Who We Are
Orphan Support Africa is a new organization with deep roots. It's five founders have a combined history of over one hundred and fifty years of commitment to sub-Saharan Africa and have already established community based orphan care programs in Malawi and Tanzania which have become recognized as best practice models.
The lessons that have accompanied this experience are many, but can be boiled down to a simple unifying principal: Orphan Support Africa is in the business of saying goodbye. Each time Orphan Support Africa commits to help a community, it does so with the firm understanding that our role is nurture, not to direct. We present community leaders the opportunity for three years of support and resources that will allow them to develop to the point of self-sufficiency. At the end of that period it is mutually understood that communities will have evolved the leadership skills and commitment that will allow them to continue on their own.
In keeping with this goal, communities themselves set their own priorities and allocate resources to innovations they feel will best lead to the improvement of the lives of their children. As we have learned from our prior experience, local challenges require local solutions; what works in one community may not work in another. Likewise, not every solution selected will have equal success, thus risk taking must be made safe. The result is that each CBO is unique, working from its own set of ideas to meet its own GOALS. From this diversity will come the rich opportunity for grassroots leaders to share their ideas and their risks with other leaders striving to care for the vulnerable children of their communities.
Our combined experience gives us the humility to know that we do not have the answers. Africa is littered with the skeletons of projects that began with good intentions. Orphan Support Africa knows that the hope for Africa lies in its people and that our role is to assist communities to achieve their own solutions. With this accomplished, it is then time for us to proudly move on.
-Kevin Denny, founding member
Orphan Support Africa (OSA) is a 501(c) 3, nonprofit organization that works in partnership with community based organizations through poverty relief, sustainable development, education, and HIV/AIDS prevention initiatives to improve the care, protection and support of orphaned and vulnerable children in Sub- Saharan Africa. Our aim is to help promote and create self reliancy and ownership.
We believe in 100 percent local ownership and participation of the communities that we work with. OSA facilitates collaboration within and between communities that have been severely affected by HIV/AIDS and chronic poverty. OSA supports community based organizations in mobilizing and harnessing community strengths and resources in sync with local traditions and cultures; to take care of the growing numbers of orphaned and vulnerable children. The drastic and severe effect of HIV/AIDS has left communities overwhelmed with growing numbers of vulnerable children. OSA partners and supports community based orginizations that are on the front line in providing critical , safety net programs and care to children, families and communities most in need.
"Local, cost-effective, community driven and easily replicable initiatives that seeks holistic solutions for communities in addressing the problems and the impact of poverty and HIV/AIDS"
-The OSA Approach