.

I remember walking down dark hallways with tall ceilings, the floors sloping to the center, carved out by thousands of feet that tread there 75 years before I did and this very morning as well. I remember the felling in my stomach and the lightness in my head when I first saw the children there…dressed in rags, thin and pale with bowed legs and knotted toes…cocroach bites highlighted on their faces and arms by bright green medication put there to prevent infection.

I remember confused smiles curling up on lips beneath sunken lifeless eyes that held no hope in them. I remember cold little fingers touching mine and hanging on to my clothing as if to be sure they were still attached somehow if I should turn to leave…

All of it…sights, sounds and feelings that make me so thankful for the changes we have made in that orphanage and hundreds more in the Far East Region of Russia…and at the same time the realization that there are many more we still have yet to help there…and what would happen if we couldn’t continue…unthinkable.

Far away in India, Penke, director of CCIM writes his report. Like always, it is immaculate in required content and the accompanying photographs are those of clean, healthy and happy children who are thiriving in this home, a beacon of hope in a community immersed in poverty that steals the hopes, dreams and lives of many children there. This home like other Orphan Lifeline homes in India is well known throughout the region and tucked away in a little desk is a long, sad list of names…names of children who hope to someday live in this home. Names given to Penke by relatives of the children that they love, but are not able to care for them. Relatives who struggle to feed, let alone educate these children left in their care for various tragic reasons. They put their names on this list, hoping that when a child graduates from the home, it will be their loved one that is chosen to live there, because the alternative for them…is unthinkable. As it would have been or would be for all the children we care for if Orphan’s Lifeline were not there in India…unthinkable.

In Africa, Orphan’s Lifeline Child Care Coordinator, Gladys Mutai recovers from her third bout of typhoid fever since she started working for us around one year ago. She has also had malaria twice on her journeys to Uganda from her home in Kenya and to the children’s homes there as well. Her journeys to the homes take her through many very poor villages where thousands of children spend their days hungry and lonely with nothing to do but wander dusty streets and trails looking for food and companionship.

Many hundreds of such children that live in the vicinity of an Orphan’s Lifeline children’s home are luckier than the others…because they know about our homes and during meal times, they flock to them and stand in line where loving caregivers hand them a plate filled with food, knowing they don’t live there, but unwilling to turn them away hungry because they know that without it what might become of these sad and hungry children…is unthinkable.

It is the same in Pakistan…and Haiti…and Philippines and Mexico, where Orphan’s Lifeline Homes are saving thousands of children’s lives…where they are bright and shining lights in the darkness of poverty and suffering…

It is only because of you…our partners that this is possible. Without you, Orphan’s Lifeline International would simply be a good idea, a desire to help the most innocent and helpless in our world without means to do so. You have done so much for the thousands of orphan children we have cared for now for so many years…each one of them a deserving, loving, child, now filled with hope and dreams that have a very good chance of becoming reality. Each one of them an individual with infinite and unknown significance and importance to the world they will inherit as adults and the ontributions they will make to it. Each one of them a precious child of God whose future without you, the dedicated partners of Orphan’s Lifeline International…would be unthinkable…

The Life You Save…

Chadapongu Rajesh sits cross-legged on the concrete floor of the bedroom he shares with the other boys who call this place home. He carefully sketches in the windows and doors, the final touches to his interpretation of the very building he is sitting in…Orphan Lifeline International’s Children’s Home in India…

 

He has learned about the new project HopeArt and is very excited that he and the other children can be a part of helping themselves…and other orphan children as well and he has volunteered to encourage the others and lead the way…envisioning his and their artwork on greeting cards…a message of hope to everyone who sees them and an expression of their value as a human being.

 

What Chadapongu will achieve in life remains to be seen. Perhaps he will become an artist as an adult or perhaps he will become a doctor or even the director of a children’s home. His future is unwritten and the opportunities are endless for this young boy, but that hasn’t always been true for him.

 

Chadapongu and his brother were brought to this home because their mother died and the only person left to care for them did anything but. Their father, a “drunkard”, beat the boys “without mercy” and their chance of survival in his house was slim at best…their very lives and who they would become was threatened on a daily basis by his cruelty and lack of care.

 

Even in and of itself it is nearly impossible to put a value on the life of a human being…although it is very clear how valuable each and every one of us is to God, it seems that it is often lost on us as individuals beyond our connection to family and friends. It is easy to allow it to escape our conscious thought, just how valuable and important each life is to another when it comes to strangers that have lost their lives, in our own hometowns, throughout the United States and around the globe.

