A Complete Home in an Incomplete Town
A complete home in an incomplete town: being a centre for holistic care in a disrupted environment.
About You
About You
First Name
Henk
Last Name
Olwage
Twitter URL
https://twitter.com/#!/light4tchildren
Facebook URL
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Light for the Children Foundation
Organization Website
Organization Country
Namibia, OK, Gobabis
Country where this project is creating social impact
Namibia, OK
Is your organization a
Non‐profit / NGO / Citizen sector organization
Your role in Education
Resource Officer.
The type of school(s) your solution is affiliated with
Other
How long has your organization been operating?
More than 5 years
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Established (past the previous stages and has demonstrated success)
How long has your solution been in operation?
Operating for more than 5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
There is a need for complete, holistic child care in societies which are disrupted, seemingly aimless in their destitution, unco-ordinated in their being. Why should there be such specialzation and fragmentation between different organizations, when all can be under one roof? After independence of Namibia, people started to move all over the country. Sges old populations were torn from their roots. The laid back nature of people belies the fact that they are deeply uprooted. We have to look after the deepest needs of children in their family context.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
To create a home, where adults with gifts and abilities and compassion can be at the service of children and their families; to invite every beneficial contribution, locally and internationally and bind it into a comprehensive whole.
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
A child may cvome to our centre, from his shack where we had been doing repairs and helped his grandmother to cope with the HIV/Aids of her daughter, to our centre where he will receive a slice of bread and tea, have preschool, receive lunch, and be tended to his physical needs, like clothing, health and psycho social support. When in Primary School, he will come for lunch and afternoon study, and there wll always we members to council and help where needed. He will see his uncle working in our project garden, his cousin doing needlework and will have access to our computer center and carpentry. Step by step he will grow up, not in a children's home, but in a home, a genuine home from home. This model fits in best wit the African way of living and the extended famly.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
We compete with orphanages and formal schools, but only in a limited sense, because a real home has no competition!
Now that you have thought out your entry, help us pitch it.
Define your company, program, service, or product in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
A complete home in an incomplete town: where children may be made whole. Poverty and all its consequences can't beat our heartbeat.
Identify what is innovative about your solution in 1-2 short sentences [136 characters]
The comprehensive nature of our program and its organic nature, best described as an ecology of human biodiversity.
Social Impact
This Entry is about (Issues)
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
Many children progressing toward adulthood and showing their loyalty toward the foundation, while adults are also involved.
What is your projected impact over the next 1-3 years?
More and more children entering young life and adulthood as project participants and leaders.
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Establish a computer centre, which we have started to build
Task 2
Strengthening our afternoon program to include teacher's training
Task 3
Establish our own soccer team
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Building a carpentry workshop and include young adults in the training
Task 2
Involve the local chamber of business and agricultural sector
Task 3
Expand to another town
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world [125 words]
Our organization started in one of the seemingly most hopeless places in the world, a setlement of people uprooted from their cultures, workplaces and birthplaces, a diverse community where tribes couldn't speak each other's languages, an unemployment rate of 90% and HIV/Aids rate of 30%. INside this community, some friends did small things, which taught us the value of small, bit strong, in initiatives. Caring came naturally for our original members, but they fought a lonely battle - till we realized, we can do it together, with all resources put together, all in one program - it was "Light for the Chilren!". From that moment, all we did was to retain our original idea and expand on it.
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
Through the Church Alliance for Orphans, we link with Unicef, USAID and various national bodies. The Church forms partnerships on that level and we partner with organizations in the Netherlands, through a twinning agreement. Furthremore we partner with an enterprise in Germany.
What type of team (staff, volunteers, etc.) will ensure that you achieve the growth milestones identified in the Social Impact section? [75 words]
We lean heavily on community involvement, as we were founded by community members. Therefore we work with a team, rather than a staff, of 18 people locally; sometimes more, depending on what we do.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
We are a living experiment and would like to share with others in the same kind of venture. For example, how to make a self-sustaining home from home, where agriculture, spiritual life, care, teaching formal and informal, manufacturing, all this in an energy efficient way and contributing to the natural environment, are intertwined to form a whole, benefiting children.
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| 71136_56855189170_8237530_n.jpg | 13.9 KB |
 | 59 weeks ago Henk Olwage updated this Competition Entry. |
| 59 weeks ago Henk Olwage submitted this idea. |
