Care for a family! Dorcas Aid provides another kind of sponsorship program: Family Care. This program provides material support to families in Eastern Europe. After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, most of the countries' economies collapsed. The transition from socialist to market-based economies left many families marginalized and living in poverty. Such families are the beneficiaries of the family care program.
The program supports local churches so that these can help marginalized families in their communities on a regular basis. The support they provide consists of material support as well as counseling. Most of the programs also organize social activities for the families, or summer camps for the children. Part of the families can even be helped to find income of their own, so that they start to support themselves.
Sponsorship in a nutshell:
The local partner organization selects the families who will benefit from the program. The target group is the poorest families or the families in the most desperate circumstances.
A family will normally be in the sponsorship program for around 5 years. Some families may leave the program earlier, for example because of moving to another place or improved living circumstances. Some will need more years of support before they can leave the Family Care program.
When you start to sponsor a family, you will receive a nice sponsorship folder, with information (and a picture) of the family, the program and the local situation. Once a year you will receive a progress report from the family and a newsletter from the program; every two years a new picture.
It is possible to write to or even visit your sponsored family. Giving and praying for the family will bring about a change in their lives!
Dorcas cooperates with local churches / Christian organizations. They have the knowledge of the local culture and circumstances. They started the support with the limited means that they have, because they feel the love of God for these families in their desperate situation. Dorcas trains and equips these local Christians so that they will do an even better job, and will be able to support more and more needy families in their surroundings.
Dorcas currently supports over 2000 families in 4 countries: Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Albania.
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