How to Help Orphans

Lifeline of Hope invites businesses, church groups, organizations, and individuals to donate gifts in kind to help orphans.

They accept new items such as:

• children’s clothing and winter items
• personal hygiene products
• vegetable seeds and gardening tools
• woodworking hand tools
• sewing supplies
• vitamins and OTC medicines (like acetaminophen, cold pills, topical ointments)
• medical supplies (like band-aids, gauze, tape, scissors)
• bedding (like quilts, sheets, blankets, pillows)
• diapers

You can send your donated items to:

Gifts in Kind
Lifeline of Hope
135 Kelly Road
Kalispell, MT 59901

All donations are tax deductible as allowed by law. (Please provide Lifeline of Hope with a statement declaring the value of your donation.)

Family Life’s Hope for Orphans has resources to help your church establish an orphans ministry. They have a goal to help 1000 churches do this by the year 2010. Here are some orphan ministry ideas that your church may want to get involved in:

• pray for orphans waiting to be adopted
• start an adoption assistance fund
• provide financial support and humanitarian aid to an orphanage
• have fund raisers to support Christian orphan organizations
• make and send items to orphans
• hold an orphan gift fair
• have a baby shower to collect items for orphans
• recruit adoptive families
• hold adoption workshops
• get involved in the foster care system and mentoring
• support pregnancy care centers
• take members on mission trips to orphanages
• sponsor an orphan and raise money for orphans in the children’s church

Orphan’s Promise helps the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of orphans. They are a ministry of the Christian organization Operation Blessing and they provide:

• orphan and adoption advocacy
• academic opportunities
• life training skills
• career placement
• mentoring
• health programs
• food and vitamins
• clothing
• after-school programs

Have a baby shower to help orphans - at your church or in your home. Ask the guests to bring gifts like:

• clothing (infant- teen)
• bedding (crib - twin)
• diapers, wipes, and rash cream
• baby toiletries
• toys
• soap, shampoo, and dental care items
• Pedialyte
• walkers, and swings.

Then, send the donated gifts to Buckner Orphan Care International

Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid
5405 Shoe Drive
Mesquite, TX 75149

Vision Trust Child Sponsorship
Orphans in Brazil, Central African Republic, Dominican Republic, India, Peru, Southeast Asia, and Thailand

Compassion International
You can choose to sponsor an orphaned child.

World Vision
When sponsoring a Hope Child you are helping a child that has been orphaned due to AIDS.

Bethany Christian Services
Orphans in Albania, China, Guatemala, Korea, Romania, and Ukraine

Hopegivers International
Orphans in Africa and India

Philip Hayden China Orphan Outreach
Orphans in China

Children of Promise
Orphans in Cambodia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, India, Malawi, Mexico, Moldova, Romania, and Rwanda.

Help Sponsor an Orphanage
Help sponsor a church orphan home in Africa, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, or Thailand. Monthly sponsorship options start at $25.

Promote adoption in the church.

• have special guest speakers talk about adoption
  
• show a movie to raise interest in adoption
• have a sermon about the need for Christians to adopt
  
• host an adoption workshop
  
• start an adoption fund for Christian families called to adopt
• have a fund raising event to help with a couple’s adoption expenses

Encourage your Christian friends and family to listen to certain radio shows during the Cry of the Orphan week.

In November, the Cry of the Orphan campaign informs listeners about the orphan crisis and the need for Christian adoption. Christian radio hosts devote a week of broadcasts to orphan stories and information. The three participating shows are:

• Family Life Today with Dennis Rainey
• Focus on the Family with Dr. James Dobson
• Money Matters with Howard Dayton

If you can’t hear these shows on your local Christian radio station, then you can listen to them online at Oneplace.com

Shaohannah’s Hope can provide information and materials to teach your church about God’s call to care for orphans and to celebrate adoption.

You can help Vision Trust International care for orphans. Ask others to help you fill a baby bottle with pocket change and then send the money to Vision Trust.

Pray for orphans, waiting children, those who are caring for orphans, and families who want to adopt. Your group may also want to sponsor and write to an orphan.

Shaohannah’s Hope is where you can donate money to help Christian couples with the expense of adoption. Adoption grants are given to help reduce the financial barriers so that more children can be adopted.

You can buy items for orphans from online catalogs. Children may enjoy looking through the sites and picking out things to give.

