BLOOM (Be Love Orphan Outreach Missions) is a 501c3 Christian charity which works to serve orphans and vulnerable children in 3 ways:
1. Sponsorship for food/education/clothing and other emergent needs in Uganda and Sierra Leone (We currently have 29 children in Christ Children's Care Orphanage in Sierra Leone who need sponsors; 10 who are in emergency status in our Side by Side Ministries Program in Uganda)
2. Sustainable farming projects and teacher training programs in these countries in order to help wean orphans off sponsorship and get their orphanages to be self sufficient. The goal is also to engage the local communities to care for their own by creating jobs, therefore locals can generate income, and as a byproduct, we get extended family reunification and thus less orphans.
3. Orphan hosting programs in Poland and Ukraine where orphans come to live with American families for 4-5 weeks twice a year on an "exchange" where they receive the love of a Christian family while learning English, getting medical checkups, and possibly even finding an adoptive family.
Now that you know a little about BLOOM, let's focus on this proposal, which will be for sponsorship support in Sierra Leone and Uganda.
A. Our Side by Side Ministries Program rescues children from abusive situations in the Rakai, Uganda area where they are at risk of being beaten, raped, and neglected by unofficial "foster" families and other negligent guardians. Our team rescues the child, then transfers them to a Christian boarding school while looking for extended family reunification opportunities or a Christian foster family. The cost to sponsor a child for boarding school is $88 per month and it includes all their private school fees, room and board, uniforms, food, medical care, hair cuts, etc.
I have applied for a separate grant to cover 10 children in emergency status for 3 months, so I would like to request 880,000 BBP ($2640) to cover those 10 children for 3 more months of this year to start, and then that will give us time to grow BBP to cover the next 3 months and so on, at which time I'll submit another proposal (or I will find another sponsor later this year).
B. Our Sierra Leone Sponsorship program provides 3 healthy meals per day for the children, including while they are at school, every day each month for $36/mo. These children attend a school at the orphanage, so there are no extra boarding/schooling costs for them. These are children orphaned from poverty and the remnants of the Ebola outbreak that happened there a few years ago.
I am requesting 108,000 BBP ($324) to feed 3 children 3 meals daily for 3 months. Each month that BBP does well or each time a superblock is reached, I'd like to add 3 more children from this orphanage to this list.
You can read more about our sponsorship programs here
http://www.bloomworldwide.org/orphanchild-sponsorship/and see photos/bios of the children who need sponsorship here.
http://www.bloomworldwide.org/sponsor-a-child/I am happy to coordinate with you all and/or my volunteers at BLOOM to get the information needed to integrate these photos/bios to the BBP site.
Also of note is that we can often have children's grades or a letter from them sent to us at BBP as the "sponsors", depending on what's available at that particular school. And I, personally, along with my Director of Sponsorships, make sure all our letters are delivered to the kids electronically when they have internet access available (which is not often because, well, it's rural Africa, but it is possible on occasion!).
In sum, I'm requesting:
880,000 BBP ($2640) to cover 10 children in emergency status for 3 months in Rakai, Uganda (ideally to continue in 3 month increments for same 10 kids)
108,000 BBP ($324) to feed 3 children at the Sierra Leone orphanage for 3 months (ideally to continue in 3 month increments for same 3 kids, and possibly add more kids each time a superblock is reached)
Total Request: 988,000 BBP
Please let me know if you have further questions or need any clarification.