 

Millions of people die each year and there is nothing that any of us could do about it…right!? We cannot control who is hit by a car, or dies in a plane crash or of some disease. We cannot control or have a part in saving the life of a soldier on a battlefield who falls to enemy fire or is killed in a fiery explosion from a bomb…or can we?

 

If you Google the name of James Harrison, the search results will return information about a two time Superbowl Champion Linebacker for the Pittsburg Steelers…and you can follow the links and read an entire biography about this athlete…

 

But you have to go quite a bit further if you want to read the story of James Harrison the hero!

 

74 year old James Harrison…”the man with a golden arm” is not a football player at all…nor has he ever been in spite of the above mentioned title. And you could research for hours and not find out anything about him before the age of 14…when nearly losing his own life transformed him from an ailing young boy into the hero of millions.

While lying on the operating table, James Harrison the boy received nearly 13 liters of blood that saved his life…and as he lay in the hospital for three months recuperating, he vowed to give blood on a regular basis when he turned eighteen.

 

And he kept that promise too…but the impact of it all was yet to be discovered…

 

Just after he started donating, it was discovered that his blood contained a rare and life saving antibody. At that time thousands of babies were dying every year in Australia from Rhesus Disease, wherein the mother’s and babies blood are incompatible as RH negative and RH positive.

 

 Not only did his blood save thousands directly, but it was also used to help create a vaccine called Anti-D and it is estimated that he has helped save 2.2 million babies so far. James Harrison continues to give blood and as of September, reached the 1,000 donation milestone…and the lives he has and will save continue to grow exponentially…all because OTHERS donated blood that saved the life of a young boy whose name would have never had a return in Google otherwise.

 

You must also consider Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, whose name and historical significance went unheard of and unknown of for 40 years after he made a decision that many agree, prevented World War III and therein saved the world from a nuclear war.

 

Vasili was born into poverty in a small village not far from Moscow…his family considered peasants. He joined the Russian Navy, becoming a mine sweeper and eventually an officer on a Soviet B-59 nuclear capable submarine.

 

It was October 27, 1962, the height of the Cuban Missle Crisis and the entire world was on edge as two nuclear superpowers had each other in their sights.

The submarine Vasili was in came under attack from U.S Navy destroyers attempting to force them to surface using practice depth chargers. The captain and other officers on the sub were convinced it was the start of the war and decided to launch their nuclear weapon on the United States. It was Vasili who refused to agree with the decision and ultimately convinced the other officers to “stand down: and surface, averting a nuclear strike and quite realistically, the start of a nuclear war in which the lives of millions would have been lost and the face of the world changed forever.

 

Chadapongu Rajesh is just a boy right now…invaluable to God, yet of no known significance to the rest of the world. Yet he and the thousands of other orphans that we and our partners provide for each and every day have untold future lives to lead…unknown contributions to give to the world they now have a chance to survive in and give back to.

 

Which one of them will be the next James Harrison…the next Vasili Arkhipov? That remains to be seen, but the unseen and unforseen connections we all have to one another on this earth cannot be denied. Beyond the fact that each of these children deserve a chance, deserve your love and care, simply as a human being, lies the reality that the life you save when you save theirs…just might turn out to be a soldier on a battlefield…someone about to be hit by a car…someone dying of a disease… the life of someone close to you…and perhaps even your own.

Orphan Sunday

Orphan Sunday is a pretty big deal…especially to the orphans!

For the last eight years, Orphan’s Lifeline International has organized Orphan Sunday as an annual event for the Church of Christ as well as Christian Churches in general. The proceeds of this event held around the country in November are the life saving funds we use to be sure that we don’t have short falls throughout the year and to expand and begin providing for new homes and orphan children as well.

While many of the thousands of orphan children we care for are sponsored through our child sponsorship program, there are thousands of children that we care for from our General Fund each year. Orphan Sunday is the event we count on…the event those orphan children count on…to provide the difference between our sponsorships and the actual number of orphan children we care for.

We also use the funds from Orphan Sunday to provide for Special Needs that arise throughout the year for the orphan children.

Special needs can be anything from medical needs, repairs and maintenance, disaster relief and much more. These kinds of needs tend to crop up each and every month throughout the year and are too varied to plan for within the regular Children’s Home budget.

Each and every year we have between 200 and 300 Churches participate in Orphan Sunday from many different areas throughout the U.S. and Canada. Each and every year we hope that number will expand to meet the ever increasing needs, but it seems to be stuck!

