Our Vision
The formation of Familia Upendo and Upendo Villages provide basic orphan care units where orphans are raised morally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually so they become independent and productive citizens, who live free, better lives as adults.
Our Mission
The love of Christ compels us to offer holistic care to these children in need, as we instill in them a sense of human dignity that is essential in their lives. Hence we house, feed, clothe, educate and train them. We encourage and ingrain in them self-confidence as well as self esteem engendering the dignity of the human person, giving them the ability to cope with the hardships of life. We do this without humiliation or discrimination against any orphans. Awareness that only love and self-confidence leads a child to self-determination.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ‘FAMILIA UPENDO’ UNIT
Orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) like all other children need to be loved within the context of a biological family for their physical and mental growth, when this family is broken or dysfunctional there are alternative models that must be instituted, this assists orphans in growing up naturally. The Familia Upendo a charity/love family is an alternative family, that emerged to mitigate the potential hazards to the well-being of a bereaved child. Orphans are like any other children, they need that awareness, not the stigma of orphanhood, for their holistic well-being.
Familia Upendo is a basic unit of orphan care in the TOUCO model. It is an alternative family unit to the biological family. Familia Upendo is the sum of orphans or vulnerable children living together under one roof in units of 6 to 12 orphans, brought in at the ages between 3 and 12, raised by a volunteer widow or mother affectionately known as “Mama Mkubwa” or simply “Mama”. This Mama helps these orphans attain maturity in socially and psychologically safe environments as they are being taught social and economic skills. Efforts are being made to assist these orphans in growing well being educated and trained so that they will leave this care system to lead independent productive adult lives.
THE TOUCO CARE MODEL
The TOUCO model of OVC care, though a novelty to some extent is not particularly unique in Africa, as exemplified by the traditional child-headed households. This model of care incorporates elements of traditional African child care within the extended family while integrating modern research findings in child psychology, as well as other successful global models from other cultures. Other models, of similar structure, have been applied in Ethiopia, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, and other Sub-Saharan countries. The TOUCO model imitates the African extended families’ common principles of child care, in which after the age of three the children were free to grow within any unit of the extended family. The freedom that the African child enjoyed in contradistinction to his or her counterpart in a nuclear family, gives the African orphan child a distinctive survival archetype in facing orphanhood, not easily found in Western or Eastern cultures. TOUCO takes advantage of these findings and builds a model to simulate them.
Formation of Familia Upendo
TOUCO helps OVC aged 3 to 12 years, who have lost single or both parents, TOUCO helps OVC aged 3 to 12 years old who have lost one or both parents, that live with their guardian or relatives overwhelmed by numbers, or who live with helpless elderly grandparents. TOUCO works with the guardians of the orphans, the pertinent community, village governments, and district social work departments to identify these children. Village OVC committees are stakeholders.