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Messages - orphandefender

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1
Archived Proposals / Re: Restarting BLOOM Sponsorships - Uganda
« on: June 04, 2019, 07:35:47 PM »
Do we have any response elsewhere from the community?

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Archived Proposals / Re: Restarting BLOOM Sponsorships - Uganda
« on: May 17, 2019, 05:37:52 PM »
Thanks for the feedback. Since those 4 are covered until July (I think I must have misunderstood something in regards to them being covered until then), and there are still ample charity funds available for June, could we add about 5 kids kids to be covered in June, and then pick the most needy 2-4 in July depending on budget for an ongoing monthly sponsorship?

We still need urgently need sponsors for Sharon, Sylvia, Edrine and then 2 others who lost their most recent sponsor. They are Paul and Sarah.

As of now, we don't have any non-boarding sponsorships as we reunified all of our Sierra Leone orphans with foster or extended families. I could see if there are some kids in need in Haiti, our most recent country program we have added.

I believe all these kids in Uganda need boarding, but I'll double check with Sarah in case there are other kids who don't need boarding. If they don't, their sponsorship is $55/month.

Please let me know your thoughts tonight if you can, as I'm heading out of the country in the morning for 2 weeks and won't be able to submit a proposal.

Thanks!
April

3
Archived Proposals / Restarting BLOOM Sponsorships - Uganda
« on: May 16, 2019, 01:20:06 PM »
Hello all,

As our partners in Uganda have begged us to restart the BBP kids' sponsorships, I'm stepping out in faith and praying we can still cover them. I'm requesting 2.19m BBP to start covering 10 of them again in June. It's approximately $88/month per child once we help the team in Uganda cover the bank wire fees and conversion rate deductions.

As a reminder about our program:
Side by Side Christian boarding school rescues children from child slavery, potential witchcraft child sacrifice and abusive situations and places them in a Christian boarding school where 100% of their needs are met, from school fees and uniforms to food and medical care. This is truly a life-saving program guys! Sarah, our partner there, approached Rob out of desperation for a few of the kids to get picked back up, but I would like to keep all of them in the program if possible, which is why I'm requesting for all 10  kids. Each life matters equally.

If you think it's not sustainable, we could drop it down to 6 or 7 kids, and I can resubmit the proposal, but I worry about the 3-4 that we can't cover if this is the case. They will have nowhere to go in most cases.

Thanks for your consideration and for all you do to support orphans.

God Bless you all,
April Wareham
Executive Director
Be Love Orphan Outreach Missions (BLOOM)

4
Archived Proposals / Re: Side By Side Women of Uganda
« on: April 23, 2019, 12:22:16 PM »
Hi all,

Due to some scale backs at BLOOM as well as the lack of funds available with BBP, I had told Sarah we were dropping the BBP kids, but if there is room to sponsor them still in Uganda through BBP, I can facilitate this again if you'd like. I doubt Sarah will ever be able to liquidate the BBP, so it would be easiest for her if it still comes through BLOOM in the monthly wire we already send. I appreciate you sending this current round of funding, however.

Would you like me to submit another proposal for this month, or wait until next month?

April
Executive Director
BLOOM

5
Archived Proposals / BLOOM Christmas Giving for Sierra Leone Orphans
« on: November 18, 2018, 10:02:08 AM »
Hello BBP Community,

Each year BLOOM strives to raise funds for Christmas gifts for the orphans we support in Sierra Leone. We would like to invite the BBP community to contribute to these Christmas gifts this year. I will be sending the wire for Christmas gifts to Sierra Leone on December 3rd, so I'd like to start the fundraising now so there's time for them to purchase gifts.

We support 51 kids, and Christmas gifts cost approximately $20 (this includes the wire transfer fees, fuel and truck rental for them to go into town about 2 hours away and shop for the children).

The children receive a new outfit, a toy and a new pair of shoes! This is HUGE for these children, who have only 1-2 changes of clothes total, 1-2 toys total, and only receive about 2 pairs of shoes per year, one pair which is for their school uniform. 

I'm proposing $1020 (3,044,776 BBP) so the Bible Pay community may be the hands and feet of Jesus, and help provide some joy to these children this Christmas.

Thank you so much,

April
Executive Director
BLOOM


6
Hi all- Instead of doing a 3 month proposal, I'm now going to a monthly expenses proposal for BLOOM in hopes it will be easier to fund in the Charity budget.

