The goal of the ChildCare Program is to rescue the children from physical death through medical care and nutrition, and to rescue them from spiritual darkness by teaching them to know God.
Africa is a land of contrasts—it is modern and primitive, fertile and barren, pristine and polluted—filled with vitality and plenty, yet riddled with disease and squalor. Africa is also a land of challenge. AIDS, war, and famine have left a multitude of orphans and vulnerable children. The majority of these children are malnourished, uneducated, and often left without even the most basic protection. These children are at the heart of the Rafiki Foundation’s work.
The Childcare Program provides a loving home for up to 180 orphans in each Rafiki Training Villages. The goal of the ChildCare Program is to rescue these children from physical death through medical care and nutrition, and to rescue them from spiritual darkness by teaching them to know God. Ten children live in a cottage with an African woman who becomes their mother. Each cottage lives as a family; they eat, play, work, and worship together. When the children reach the age of ten, they transition to a residence hall where they live with a married couple who become their mother and father.
Since the goal is to develop these children to be godly contributors to their countries, the Rafiki Foundation does not facilitate the adoption of these children out of Africa. Instead, the Foundation will raise and educate the children in their respective cultures in order to provide the leadership and skills needed by their country.
Rafiki Training Villages are the hub of Rafiki’s strategic plan. One Training Village has been built in ten of Africa’s most impoverished countries. Each Village is situated on approximately fifty acres that accommodates schools, dining facilities, twelve cottages, four residence halls, an infirmary, a playing field, and agricultural land.