Children Future Program & Orphanage Home

They say a quiet table is a compliment to the chef. Well, I guess the same holds for a quiet blog—with apologies, we’ve just been a little busy around here, and I hope you forgive the silence.

Orphanages in Liberia tend to have creative names, many phrased in a sort of direct appeal, like Help the Children or Love a Child, or Child Survival. The newest addition to our roster, though, takes a different line. Children Future Program is about an hour northeast of Monrovia in a little town called Kakata. Eighty kids are running out the clock on an eviction notice already extended as far as it can be. They have to move out of their old home by December 6^th, and they’re frantically building a new dorm on a donated acre down the road. When we first met them, they were three and a half weeks away, out of money, and nowhere close to being done.

I’ve said before that most of this job is reading people. Going with your gut. Usually I prefer to build relationships slowly over time but, in this case, everyone on the assessment team could agree that the director, a quiet pastor, was sound, and the situation desperate. To me, the best gauge of a director is the disposition of the kids: the attitude they have toward their caretakers is the best indicator of the care they receive. And these kids are happy, well-behaved, and bold. After a couple of calls to verify the pastor’s story and after checking his paperwork, the consensus came quickly: we need to get involved.

We’re two weeks away tomorrow, and I’m happy to report that I believe these kids are going to have a home on December 7^th. Check out Cramer’s video "Liberia Today, Episode 2" for all the latest – and thanks to you, the chefs, for making projects like Children Future possible.