Bible Pay currently sponsors 10 kids in Uganda at Side by Side Christian School, which includes rescuing the children from abusive homes, potential child sacrifice situations, and putting them in a Christian boarding school that provides safety, food, uniforms, education, school supplies, medical care and other basic needs. The cost is $88/child, totaling $880 per month.

Bible Pay also currently sponsors 3 children in Sierra Leone at Christ Children's Care for food costs at $36/child, totaling $108/month. These children are in the process of being reintegrated into their extended families thanks to your sponsorship, and support of the sustainable farming project.

Total requested this month for continuing sponsorships is $988 (2,949,253 BBP)

Thank you so much for your continued support!

April
Executive Director
BLOOM

7
Archived Proposals / Re: Closing the gap for BLOOM recurring expenses 2
« on: October 22, 2018, 08:25:56 AM »
Hi there- I'm not sure what you mean by "contraproductivity." It's not our policy to list donors on the website, unless they specifically request this, but as I mentioned, we do share on social media and in our newsletters about our donors, when they request it. The BBP community is welcome to comment here to request this. Perhaps you were confused about my comment on volunteering to do PR. What I meant by this is, apart from BLOOM, I have personally volunteered with our PR team to research reporters and help write pitches for them to help get BBP some media attention. It is a work in progress, but my time doing this for now, is at no cost to BBP's PR budget.

As for proof of our BBP expenditures on charity, I do not think that PR proves that. Rather, my impact reports can clarify this for anyone concerned. We are due for another impact report soon, as we do them quarterly for donors (or as soon as we get updates from our teams abroad).

https://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=222.0
https://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=221.0
https://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=218.0

Thank you for your thoughts.
April

8
Archived Proposals / Re: Closing the gap for BLOOM recurring expenses 2
« on: October 21, 2018, 07:13:48 PM »
Sorry, can you clarify your question please? We typically do not name donors on our website, unless specifically requested. We have mentioned Bible Pay on our social media and newsletter along with other donors in the past.

Also, can you clarify what you mean by "Very weird practices" so we can address your concern?

Thank you,
April

9
Archived Proposals / Closing the gap for BLOOM recurring expenses 2
« on: October 20, 2018, 09:45:02 AM »
Hi all,

Two months ago I requested 2,097,239 BBP (to total $3192) to cover Aug-Oct sponsorship expenses for 14 kids in Uganda and Sierra Leone (food, private education, rescue missions for kids in abusive foster homes, and medical expenses). However, with the price drop we first received only the equivalent of $1221, so we were left with a gap of $1971.

I did a closing the gap funding request last month, which gave us $1265 more, leaving us with a gap of $706.

I'd like to humbly request part of the remaining budget this month at 1.27 million BBP to finally close this gap. I will start requesting monthly starting in November in order to make it easier on the budget. 

We will not add any more children to the sponsorship to ensure the current children are able to continue receiving their food and education expenses covered. Please remember the children in Uganda were rescued from abusive homes, including those who practice voodoo and witchcraft. I really don't want to have to pull them out of the Christian boarding school due to lack of funds.

I'd also like to point out I've been volunteering my time on PR (as I see the budget is over full) totaling over 6 hours in the past 2 months in hopes that we can leave as much charity budget available as possible, as well as hopefully increase BBP's viability.

Thank you so much for your prayerful consideration.

April
ED- BLOOM

10
Archived Proposals / Re: Closing the gap for BLOOM recurring expenses
« on: September 27, 2018, 05:04:41 PM »
Hi guys- It's a little more complicated than just "cutting expenses" because we can't just choose to cut the kids' food supply off or pull them out of boarding school and put them in the streets, you know what I mean? It's not as simple as a business move to do layoffs of some sort. And, unfortunately, we don't have additional funding to cover kids if they lose sponsors. Lessoned learned for the future- we need a sponsorship sustainability plan for the kids when funding is low.

Because of these risks, I'm looking into ways we can work together where it won't negatively affect the kids if there is a bearish market in the future. I also hope that our Sierra Leone kids will be weaned off sponsorships and supported by the sustainable farm by end of December. So, that will cut expenses.