This year, it is more important than ever for us to have a successful Orphan Sunday…for as you and I know, when the economy in the U.S. is suffering…when the people of the U.S. are suffering, the rest of the world suffers even more…and those most vulnerable, are the children.

If your congregation wants to be a part of this…and you truly need to be, you can sign up online at this link: Orphan Sunday.

For those congregations worried about their budgets…don’t be. Your members will rise to the occasion! Many congregations that have participated have seen increased giving following the event and becoming involved! They have seen increased membership and an excitement that hasn’t been there for quite some time…truly the Church, the givers and the orphans are all blessed and God is glorified.

Also, don’t forget that if you can’t participate for whatever reason, many churches sending a little adds up to a lot. So even if you say no to Orphan Sunday, just send $50 or $100 instead and the lives of innocent orphans will be saved as a result!

As a 4 star charity, Orphan’s Lifeline is known for it’s efficiency and transparency and our Partner’s Pages hold the proof of the work being done and the sustainabilty and success of our proven programs.

The 8th Annual Orphan Sunday will is on November 14th, 2010…that is the offical date…but churches can choose an alternative date if they wish.

Just go to our Orphan Sunday link and get more information right away…and help us make it the most successful Orphan Sunday of all. The orphan children of the world are counting on us all.

Non-Profit Efficiency…How do You Measure it? Part II

Part II

To answer the questions raised in my description of Pitfall #1, we have to think about what efficiency means…about what “program expenses” are…and how “value” relates directly to “outcome” and “output.”

Program expenses by definition, are expenses directly or indirectly related to the stated programs of a non-profit in fulfillment of their mission statement. The programs can be anything from advocation and education to direct hands on assistance. In other words, it could be promoting the value of children doing art, or helping children become artists. It could be advocating adoption or facilitating adoption. So expenses directly related to making these things happen as well as administration and operations that support these functions, including salaries,can be all or in part, allocated as a program expense.

What is perhaps more important than the gray areas that exist because of this, is the “value”…or what it costs as a unit of measure if you will. What are you getting for your money? It’s not so much the percentage used for programs as it is what it is costing the non-profit and ultimately the donor to fulfill the mission on a unit basis. In other words…what’s getting done…is it measureable and sustainable? Can you as a donor easily see proven results? Is it obvious that the money you have donated must be doing its job based upon the transparency of the organization through its own reporting and proof of the work being done? Are the programs vague or specific? Can you easily find evidence of the work they claim? How many layers exist between your donated dollar and the intended recipient? Do they have due diligence and follow up that means you can feel assured that your donations are spent as intended? These are all questions you should ask yourself and them.

Non-Profit Efficiency…How do You Measure it?

Part I

 

4 Star Charities, Charities that get an A+ rating, charities that have 4 star ratings from one source and an “F” rating from another…and then there is the Form 990…the organizations tax return…reading it is one thing…understanding it is a completely different animal altogether.

There are a growing number of organizations whose mission is to rate charities…and for the most part, they use the IRS Form 990 as the basis for their analysis of the non-profit organizations they are giving a grade to. Orphan’s Lifeline International has received a “4 star” rating from Charity Navigator…and frankly we deserve it, but not just because our financials reflect good “organizational efficiency” and good organizational capacity”. These are of course important elements…but there are at least two potential pitfalls with giving too much weight to these kinds of assessments derived from mathematical calculations and formulas related to information provided in the 990′s and married up with a rating system that is proprietary to each different “rating organization.

“Pitfall #1: The IRS Form 990 has a lot of numbers in it…but behind those numbers are hundreds and thousands of transactions that have taken place in the organization in three general areas. Administration is one of them, Fundraising is another and Programs is the third main area. Other areas less visible or looked at, are investments and asset purchases…things like that. The problem and a pitfall of looking at just the numbers and the resulting “grade” given because of them is two-fold. For example, a large organization with a HUGE administrative cost might show a very small percentage of its massive budget as going to “Administration”, but does that make it efficient? Likewise, they might show a very LARGE percentage going to “Programs”, but are those programs themsleves efficient in terms of “value”…is the “outcome” and “output” what it should be or could be?

Pitfall #2: There are organizations with very liberal accountants…and organizations with very conservative accounts and therein accounting practices…all within the “generally accepted accounting practices.” So there is a very real danger of comparing apples to oranges when using just the numbers from a 990 to make an assessment.

Over then next couple of months, we will take an in-depth look at these pitfalls and ponder other ways to measure efficiency and effectivness as well as the financial health of an organization. Along the way, we will take a look at the REAL diifference between a Non-Profit Organization and a For-Profit Organization and discuss the averages person’s perception of what that difference is…or what some think it should be.

