Caring and Providing for Orphans
 
Each of Joshua's nineteen communities suffer debilitating poverty. Poor roads, polluted water, minimal health and education facilities are exacerbated by the early death of adults through AIDS.
 
Joshua is running an ever-expanding programme of education, health, feeding, water and income-generation projects to address orphans' needs. These programmes are tightly managed by an energetic team, who ensure that revenue is applied directly to address these projects. We involve both local people and international volunteers on working holidays, gap years and sabbaticals, or with corporate groups. ince Joshua became established, other communities have 'linked in' to our organization, and have set up their own feeding stations or Community Based Child-care Centres (CBCCs) in their villages. Joshua aims to encourage rural communities to take part in development activities which will improve the lives of vulnerable groups, especially orphans. One of the central ways that Joshua initiates this is through its support of these centers. Some meet daily, others meet three times a week, but overall they each help between forty and sixty children.
 
Woman carrying sand for building projects
Joshua is now operating at 20 CBCC's, four that have been built in the past year, some of which are located in remote rural communities.
 
In total Joshua is helping close to 1200 children by ensuring that they have at least one nutritious meal each day. In some areas, Primary School children are also fed. Depending on the success of our fundraising, we are hoping to expand to new locations in the future.
 
Schools
Joshua also supports three Primary Schools and the Secondary school within the district.
 
After we had started our pre-school programme, we became very aware of the problems of the older children and started to sponsor them at Secondary School. This programme has now extended and we now have about 300 children whom we finance. Fees range depending on the type of School. With books and extra funding we calculate that each child needs about £5-£15 per term.
 
Children from Joshua Primary School
The trustees then wanted to establish our own Secondary School and this is really taking shape. Each year another form is added and we aim to complete four forms to create a whole School.
 
Secondary education is costly and sadly we have to be selective. Our overall policy is to enable as many students as possible to receive Secondary Education and in cases of real need we allow some children to go free or at a reduced fee. These non-paying students are identified by their primary school Head teachers or by the local village Chief or Headman.
 
Community Projects
In addition to the education programmes, there is a youth group, and also we are trying to establish classes in Literacy and Numeracy for adults.We have also applied to a local government organization for help with setting up a Skills Training Centre for some of the youngsters in the area, and we are hoping for help with HIV/AIDS Teaching and Awareness Courses for local people. Family Planning is also on the Agenda.