11
Archived Proposals / Closing the gap for BLOOM recurring expenses
« on: September 14, 2018, 10:36:44 AM »
Hi all,

Last month I requested 2,097,239 BBP (to total $3192) to cover Aug-Oct sponsorship expenses for 14 kids in Uganda and Sierra Leone (food, private education, rescue missions for kids in abusive foster homes, and medical expenses). However, with the price drop, my wallet shows as of today, we only received the equivalent of $1221, so we were left with a gap of $1971.

I'd like to humbly request part of the remaining budget this month at 1.9 million BBP to help us start to close this gap (about $1000). Next month I will pray for the remaining part of the gap to be closed.

As a reminder, here was the breakdown of the request last month for 3 months of BLOOM kids' sponsorships:

1,734,559 BBP ($2640) to cover 10 children in emergency status who were rescued for 3 months in Rakai, Uganda
283,837 BBP ($432) to feed 4 children at the Sierra Leone orphanage for 3 months
78,843 ($120) to cover the 4 Sierra Leone kids' school uniforms/fees/supplies
Total Request: 2,097,239 BBP

SUMMARY: Requesting $1.9m BBP to start closing the funding gap from last month. Attached is a screenshot of what we have as of now.

To help prevent this gap in the future, instead of requesting 3 months at a time, we will request 1 month at a time, and we will not add any more children to the sponsorship to ensure the current children are able to continue receiving their food and education expenses covered. I'm especially worried about our Uganda kids, because if we cannot continue to sponsor them, they may have to go back to the abusive places where they came from if we cannot find another sponsor for them.

Thank you so much for your prayerful consideration.

April
ED- BLOOM

12
Archived Proposals / Recurring Expenses - BLOOM Sponsorships
« on: August 04, 2018, 09:45:42 AM »
Hello all,

Thank you for all your support thus far! We have been sending 10 kids to school (with uniforms, tuition, shelter, food) in Uganda and feeding 4 in Sierra Leone with our second round of funding for 3 months of sponsorship. We'd like to continue sending these kids to school and providing their food/shelter for the next 3 months (Aug-Oct). This is a follow up proposal to my first one where these children were funded.

Here are links to their photos/thank you notes which is updated whenever we get messages and updates from Uganda and Sierra Leone.

https://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=222.0
https://forum.biblepay.org/index.php?topic=221.0

These are the kids that I'm requesting 3 more months of sponsorship for:

Rania- Uganda - 5 yrs old
Hakim- Uganda- 9 yrs old
Favor- Uganda- 8 yrs old
Praise- Uganda - 7 yrs old
Isaac- Uganda- 4 yrs old
Laira- Uganda - 10 yrs old
Musigale- Uganda - 10 yrs old
Sharon- Uganda - 10 yrs old
Sylvia- Uganda- 12 yrs old
Edrine- Uganda - 13 yrs old
Aminata D- Sierra Leone
Foday K- Sierra Leone
Mohammed- Sierra Leone
Mabinty- Sierra Leone

Here's a reminder as to the programs these children are part of:

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 would like to request 1,734,559 BBP ($2640) to cover those 10 children for 3 more months of 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 283,837 BBP ($432) to feed 4 children 3 meals daily for 3 months in Sierra Leone.

I'm also requesting if BBP can sponsor their 4 Sierra Leone kids for their annual school fees which have increased, supplies and uniforms/shoes at $40/each. The kids start school in September. Their current sponsorship doesn't cover school fee increases and uniforms/shoes, only food. This total is 78,843 BBP / $120.

You can read more about our sponsorship programs here
http://www.bloomworldwide.org/orphanchild-sponsorship/

In sum, I'm requesting:
1,734,559 BBP ($2640) to cover 10 children in emergency status for 3 months in Rakai, Uganda
283,837 BBP ($432) to feed 4 children at the Sierra Leone orphanage for 3 months
78,843 ($120) to cover the 4 Sierra Leone kids' school uniforms/fees/supplies
Total Request: 2,097,239 BBP

13
Archived Proposals / BLOOM Sierra Leone Sponsorships Impact Report
« on: July 30, 2018, 04:58:05 PM »
Hi again everyone, I also have exciting news from Sierra Leone! We just got photos, letters AND report cards from last term for the 4 kids sponsored by Bible Pay!