 

 

 

A Higher Purpose…

There are some people that recognize their purpose in life at a very young age…Ochimi Edward was such a person…

He was born in Eastern Uganda and at a very young age, his mother divorced his father and left. Ochimi was raised by a rarely present father and more than one step mother. He told us that his childhood was very difficult…and that he only survived by “the grace of God”. But his trials as a child taught him compassion…taught him mercy…taught him grace and gave him a desire to pursue an education that would give him the opportunity to give back to his people…to give back something lasting. And so it was that Ochimi Edward chose to become an educator. He graduated from college with a teaching degree and went on to get a diploma from a Bible College as well.

After college he found a job working in an elementary school teaching 3^rd graders. It was there that he was slowly but surely drawn towards another path as he witnessed the suffering of children in the very school in which he worked. Children lost their parents to HIV/AIDS and could no longer attend school. Fathers and mothers abandoned their children and they could no longer attend school…and in both cases there was no one to care for them…feed them, clothe them…love them.

Nine years passed. Ochimi now had a family of his own…a wife and four children. He had taught and watched many children come through his classroom…and there was a certain satisfaction in knowing he had provided an important element in life to those children…he was giving them knowledge and skills…he was feeding their minds. But as he continued to watch the suffering of so many of the children in his community, he realized that for him, it was not enough to just feed their minds…not for him.

 It was time. He started reaching out for help and found a source to fund a building…found Orphan’s Lifeline International to fund the day to day care of the children he had gathered together from the area…orphans without hope…and Butiki Children’s Home…the destination on the path he had been drawn to, became a reality.

 On top of a grassy hill in Uganda, a simple building rose up…and its doors and the doors to Ochimi Edward’s heart opened up to nearly sixty orphan children who had no where else to go. He hired staff…caregivers, security and educators and they all went to work for the children.

Just imagine it for yourself…what it is to be an orphan in a country where there are no formal services for children without parental care…just imagine that a day comes in your young life in which you suddenly have no parents…suddenly have no no hope. You can’t go to school anymore…and your friends wait for you outside the school building, but you don’t come. You don’t know what to do.

Like many homes in Uganda, there is only food for a few more days…and you know that your uncle will come soon to lay claim to his brothers property…but he has made it clear that you are not welcome…he already has too many mouths to feed. You gather together the meager food supply and portion it out into three equal piles…then change your mind and make it into six even smaller piles, and then once again the sting of tears fills your eyes as the lonliness and hopelessness are too much to bear until finally you are sobbing, then crying out loud. You curl up in the corner…exhaustion takes over and you drift off to sleep, utterly alone.

The very next day, you awaken…the sun is rising and it spills in through the window. You watch the light slowly move across the floor and climb up onto your bare feet…and you feel its warmth and are wondering what this day will bring when there is a knock on the door. You tip toe to the window and peer out to see who is there. It is a friend from the neighborhood…a classmate from school and behind him stands a large man…with a gentle face and warm and caring eyes.

You answer the door and your friend steps in and gives you a hug…and tells you how sorry they are, then turns and motions for the large man outside to come in.

 He steps through the door and bends down, his large dark eyes moist, blinking back tears that seem to contradict the warm smile on his face. He introduces himself and tells you he is there to ask you if you would like to live in a home he has where others without parents already live.

He tells you that you will have your own bed, food every day and that you will attend school with all of your own friends, just the way you used to…and he tells you that you can stay there until you are grown…

You are afraid. Afraid that it isn’t true. Afraid to leave the only home that you have ever known, but as you look around at the emptiness, you know that you must go…and the gentle giant waits patiently while all of this runs through your mind. All that you own, fits into a basket, and so you put in in there, walking once around the perimeter of the four walls for perhaps the last time before following the man and your friend out the door and into the sunlight on a brand new day that suddenly seems brighter.

It is a bit of a hike, mostly uphill and you are not really sure where you are going and the apprehension you felt back in the home is there again…but mixed with a little wonder and a little excitement at the same time.

At the top of a hill in the distance, stands a long green building and the man points and tells you that is your new home. He reaches down, taking the basket from your hands and places it in his left hand and reaches out with his right, offering it to you. You hesitate and look up into his eyes for answers to the questions running through your young mind. The eyes staring back at you are kind and seem to say “its okay…it will be okay” and so you reach out your hand and his closes around yours completely, yet gently, and on you go to the long green house on the hill. Finally you are there and as you reach the edge of a yard worn nearly bare by little feet, he stops and points down and to the East to a particular building that you immediately recognize as your school…familiar ground that brings a sense of comfort to you immediately.

