America World is passionate about caring for orphans around the world. Through current and former partnerships with countries and orphanages, we desire to fill in the gaps between the care orphaned children are receiving and the care that they still need. America World has maintained a high degree of integrity through its adoption work in countries and with foreign governments. This has allowed us unique opportunities. One of the many goals of America World is to make a change for teen girls in Ethiopia. With such a high percentage of these girls, who are aging out of the government-run orphanage in Addis Ababa, turning to life-threatening situations America World was able to secure a home for these girls.  Through the support of mission trip participants and their families, this home was purchased and qualified staff hired to not only provide a safe place for these girls to live but also provide healthy nutrition, educating them, teaching them a variety of ways to support themselves and spiritual formation to arm them with resources and tools to enable them to become self-supportive adults in their society. This home is limited to 8-10 girls at one time, and the “program” to empower them to become self-sustaining takes an average of 18 months.  America World has already seen great success in this “program” and has the opportunity to affect the lives of more teen girls, but also wants to accomplish the same for teen boys from the orphanage who are in need of this type of support. Another goal of America World, as it relates to orphan care, is to provide additional support and assistance to orphans in China—another highly effective program in this long-standing America World adoption country.  The China Center for Children’s Welfare & Adoption (CCCWA) has provided America World the opportunity to allow potential adoptive families to visit specific orphanages where orphans with medical needs are in need of adoptive families.  These families have been able to not only meet these children but have also been able to advocate for them upon returning home in the U.S. It is America World’s goal to further develop opportunities like this with the CCCWA and families across the country by raising funds to be designated to provide financial grants for these children to be adopted.  Through these grants, families can better overcome the financial burden of adoption.

In 2019, America World worked directly with one of its mission teams to raise funding for a new home called Beta Hosanna. This team went on an America World mission trip to Ethiopia and saw the pressing need for several girls who would soon age out of the orphanage. Together, America World and the team raised sufficient funding to secure the home and qualified staffing to move these new girls into the new Beta Hosanna home. In large part, this will become a model for additional homes in Ethiopia for those orphans (girls and boys) who will age out in the future. The response, in donations, for this first home was overwhelming and we believe there are more who would love to help make the goal of additional homes a reality. As a group of teens is empowered over 18 months of residence to make a living on their own, a new group of teens will replace them in these homes. Prior residents of the home will step into mentorship roles as they complete the program. As for the China goal, we have found that adoptive parents are generally very passionate about their child’s birth country and want to support orphans there. As with the Ethiopia Beta Hosanna home, we have also seen a great response from China adoptive families and mission trip participants to China in looking for opportunities to care for orphans. Through careful marketing and branding, America World is poised to make broad calls to action to adoptive families, mission trip participants, churches and likeminded businesses to raise the funds needed for these two vitally important goals.

America World has a network of nearly 5,000 adoptive families and mission team members. Since their beginning in 1997, their families have been incredibly supportive of the mission at the organization through word-of-mouth, at churches, on social media, and through their giving during important orphan care initiatives.

America World can easily determine success and progress by tracking and observing numbers of children served internationally and children united with forever families through the adoption process. Services are constantly being expanded due to service teams and the development of new adoption programs. Success for America World is directly tied to the number of children we can serve through education, healthcare and the provision of basic needs such as clothing, shelter, and food. As the number and impact increase the progress of our organization increases.

America World has already established a house in Addis Abba, Ethiopia and is seeing great success and progress in the teen girls who are residing at Beta Hosanna under the guidance and supervision of our staff. This “model” home has proven to be effective in reaching the goals of providing a safe and healthy environment where these teens can learn a trade, learn to cook and grow spiritually to prepare them for the next stage in their lives. Based on the success of this first home, America World is ready to step out and increase the vision to provide more homes for teen girls and boys in Ethiopia.