Sponsorships the Key to Village of Hope's Long-Term Success

During the first week of February, Philip Chester, Program Director of ITCA's new ministry partner Careforce International, travelled to Burkina Faso with Gavin Hayes, the new "Champion" for CFI's Village of Hope program.

The purpose of the trip was to meet with local ministry partners to map out a 2-year plan for the initiatives supported by CFI, which provide much-needed care to children of rural Burkina Faso. Philip shares that a constant source of struggle and worry for the team at Village of Hope has been the increasing price of food. "Right now, while school sponsorship funds contribute significantly, we are still approximately $30,000 short each year. To combat this shortfall, we agreed the answer was for Careforce to send one container per year of high nutritional value dried food from Canada and to provide $20,000 per year to purchase basic commodities such as rice, maize, or pasta locally. If we can recruit an additional 50 sponsors for this program the food problem will be solved!"

An additional challenge being addressed this year is equipping the clinic in Village of Hope with medicines and other medical supplies. It costs an average of $300 per month to stock the clinic, with additional expenses in the fall when new children arrive and require standard blood tests and other procedures. Careforce has committed to raising $5,000 for each of the next two years to meet this need.

Philip, Gavin, and the Village of Hope team also put a plan in place to take care of ongoing repair, maintenance, and construction required to ensure the dormitory built 10 years ago remains liveable. Philip says that the building, which now houses approximately 100 children, has a slight design flaw that needs to be fixed. "Simply put, the roof needs to be higher to allow the heat to rise and escape. The problem with this is that we need the dormitory to be empty for this construction to take place. As we can't really do this during the heat of the summer or the wet of the rainy season, we want to send a team out to experience Christmas in Burkina Faso! According to one person who has spent several Christmases at the village, the children's Christmas celebrations are really something special."

Village of Hope's new 2-year plan will deal with short term issues, but an increased number of supporters making regular monthly contributions will help to provide a long-term solution to many of the village's challenges. Village of Hope's sponsors provide the children not only with a loving and caring environment but with a secure future as well.

To become a sponsor, or for more information on how to be a part of a team traveling to the Village of Hope, please contact Gavin Hayes at gavin@careforceinternational.ca.