He leads you inside and as the door is opened, the sound of many voices escape into the morning air. There is laughter and the unintelligible mix of many conversations overlapping one another. Dozens of faces turn to look and suddenly there is silence…sentences never finished, suspended in time as all that was being said was forgotten due to the presence of a new face in the home…your face.

The gentle man takes your hand once again and leads you around the room introducing you to everyone. There are smiles and warm welcomes and offerings of food from a table with plenty for all. You sit with them and eat and answer many questions from many inquiring young minds before the meal is over and the man returns to show you the rest of the home.

He leads you to a room filled with beds and points to one upon which your basket rests…your basket on your bed. You sit down on the edge of the bed and look up at him and smile. You think about how much you miss your mother and father…about your home and you can feel the tears in your eyes again…but just then, three young children burst into the room and come to a stop right in front of you and ask you if you want to go outside to play. You wipe the tears from your eyes as you nod “yes” and follow them as they turn to go. You stop and look back one more time at the man standing behind you…he smiles…you smile… and in your heart, you know you have come home.

Ochimi Edward, founder and director of Butiki Children’s Home Passed away in late May, from complications stemming from an auto accident some months prior. But not before he took the hands of over 60 children without parents and lead them to his long green home on the hill…not before he forever changed the lives of those children, fulfilling his dream of a life with a higher purpose.

Finish What You Started!

A few days ago my wife and I were in a local sports related store here in Kalispell and were in the process of finishing up a purchase when the topic of what we do for work came up.

I grimaced as I usually do…and I know that sounds strange because I am proud to be a part of this work! But…I grimaced and I always grimace because I know that there are two very typical reactions when I tell people that we care for orphans.

One is the instant “oh look at the time” – “sorry I asked” – “oh that’s neat” – get me out of here before they ask me for money response…

The other is genuine surprise and interest that usually ends in tears and sobbing for the orphan children of the world. Both of these reactions create discomfort for all involved even though they both speak to the reality of our world and the people in it.

Apathy and genuine compassion are the two equally powerful and equally opposite responses that reflect the opponents and proponents of this desperately needed work.

But this time was different. This gentleman was surprised that such an organization existed in this small town…and was genuinely interested, but not overly emotional…a different animal so-to-speak. And that made me interested to know where the difference in attitude stemmed from. As we talked I began to sense that he had some experience with this kind of work and some skepticism as well…and then I found out why.

He had been sponsoring a child (one on one) through a very LARGE organization that has been around for a long time. He had been sponsoring this child for eight years…corresponding with him, praying for him…thinking about him quite often over the years, not to mention sending $30 per month for 96 months!

Suddenly, out of the blue, he received a letter from the organization telling him that he needed to choose a new child to sponsor because they were pulling out of the country where this child lived. He was justifiably exasperated and wanted to know why. He wrote to find out and a few days later received back a boiler plate response telling him that it was for reasons beyond their control and reiterated the need for him to choose a new child to sponsor.

So…after 8 years…dozens of letters, hundreds of prayers and nearly three thousand dollars…this child whom he and his wife had adopted into their hearts would no longer be a part of their lives…no more letters, no way of knowing what happened to him…nothing except for the knowledge that no more assistance would be given to this child…he was being abandoned and it was out of their control.

I felt deeply for him, knowing and understanding how that must feel, because it is the very reason why our organization does NOT do one to one sponsorships…and the very reason why we don’t sponsor children in their own homes where we have no idea how the money is spent. Our organization deals with children who have nobody caring for them…and we put them into our homes in a family style atmosphere and provide and care for them until they have successfully integrated into their own society.

When you correspond with the children in our care, you correspond to all of the children in the home…you see all of their profiles, know all there is to know about all of them…their dreams, their desires…their trials and their successes. And we NEVER abandon them…

You will watch them grow from young children into young adults…and then watch them go on to college (the last 19 out of 19 children graduating from our homes in three different countries) or enter the work force with skills that break the cycle that made them orphans in the first place. It’s the outcome that counts much more than the output…especially when the outcome is the difference between success and failure for them…perhaps even life and death…and when we are talking about children…each precious and unique, I believe it is our ultimate responsibility to only start what we can finish and always finish what we have started.

Truth and Compassion

 FACT: The mission of Lifeline of Hope is to the orphan children of the world and to the donors that support them as well as those in their community that choose to provide for them.