World Vision
Care for orphans affected by AIDS, share of a home for orphans, send an orphan to school, and the widows and orphans fund.

Samaritan’s Purse Catalog
Give an orphan a month’s worth of care, rescue a child from bondage and abuse, and care for orphans with HIV/AIDS.

God’s Kids
Nutrition, shelter, medical help, education, agriculture, physical needs, and leadership

Global Aid Network Gift Catalog
Food, clothing, medical, shelter, literature, special needs, emergency relief, and long term development. (A ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.)

You can use your knitting or crocheting skills to help orphans.

Lifeline of Hope is a Christian organization that currently supports over 17,000 orphans through financial donations and donated gifts. You can knit warm items like blankets, hats or mittens and send them to:

Gifts in Kind
Lifeline of Hope
135 Kelly Road
Kalispell, MT, 59901

If you don’t know how to knit, you can get a Knifty Knitter circular loom from a craft store or Wal-mart, and easily knit hats.

Buckner Orphan Care
Opportunities: Deliver shoes, construction, VBS, share Christ with a child, humanitarian aid, and medical aid. Countries: China, Kenya, Guatemala, Latvia, Peru, Romania, and Russia. Trips last 8-10 days. A Baptist Ministry.

Global Aid Network Missions
Opportunities: Outreach to orphans and needy children. Give compassionate aid and share Christ. Trips last 10 days to 2 weeks. A Ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ.

Vision Trust Mission Trips
Opportunities: Labor on orphanage or school, VBS, discipleship training, neighborhood evangelism, dental and medical care, sports clinics and camps. Countries: Brazil, Thailand, and Dominican Republic. Trips last about 1 ½ weeks.

Warm Blankets
Opportunities: Assist at an Orphan Baptism Retreat at the South China Sea, fellowship with the children. Country: Cambodia. Trips last about 1 ½ weeks.

Visiting Orphans
Opportunities: Childcare, camp counselors, building construction, and Bible school. Countries: China, El Salvador, Russia, and Ethiopia. Trips last: 8-15 days

Children’s HopeChest
Your family can volunteer to help at a Christian summer camp for orphans. Opportunities: Lead devotions & prayer, tell your testimony, participating in U.S. culture night, performing in the talent show, sports and camp games, help organize events, arts and crafts. Country: Russia. Trip lasts: 2-8 weeks

Philip Hayden Foundation Children’s Villages
Opportunities: Help at the children’s village (homes for orphans). Country: China (near Beijing) Trips last: 7-14 days. Additional: Visit the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and the Temple of Heaven. The Children’s Villages earn money to care for the orphans by hosting visitors.

You can donate your old car to help orphans. The Christian organization, God’s Kids, works with Car Program LLC. They will pick-up your vehicle donation at no cost to you. They handle the title transfer requirements and provide you with a tax deductible donation receipt. You can call them at 1-800-237-5714 and make sure to tell them you want the donation to go to God’s Kids.

You can volunteer to raise money and send it to a charity that helps orphans.

Here are some ways to raise money:

• pop can drive
• penny drive
• garage sale
• bake sale
• make and sell Christmas ornaments
• make and sell Holiday baskets
• sell Christmas trees
• collect and recycle scrap metal
• talent show
• art contest and sale
• car washing
• dog washing
• door-to-door window washing
• mow lawns
• read-a-thon or walk-a-thon
• babysit
• birthday donations
• community auction

Through Warm Blankets Orphan Care you can help sponsor a church orphan home in Africa, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, or Thailand. Your church can pay a portion of the orphan home’s monthly expenses, or it can sponsor the entire orphanage.

Global Aid Network, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, reaches thousands of orphans and other needy children through their Care Packs project. The Care Packs are personally delivered by outreach missionary teams, who also share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the children and their adult caregivers.

You can help by putting together a Care Pack. Items to include are:

• 2 pencils
• 2 ballpoint pens
• 1 package 8-12 colored pencils
• 1 box of crayons (16-24 pack)
• 1 notebook or tablet (6″x7″ minimum)
• 1 ruler (with metric)
• 1 eraser (not pencil top kind)
• 1 small pencil sharpener
• 1 package of colorful stickers
• 1 toothbrush (in original package)
• 1 comb
• 1 letter and photo of you
• 1-2 gallon size “zipper bag”
• $5 per Care Pack to help deliver overseas

To each Care Pack, Global Aid Network will add: a gospel bead bracelet with a printed explanation, a translated copy of a children’s Bible storybook and a book like Josh McDowell’s More Than a Carpenter with the gospel of John.

