From Orphans to Productive Adults
52 Million Orphans
The AIDS epidemic in combination with wars, disease, and starvation in Africa have left millions of children without parents. In fact, UNICEF estimates that there are more than 52 million orphans in Africa. Some of these orphaned children are able to live with grandparents or other family members, but many are not so fortunate.
The International Children’s Fund (ICF) was created more than 40 years ago with the singular goal of helping desperately poor children. Our objective has always been to help these children survive by providing them food and shelter, and then prosper by giving them access to education and training to lift them out of poverty. One of our most important humanitarian programs is supporting the construction and operation of orphanages. Currently, ICF supports 8 orphanages in Africa and India.
We provide a safe, happy, healthy environment for orphans to live and to gain the education and skills to become productive adults.
Our first orphanage was constructed in Uganda in 1984. With the support of ICF, Pastor George Kasharu constructed God’s Grace Children’s Home in Jinja, Uganda. For the last 40 years, Pastor George, and more recently with the help of his son Pastor Peterson, has been changing lives for the better in Eastern Uganda. In addition to the original orphanage, they have constructed and oversee a trade school, a church, and a widow’s support facility. They have been tireless in their commitment to provide shelter, food, education, and medical care for vulnerable groups.
Their orphanage has housed, fed, clothed, and educated nearly 6,000 children—children who may not have survived and certainly would not have prospered without the care, love, and support they received from God’s Grace Children’s Home.
- Distributed nearly 150,000 mosquito nets to children and pregnant women across Eastern Uganda.
- Provided nearly 1,500 widows and single mothers with vocational education in tailoring and other trades.
- Rehabilitated or constructed countless homes for vulnerable families.
- Delivered education and training to countless children for brighter futures.
- Supplied extensive food distribution, deworming, and other programs to vulnerable groups.
With your support, the Kasharus and their dedicated staff have helped tens of thousands of desperately poor children and their families. Even with their tireless efforts, they simply cannot keep up with the needs of the communities they serve. Please help us to help them do even more to feed, educate, house, and train vulnerable groups so they can break the chains of poverty.
See children fed, educated, and empowered.
Become a Hope Ambassador
Paul states in 2 Corinthians 5:20 that “we are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us…”
It can be easy to skim past this verse, but the historical context of an “ambassador” brings a wealth of meaning. Such ambassadors or delegates, whether Jewish or Greco-Roman, came with the authority of the sender, in his place, to secure his interests. The reality is, God is making his appeal through us, and wants to secure His very own interests.