For more than ten years, Orphan’s Lifeline International has been caring for orphan children in cultures of poverty in developing and third world countries across the globe.

I think that in the beginning all we knew was that we wanted to help the children, and that seemed relatively simple as a thought. Raise money, find people in the countries that wanted to take care of the children and supply them with the funds, services and goods to do just that…simple…right?

WRONG!

I have threatened for many years to have a bumper sticker made that simply states: “nothing is easy.” And when it comes to the work that we do for the orphan children of the world that statement holds true more than ever.

UNDERSTANDING A CULTURE OF POVERTY

Have you ever looked at your television set and wondered at the technology behind what you see? And have you ever thought to yourself how anyone could possibly be so smart as to have developed such an amazing technology that can take beams of electronic information and translate them into images and sound that we can see and hear? I know I have…and I have made the mistake of thinking of the technology as a single invention coming from one mind or even a team of minds.

The truth is that the technology in a television is the culmination of thousands of minds over many decades. One mistake after another has led to one triumph after another for each and every component of the television that makes it the technological marvel that it really is.

It is much the same in understanding a culture of poverty from two different sides…the first being the culture itself and the second being our perception of it from the other side of the fence…outside that culture looking in with our limited knowledge and preconceived notions.

First of all, to understand it, like the television, we have to break it down into its components…what is it made of?

It is made up of people, history, government and country specific culture and religion.

First of all the people: People that live in a culture of poverty, very often come from generations of people that have lived within such a culture and as such, grow to adulthood knowing exactly what that culture has taught them. They have learned to survive by whatever means is necessary, whether it be hard work, stealing, lying and cheating or a combination of some or all of the aforementioned. And when it comes to staying alive, there is no limit to what a person might do and justify as being necessary.

History: History is a big player in these cultures. The interactions that they have had with people within their society and outside their society as it relates to their culture of poverty play a big role in the “skills” they have developed trying to survive on a daily basis. In many of these countries, the “outside” influence has had the most significant impact, due to the fact that their own country has not been capable or in some cases willing to help them. This has not only made them dependent on the outside help, but also greatly influences their methods of asking for and obtaining that help. Let me give you an example. In India, outside “help” has been the single greatest source of aid in their cultures of poverty and while those helping I am sure have always meant well, they have taught the Indian people living in these cultures some very bad habits.

Much of this has come from the ideals behind the way we give being “lost in translation.” One example of this is when Christians in the past have told preachers that we have trained that they are willing to fund the Church based on new baptized individuals at $10 per month for example. The well meaning “donors” simply did this as a way of funding the planted congregations based upon their growth, but the preachers simply saw this as being a price tag on the conversions. SO….they learned that in order for their congregation to get the money it needed and for they as individuals (still poor) to get what they needed to care for their families, that they just needed to inflate their “baptism” reports to reflect more conversions…thus more money. They then learned to recruit more preachers, start more congregations and taught them they same methods, but required the new preachers to give them a “cut” of the monthly money.

This has bled over into the orphanages and some aspects are directly related since many orphanages are started by local Church congregations and in some cases the preacher of that congregation is also the director of the orphanage. The direct bleed over comes in the form of the director believing that the more orphans he reports, the more money he will receive.

The other half of the problem is that history has also taught them that Americans and other westerners are not nearly as willing to help them personally as they are willing to help them in their charitable or Christian and Evangelical activities. In fact they have learned to be afraid to ask for more money for salaries. So, instead, when under pressure from family members or inflation or emergencies that we all have, they have learned that it is easier to lie about the number of baptisms or the number of orphans in order to get the money they feel they need to survive and take care of their families.

Then, they tell others…not only how to get money from potential western donors, but also how to fool them when someone comes to visit. The methods that they have learned are pretty sophisticated too. They recruit and pay parents to borrow their children for inspections. They recruit and pay other “orphanages” to borrow their children for times of inspection. They purchase items for the purpose of making it appear that “x” number of children are living there, etc., etc.

But…we have to be careful, as Americans, and citizens from developed nations, not to attach the same meaning to their actions as we would people from our own culture. In other words, we have to be careful, not to expect these people to live up to our standards of ethics…at least not initially, because it is a learning process and one that is up to us to teach them.

Churchill once said, upon returning from a visit to India, that the people in that country hold honesty in such high regard that nobody ever uses it.