You can show your appreciation and support to foster parents by volunteering to help them out. Here are some ideas:

• offer to baby sit for free
• make a meal
• clean the house
• give free diapers and other supplies
• tutor the children
• be a mentor
• ask the family what needs they have and offer to help

World Vision Party Planner
Invite your friends and family to a party. Use the materials provided by World Vision like - sponsorship video, brochures, picture folders, invitations, and party planning instructions. When you sponsor a Hope Child, you are helping a child who has been orphaned due to AIDS.

Host a Global Dinner
Invite people you know to a special dinner. Serve foods typical of a certain country. Share information about child sponsorship with the guests and encourage them to sponsor a child, too. World Vision will provide you with materials like – sponsorship video, picture folders, recipes, and information about countries.

Sponsorship Display Volunteer
Place displays filled with child sponsorship brochures in the community like: church, your work place, doctor office, and businesses.

Send World Vision eCards
You can help promote World Vision by sending out their eCards to your family and friends.

Join Team World Vision
Participate in a sport to help children who have been orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS. Choose your sport, create your own fund-raising web page and promote it, and then complete the sport activity.

Become a Child Ambassador
Apply to become a Child Ambassador for World Vision. You’ll get all the materials that you will need to promote child sponsorship by involving your church, community, and neighborhood

Create Your Own World Vision Web Page
Through World Vision you can create a web page to tell others about the importance of Child Sponsorship. They have ideas on how to promote your web page to your family, friends, and co-workers.

Participate in the 30 Hour Famine
Join together with others to plan a 30 Hour Fast. Ask businesses and individuals to donate money to World Vision. During the fast, your group can get an idea of what hunger is like, volunteer as a group, or do a community service project.

Encourage your friends or church members to donate new pairs of shoes to be given to orphans. Then send the shoes to Shoes for Orphans Souls.

This Baptist organization has distributed more than 1.5 million pairs of new shoes to orphans in 55 countries and at-risk youth in the United States. There are still millions of children to be reached – all through a pair of shoes.

Set up a table displaying items that orphan organizations are requesting. People can browse through and pay for an item to be sent to an orphan.

Here are some things that you can display on the table:

• clothing, bedding, diapers, and toiletries for Buckner Orphan Care
• hand knitted blankets and hats for Lifeline of Hope
• pairs of new shoes for Shoes for Orphan Souls
• care packs for Global Aid Network
• have laptops displaying the online gift catalog for God’s Kids

The Christian Association of Youth Mentoring can provide training, materials, and support for your church. Or, you can encourage your church members to volunteer for an at- risk youth mentoring organization in your community.

Lifeline of Hope is requesting quilts for orphan children. They help orphans in Russia, India, Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, and Philippines. You can sew or buy a quilt and send it to:

Gifts in Kind
Lifeline of Hope
135 Kelly Road
Kalispell, MT 59901

Bethany Christian Services is a Christian adoption and family services agency. There are 75 offices through out the United States. Volunteer opportunities include:

• help at fund raisers
• clerical work
• get baby items donated
• mentor a foster child
• transport children to appointments

Your local Pregnancy Care Center or Crisis Pregnancy Center may have volunteer opportunities like:

• receptionist and clerical work
• share about services with the clients
• clothing room attendant
• board member
• fund raiser
• abstinence workshop leader
• post abortion stress facilitator
• parent program facilitator
• literature distributor
• computer consulting and help
• church ambassador (get your church involved)
• building maintenance
• lawn mowing and snow removal
• janitorial service
• help with newsletter
• help with baby and maternity clothes
• prayer support team

The Global Aid Network Warehouse in Lancaster, PA welcomes volunteers to come sort, pack, and help ship donated items to orphans. They have special work projects planned during the year. You can register at their website to receive information about upcoming volunteer opportunities.

Your Local Adoption Agency may need help with the following:

• clerical work
• computer and website work
• drive birth parents to appointments
• community outreach and information distributor
• volunteer to help at fund raising events
• counseling

Tell others about HowToHelpOrphans.com and other orphan care sites. You can e-mail or tell your friends, family, and people at church how easy it is to help orphans.