Community centers to be built in Africa for orphaned children

Botswana - Buckner Orphan Care International is currently working in Kenya and Botswana to build community centers attached to the local churches to try to meet the needs of children living in homes without parents.

Africa is a continent where orphaned children are in desperate situations. Many children are not in any care, and the heads of the household are 12 or 13 year-olds. In the sub-Sahara region of Africa alone, there are approximately 13 million orphans. Mike Douras of Buckner Orphan Care International says that the goal of the project is "to try to meet the needs of the kids that are basically living in homes that don't have any parents. [We] may not be able to improve the situation they're in, but [we] can give them Jesus Christ and can walk with them in the midst of whatever they're going to face in life "

Vacation Bibles schools are very popular among children in Botswana, "the opportunities for the Gospel as well are just tremendous and the opportunity for mercy - to actually show the love of Christ is tremendous as well,"Douras says.

Currently The Buckner Orphan Care International is seeking funding for their projects. "We'll need capital money to build the building and we're in the process of evaluating of what those costs will be right now, and then to staff it. They'll be on going operational costs as well."

A team will be heading there in June to help them identify those needs.