While speaking in jest, he was closer to the truth than he might have imagined and even our loyal translator has told us that there is “no such thing as a completely honest Indian”…only varying levels of dishonesty. Of course this too is his perspective and not entirely accurate as of course there are honest people in that country, like anywhere else in the world…but it is a country of great poverty and social and religious inequity, all of which breed desperation and therein, dishonesty.

It is our job to recognize two things…that their levels of dishonesty are directly proportionate to their level of desperation and that it is still not acceptable.

WORKING IN A CULTURE OF POVERTY:

So what do we do? Should we hold to our high moral and ethical principles and simply not do “business” with them and in such simply ignore the plight of the orphans in countries such as this. Or do we teach them that helping people is an honorable profession that comes with personal reward AND that honesty, real honesty also comes with personal reward and THAT reward is directly proportionate to that honesty.

It is a fine balance between truth and compassion that we must walk if we are to be successful working in these countries…whether it is to teach them about Jesus or to care for their orphans. We must learn new ways to show them that there is no price tag on the value of a soul, and that there is no price tag on the value of a child’s life. We can only do this by “starting from scratch” in the way that we deal with them on a day to day basis through our charitable activities in their countries.

We have to show them that we are compassionate, but that we demand honesty; complete honesty in order to work with them and that makes it very hard.

When it comes to the orphanages, Orphan’s Lifeline International has spent ten years developing “trade secrets” in our inspection process. These trade secrets have been hard learned and are very closely guarded for a very good reason. If leaked, they would backfire on us because they would simply teach the orphanage directors how to deceive us in more sophisticated manners. Because of this, we don’t tell them how we know or really what we know other than simple facts like: “You claim to have 24 orphans in your children’s home, but our investigation has shown that you only have nine orphans currently under your care.”

This way they know what lie they were caught in, but not how they were caught and we simply refuse to tell them how when they ask…and they always ask or even try to make several different statements with several different possibilities of how we may have discovered the perceived truth they are trying to justify. This is a “fishing” activity that they are also very good at. Not only can they potentially learn how not to get caught next time, but they can then come up with “reasons” why we are wrong.

The balance though…compassion and truth…demanding honesty, but not abandoning the children that are there or the desperate people that need to be taught compassion, forgiveness, AND honesty, all the while making sure donor funds are being spent as intended…on the orphan children…that is the tough part.

We don’t pretend to have all of the answers here at Orphan’s Lifeline…but when it comes to this we all feel we have some excellent policies in place that DO have that balance…

We don’t just cut people off…and in doing so, fail to give them forgiveness, send them off to scam someone else and abandon any children they ARE caring for. At the same time, we do not allow them to get away with the dishonesty and we cannot put our donor’s money at risk either. That is why we are so strict with our assessment and investigation procedures. It is also why we have “probation” policies from the beginning of funding an orphanage, as well as for when there are “infractions” against our program policies. Those infractions might be false reports regarding the number of children, false initial applications, not following our programs regarding the quality of food and / or education, etc….the list goes on.

Really, all we ask is that the orphanage director be honest with us from the very beginning and our policies are designed to promote that honesty without putting a price tag on the children…and along the way we teach them honesty and forgiveness as well. We want them to be telling other current directors or potential directors that honesty pays…instead of how to rip off the American Christians…and we are becoming successful in doing just that. The word is getting around…and fewer and fewer “scammers” are even applying with our organization. And as for those who try to skim by buying cheap starchy food, or over report the number of children in their care…they are taught that we will catch them and they will be held accountable…AND that they will only receive the money according to the REAL honest budget they must submit each and every month.

It is our job here at OLI, not only to be sure that YOUR money is spent as it was intended, but that it is doing the most amount of good possible. At the same time it is our job to teach the desperate people living in communities of poverty all over the world, that they don’t have to cheat, lie or steal to be taken care of…and that in fact, JUST the opposite is true. They can be honest, help their own people and be comfortable and secure in their own homes with their own family all at the same time.

We will continue to work to constantly improve our programs including this element to be flexible and efficient in each and every country we work in…for the sake of our donors…the children…and the people that care for them.

Its Personal!

