St. Joseph’s Family Foundation

St. Joseph’s Family Foundation

St. Joseph’s Family Foundation has its work and mission in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia. The center in Bahir Dar is called Grace Center for Children and Families. This is a place that I, Marcie Erickson, and three other missionaries from Australia started as a collective effort. It is a holistic approach to helping orphaned and underprivileged children in the area where we live. In a town where there is such a great need, we are able to offer help that doesn’t exist anywhere in even the surrounding areas. The following are various aspects of the project that are up and running now:

Day Care Center

We now have 15 children in Day Care, ages one month to three years. This is a wonderful blessing for the women who feel that they have no other choice but to abandon their child. This gives them another option.

Transitional Care Center

We have 15 children in the transitional care center. This is a place for orphaned and abandoned children to have a home. This is the way that children and especially infants are rescued from very horrific situations and given a second chance at life. Give care for them with the utmost love until they receive adopted families.

Temporary Care Center

This is something that is very new for Ethiopia. This aspect of Grace Center provides a place for children who are temporarily ill or families undergoing extreme difficulties. The children will stay for a period of time depending on their situations and then they return to their families, relatives, or foster families. This allows the child’s loved ones to help their child in the best way possible. At the moment we have one child in temporary care, a 12-year-old girl, but the numbers of children in these situations vary from day to day.

Sponsorship

We have more than 50 children in our sponsorship program. Almost all of these children are orphaned or come from single parent families. The sponsorship program allows children that are in Kindergarten and above to attend school, receive proper nourishment, and have clothing and stability. These children are supported to stay with their families and relatives. Sponsorship is $40/month.

Clinic

We have a clinic to help people who have no way of seeking medical care. There is a nurse from Australia that runs the clinic. The people are also able to receive medicine when they otherwise wouldn’t have the means. Although the clinic has just begun to operate, before having the clinic we still helped 10-15 people per week, most of them children. We have a pediatrician in the town that we bring all of the children to.