An Open Door Currently works in
Uganda (Africa)
Rwanda (Africa)
Madras (India)
Wales (United Kingdom)
New England & Florida (USA)

UGANDA -AFRICA

Here, around 165 children are given the care and protection they need at our two homes. Most are former street children while our home in Bulange, Kampala, also takes in abandoned babies. We strive to meet the overall needs of a child from medical and educational help to accommodation, food and clothing. Their spiritual development is also very important to us as we look to share God’s love in everything we do.

Bulange, Kampala (The Capital of Uganda)

Learning how to brush their teeth or behave at mealtimes are among the everyday tasks many children need help with when they arrive at the home. Their first month is a settling in period in which they learn the skills needed to live with others. Many will have had little or no education. because of lack of school fees, so they are gradually re-introduced to learning.

Stealing, abusive language, lying and violence are among the “street behaviours” many children will have had to adopt just to survive. Through education, bible teaching and practical activities like gardening, helping out around the home and sport, the children are able to re-integrate back into communities. Our goal is to see them enrolled at mainstream primary or secondary school where they can continue their education.

All children who arrive at the home have a medical check-up but this is particularly important for the abandoned babies. Some are extremely weak, malnourished and neglected and often need a special diet or extra attention. An Open Door has a social worker who works to trace babies’ families. Sadly, this is not always possible when a baby has been abandoned and no information about their background can be found.

We strongly believe that the best place for every child is with his or her own loving family. Wherever possible, we will re-settle the child back with their family or extended family. For children with no family, we will search for new parents to foster and then adopt the child.

But it’s not the end of the story once a child has been re-settled. Our social worker makes follow-up visits and, in some cases, we will continue supporting a child with school fees and other needs where the family are unable to do so.

Malaba (Trading town on the Kenyan Border)

Our Malaba base is home to mainly teenagers along with a few younger children. Here, we work closely with two neighbouring schools and a local church to educate the children and equip them with useful skills. Activities like music, dance, drama and football have proved to be a great way of motivating and developing the children.

RWANDA - AFRICA

Pastor Theo is a man with a big vision and an unshakeable faith. Both are essential when you are striving to bring hope to a nation still recovering from a genocide in which 800,000 people were killed in the space of just 100 days.

Since 2001, the number of churches planted by Pastor Theo and his team has risen from five to 40, including 30 in Rwanda, where the 1994 genocide took place, and 10 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We have supported this work, known as the Evangelical Reforming Church of Rwanda (ERCR), for the last six years. Some of the churches are based in rented buildings, others are still under construction. All are working to provide both spiritual and practical support to their communities.

Meeting spiritual needs 

Ethnic tensions in Rwanda had existed long before they came to a head in the tragedy of Africa’s largest genocide in modern times. The vision or ERCR is to be a non-denominational church where anybody can come to worship God freely. Bible studies, Sunday schools, family services and other meetings are held in a multitude of languages as well as regional services welcoming people of all denominations.

Practical help

More than a decade may have passed since the genocide but many Rwandans still suffer from the trauma of what they witnessed. Counselling is available for these people as well as HIV and AIDS victims and their families. Each new church also uses its land for agricultural projects such as growing pineapples, vegetables and rice and breeding goats. This produce supplies soup kitchens run by the church and is also sold. Free reading and writing lessons and craft-making activities are among the other services provided. Much of ERCR’s funding is often needed to respond to emergencies such as famine. However, donations also go toward building new churches, buying land and supporting church workers.

MADRAS - INDIA

At 5.30pm every night, apart from Sundays, dozens of children gather on the rooftop of a house on the outskirts of Madras.

They will have already been at school all day but happily spend an extra hour-and-a-half at the education centre, learning to read and write. The centre is one of nine we run in the city and surrounding area, serving around 430 children. Aged between five and 13, many of the students live in basic thatched roofed houses in which they cook in one corner and sleep in their other and have and little or no furniture. Many of their mothers work as servants or on building projects, earning around £20 a month.

Learning to read and write

Although the children attend Government-run schools, many have little understanding of reading and writing. At the education centres, they learn the Tamil alphabet and basic words before progressing to reading passages and filling in questions and answers. They are also given the chance to hear Bible stories and find out about Christian values. Many children see an improvement in their work at regular school. Some former students have gone on to college or university while others now help teach others. Leading the project is Paul Gnarajan who, just days after arriving in the UK to volunteer with An Open Door, knew God had big plans for him back in India. He and his family opened the first education centre at their home and within a month had 50 students.

Other projects and the future

In 2004, just days after the Tsunami hit, Paul and a team of helpers travelled to two fishing villages where whole streets had been washed away, coconut trees uprooted and people had lost everything. Among the aid we were able to provide were vital prawn nets and fishing accessories as well as children’s school books. Our next major project is to open a tailoring school for women and a typewriting school where young people can learn skills essential for computing.

WALES, UNITED KINGDOM

An Open Door was founded on the vision of a schools ministry and this is an area that has remained at the heart of our work as we have grown. Today, our schools team is kept busy visiting almost 200 schools across the southern part of Wales from Newport to Llanelli. Using a lively combination of music, puppets, sketches, dance and games, bible stories like The Prodigal Son and The Good Samaritan are brought to life, with plenty of laughter thrown in.

The 35-minute presentation also features a talk about how An Open Door is helping children in Africa and India. At each presentation, the Bible is portrayed in a relevant and exciting way, and the gospel is always presented. Schools always look forward to having us, and many have adopted our presentations as their form of morning worship.

We are always on the lookout for volunteers for our schools team. Click here for more information.