It’s been ten years now…ten years since Orphan’s Lifeline’s co-founder Dave Board swept the dusty floors of his RV Barn and decided where the desks would go. Ten years since that first letter and phone call went out asking friends in the Church to support the brand new organization and mission for the orphan children of the world…ten years since the first very small but infinitely important amount of money was sent…and the first little life was changed forever. We still remember when news came that ten dollars worth of antibiotics had saved a child’s life…when we bought a pair of shoes for a few children whose toes were bent and gnarled from wearing shoes that were far too small…back then it was very personal…

Much has changed over the last decade…those few orphan children we were helping have grown into thousands of orphan children…and one country has turned into nine countries. Since we started some “generations” of orphans have graduated and new much younger children have taken their place in the homes…our programs have continued to grow in scale and in scope… the stories of children’s lives being saved and changed come to us every single day…and  while we no longer operate from an RV Barn…it remains very personal…

 I can picture the first Schwinn bicycle being made…I bet it was very personal. The design was one person’s vision of what a bicycle should be…the metal of the first prototype was formed, shaped and put together very carefully…very personally, with each and every component handcrafted to fit and perform effectively and efficiently…and that first bicycle was a work of art…and the builder intimately and personally knew everything there was to know about that bicycle.

But then, as the company grew, over time, engineering blueprints were made, machinery was created and put in place to automate the system until a time came in which just the finishing touches were put on by hand and they were inspected and sent out…and it was no longer personal. But here at Orphan’s Lifeline…it is much different…because our “product”…our unit of measure, is a living breathing, unique and precious child. Just because there are thousands and they share needs in common, each has their own story, their own personality, their own special needs, their very own dreams, goals…and worries.

Take the children of one of our homes in Uganda for instance…who recently wrote us a collective letter because they have a worry. They wonder how old they can be and still live there…and wonder what they will do when they do finally leave…and that becomes a need and a worry that we must address…at a personal level. Each one of them have individual talents…individual dreams and goals and it is our job to help them realize those dreams and achieve those goals.

For some it will be college…for some, learning a vocational trade, and for others turning a talent into a life skill in which they can sell the services or goods that they create or provide for themselves and their families in a self-sustaining environment.

For orphans, wondering where they will go when their time at the children’s home is “over” is a real, not imagined fear. Many of them have no family…so where will they go at Christmas time? Who will they turn to when the trials of life we all face rise up as obstacles in their path? Where is home?

 It is our job to make sure that they know and understand that as they move on in life, they are always welcome to return to the children’s home for holidays…that they can always turn to Orphan Lifeline’s foreign entities for help when there are trials in their life…for those caregivers, the children still in the home and the building itself, for many of these children will always be the only home they have ever had…the only family they have ever had…and so it is personal.

It doesn’t stop there though…the relationships that have developed span the very globe. The children in these homes have and are developing relationships with Orphan’s Lifeline and its partners many thousands of mile away. Take this young boy from an Orphan Lifeline’s  Home in Kenya…who was so excited about a Sports Day that he participated in that he had to write and tell us about it. His tone and excitement are more than just a boy writing an “essay”…it is a boy writing to his extended family, thousands of miles away. He wrote:

“It was on Thursday afternoon, when our gamesmaster reminded us that on Friday sports were going to be at Kamagambo primary school. I took my books and ran home as fast as a deer, leaving behind dust floating in the air. When I reached the orphanage I assisted the cooks to prepare the meal. After ten to twelve minutes, the meal was ready. One of the cooks told me to ring the bell and all of the children came by running with their plates. They were served. After a word of prayer, they tasted the meal and it was as delicious as honey. When we finished everybody was allowed to get out and go to the room to sleep. I and my friend Bonoface went to sleep in our cottage.

That night I didn’t sleep because I was dreaming how the game is going be on Friday. I tried very hard to sleep but I was finding myself awake. In the next day, I woke up very early in the morning, washed my face and didn’t even bother to bathe but I went to school straight away….”

Edwin goes on to tell us that his school was victorious…and that a goat was slaughtered for a feast in their honor…but when you read between the lines, you learn so much more…and not just about Edwin, but about this work in general. It’s the fact that he is a real little person, not a statistic, not a single digit in the number 163,000,000 orphans out there…but just a child, and individual who looks upon Orphan’s Lifeline and its partners as people he can trust, not just with his life…but with his story, his dreams, his memories…

When you are a partner…you are his family, and like the children he shares his residence with, you are important to him. He wants you to know how excited he was on his sports day because you have earned his trust through your love and support. He doesn’t know who you are…but he knows that you care.

 Another young child, twleve year old Christine from an Orphan’s Lifeline home in Kenya writes to tell you: …Thank you for your support of food towards our Home. It has made me stronger than I was and a good looking girl.” If you have a daughter, I have no doubt that you are smiling right now…and if you don’t, then you can smile anyway because if you are involved in this work… to this child, you are family… their extended family that cares enough to share what you have with them…because they are important…because they matter to us and to God…and…because it’s personal.