The mission of the Rafiki Foundation is to help Africans know God by caring for and educating orphans, providing materials and training in education and Bible study, and giving economic opportunities to widows.
To accomplish this mission, Rafiki has established ten Rafiki Training Villages that operate the Foundation’s four programs.
The Rafiki Training Villages perform two main functions. First, they provide living, medical, and educational facilities for orphans and vulnerable children in ten of Africa’s most impoverished nations. Second, they train African churches and governments to care for and educate their orphans and support their widows. The Rafiki Training Villages are operated by Rafiki Overseas Staff who are long term missionaries. They are assisted by national workers and short term missionaries. Together this team accomplishes the dual purpose of the Rafiki Training Villages—to help orphans and widows and train others to do the same. This is achieved through the Foundation’s four programs: Childcare, Education, Training, and Widows.
The Childcare Program provides a loving home to about 180 orphans in the Rafiki Training Villages. Each Village has schools, dining facilities, an infirmary, a playing field, agricultural land, twelve cottages, and four residence halls. Ten children live in a cottage with a trained national 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.
The Education Program seeks to cultivate minds and hearts that love God, their neighbor, and all that is true, good, and beautiful. Each Rafiki Village includes an accredited school for Pre-Kindergarten through twelfth grade for the children who live at the Village and for a limited number of children from the surrounding communities. All are instructed with the Rafiki School Curriculum—a quality, academic curriculum integrated with a biblical worldview and knowledge-centered methodologies. The Rafiki Bible Study, a comprehensive study of the Bible, is an integral part of the curriculum. Written for the people of Africa and the Rafiki Overseas Staff that serve them, the Rafiki Bible Study is a thirteen year survey of the Bible with levels ranging from preschool to adult.
The Training Program exposes African national headmasters to the various aspects of Rafiki’s academic education model at the pre-primary, primary, and secondary levels. During the five day course, headmasters learn how to implement pedagogies employed by Rafiki and how to develop lesson plans that incorporate a biblical worldview. Additionally, they receive training ideas for the development of their own faculty and how to implement the model within their own schools. Upon completion of the training, the headmasters receive copies of the Rafiki School Curriculum and the Rafiki Bible Study to use within their institutions.
The Widows Program gives African widows and impoverished women of the church a means of employment and artistic expression through the making of handcrafts. Because of their circumstances, many of these widows find the task of providing for themselves and their children a daunting challenge. To support the widows in their efforts to care for their families, Rafiki has collaborated with African Partner Denomination churches to provide the women with economic opportunities. The African churches provide leadership, spiritual discipleship (through the use of the Rafiki Bible Study) and a location for the widows to fashion products such as baskets, jewelry, handbags, and wall hangings. Rafiki purchases the handcrafts, ships them, and sells them through the Rafiki Exchange in Eustis, Florida.