Mabinty Kamara:





Aminata D Kamara:




Foday Kamara:




Mohammed Fonah:




As a reminder, children in Sierra Leone receive 3 meals per day with this sponsorship, but we have separate fundraisers for their school fees/uniforms/shoes/supplies and their Christmas gifts. We are currently raising money for their school fees that are due September 1st. These children are all in the process of being transferred to foster or extended families right now, as the orphanage is being forced to close it's doors and be transformed into a community center (which will also serve these kids in other ways).

Quick fact: Sierra Leone has one of the lowest life expectancies in the world, with 49 years old for males and 51 years old for females.

Thank you for the life-changing impact your sponsorship has on these children's lives.

Sincerely,
April
Executive Director, BLOOM

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Archived Proposals / BLOOM Uganda Sponsorships Impact Report
« on: July 30, 2018, 04:27:16 PM »
EXCITING NEWS FROM UGANDA! BiblePay currently sponsors 10 orphans in Uganda through BLOOM who go to school at Side By Side Christian Ministries. I just got letters and photos from almost all of them (still trying to get one more letter), addressed to BiblePay, thanking you for your sponsorship! Here they are:

Rania- 5 yrs old



Hakim- 9 years old



Favor- 8 yrs old



Praise- 7 yrs old



Isaac- 4 yrs old



Laira-10 yrs old



Musigale- 10 yrs old



Sharon- 10 yrs old



Sylvia- 12 yrs old



Edrine- 13 yrs old


As a reminder, Side by Side Christian Ministries in Rakai, Uganda, rescues a child out of an abusive foster or biological home and places them in a Christian boarding school until a suitable family placement can be found. Children are provided education at one of the best schools in Uganda and are given everything they need each month including: food, housing, school fees, uniforms, necessities, etc.

A few statistics:
Every 20 minutes a child is orphaned in Uganda.
Rakai District has continued to experience high HIV rates at 12%, compared to the national average of 7.3%.

Thank you all for this life-changing support to these children.

April
Executive Director, BLOOM

15
Is the farm a community project? This helps to lift the entire group (children included, but not exclusively?). I question whether the focus of helping poor children (in the charities supported thus far) may be diluted by supporting this specific project. I realize poor children need the help of adults to grow physically, emotionally, and spiritually... I just wonder if the focus of helping poor children is diluted by support this project as well. Thoughts?

Hi there- Thanks for your input. This is a great question and I hope I can shed some light on deeper issues that surround orphan care. I hope I am understanding your concern correctly with my response, but if not, please let me know. A couple of things in my experience with international orphan care: It would be unfair to separate the poor kids from the orphans in the community, especially as orphans already face a stigma. We want to keep them integrated, not segregated, thus the school serves many in the community, the poor children and the orphaned. Also, there are many reasons in a community why children become orphans (not all "orphans" have no living parents, but many are not able to be cared for by parents, and they are just as much in need: Reasons for kids becoming orphans: kids are taken away through the court system due to abuse or neglect; their parent(s) pass away; the family abandons the child simply due to poverty. These are all problems that must be solved at a community level to prevent kids from becoming orphans in the first place. Otherwise, we will always face the "orphan crisis" and it will never resolve itself.

That said, a large number of the children at the Dove school in Uganda are orphans, and the project idea is to help develop the entire community so that orphans can be reintegrated into families. When it comes to orphan care, the entire community must be mobilized to care for their own, otherwise, there is no long term solution to help these children (we cannot do it all for them). Sponsorship is great, and necessary, as a short-term solution. Family-based care and community development as a long-term solution are needed to prevent families from giving up their children, losing their children due to abuse, neglect or poverty, or to prevent the death of family members leaving behind orphaned children. Putting on bandaids are needed, but this approach long-term will never break the cycle of children becoming orphans. They must eventually be integrated into families when possible, whether foster families or extended biological families, or we must try to keep families together.  The farm will be run by the community, teach the orphans valuable farming skills so they can employ themselves this way as one option in the future, and will even teach community members how to better produce food and lift themselves out of poverty. Much of the reason for kids in Uganda being orphaned is poverty of their parents. The parents either pass away from disease or malnutrition due to poverty.

There is much research that has allowed the international community to conclude that institutionalized care long-term is very harmful to children's development (assuming you can put kids into SAFE family-based care), and that community empowerment is a necessary step to long-term solutions. I'm happy to point you to some websites that show this for further research if you would like.  Thanks for your inquiry so we can provide some education on this topic. It was a very good question!

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