ACRES OF LOVE

We firmly believe that each life has unlimited potential, and we are committed to supporting each of our children into adulthood. When a child enters our care, he or she undergoes an extensive medical overview to establish a long-term medical care program and Individual Development Plan (IDP). Our goal is to give each child everything needed to truly thrive. A team of social workers, medical professionals, teachers, occupational therapists, speech therapists, and physical therapists join house parents to create an IDP that addresses the individual and particular needs of each child to allow them to reach their full potential.

In order to meet our goals, in a "Forever Home" model of care, we are dedicated to providing:
-Long-term, residential care in a normalized family home with full-time “house parents"
-Comprehensive health care, including HIV/AIDS testing, on-going antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS-positive infants and children
-Direct and individualized personal care; including love, nurturing, support, spiritual guidance, culturally appropriate activities, mentoring, recreational activities, nutritional meals and clothing
-Education, including uniforms, school supplies, educational games, mentoring and tutoring,participation in extra-curricular and other educational activities
-Recreation, including outings, culturally appropriate activities, sports and volunteer supervised community activities
-Case planning, including coordination and transition to foster care in partnership with South Africa's Department of Social Development
-Adoption and other permanency planning activities in partnership with the Department of Social Development and approved adoption agencies
-Age-appropriate early childhood development activities, including games, hygiene, team cooperation and normal age-appropriate activities
-Education and training to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in the community at-large and among families of children in care
-All other activities necessary to provide a stable, nurturing, structured and normalized home environment that provides guidance, support, love, exceptional care and hope

We are a global movement of compassionate individuals, private and public foundation, churches, and corporations who have embraced an entreprenurial approach to solving the orphan crisis in South Africa. Moving away from institutional model of orphan care, we work to enable and empower children to thrive, not just survive.

Our staff functions within Unique Ability Teams, and in these roles we are able to work toward the common goal of offering each child everything needed to thrive. We have a dedicated team in Johannesburg that oversees the operational side of providing a family to each child in our care. This includes advocating for children's rights at local and government levels, the maintenance of our 31 Forever Family homes, supporting our full-time House Parents and in-home assistants, supervising the medical and prescription needs of our children, and building relationships within the local school, church, medical, and business communities to meet the needs of our children with the highest level of care. Each Forever Family Home has a house parent or parents who have completed a strenuous and lengthy training process. Viewing this role as their calling in life, these men and women are raising our children as their own. Children often come into our Forever Homes with immediate medical or emotional needs that must be addressed. Our House Parents are involved in the slow and steady work of helping children heal from horrific past trauma, the loss of parents, terrible abuse, and medical conditions that have gone untreated for far too long. Each home has full-time House Parent Assistants as well, in order to offer another layer of support to our children and their House Parents.

Within each Forever Family Home, our school-aged children are placed in academic environments that will empower them to reach their full potential. Based on unique needs, members from one Forever Family might attend up to six different schools. Many of our children have medical and special needs that require ongoing clinic, hospital, specialist, or private practice appointments throughout the larger region. We also encourage and support extra-curricular sports, hobbies, and activities for our children to pursue their dreams and interests. Tackling the scheduling and transport for children in over 30 Forever Family Homes requires an entire transport team. Using large family vans, our transport staff works hard to provide for the logistical challenges to smoothly get our children from home to school, choir or rugby practice, clinic appointments, and home again. Our transport drivers have become like uncles to our children and are often found helping out around the homes as well! They provide one more layer of extended family relationships and consistency for our children. Social workers, therapists, homework tutors, and dedicated volunteers work together to advocate for and offer our children an extended support system emotionally, academically.

We are working to strategically rescue more children abandoned and orphaned in South Africa. We would like to open more Forever Homes in order to serve more children with the dignity, love, and hope they deserve.