Foundation 4 Orphans
The beginning of the Foundation 4 Orphans (F4O) can be traced to our executive director Wayne Lavender’s first trip to Mozambique in 1998 on a Volunteer in Mission (VIM) trip. There he saw extreme poverty firsthand and for the first time in his life. He wanted to know why, despite having read about extreme poverty for years, he had to see it in person before being convicted to do something to make a difference.
The next year, four members of the church where he was serving at the time, The New Milford United Methodist Church in New Milford, Connecticut, traveled to Mozambique on another VIM trip. In 2002, Wayne led a team of 6 members from that church. It was during and after that trip that their church decided to raise enough funds to move an orphanage they had seen to a new, better location, in Cambine. There, the children would have access to running water, electricity, schools, and a health care clinic. The church raised a total of
$85,000 and the new orphanage was finished in 2005.
In 2022, after much discussion, prayer, and discernment, the board of directors at the F4O made the decision to pivot from the construction and funding operational costs of orphanages to an empowerment model. This decision was made for the following reasons:
1) Children raised and living in orphanages develop severe and long-term psychological issues. The United Nations determined in 2019 that orphanages such be phased out around the world in a timely manner.
2) Caring for orphaned and vulnerable youth in an orphanage environment is expensive.
3) Wayne knew of and was interested in the work of Zoe Empowers and its CEO, the Rev. Gaston Warner. Gaston met multiple times with Wayne and the board of directors. Early in 2022, the board voted unanimously to pivot to a partnership with Zoe Empowers. The
F4O – Zoe Empowers Model was accepted, and our first groups of orphaned and vulnerable youth were started.
The F4O – Zoe Empowers model is 40 times less expensive than an orphanage model. The new model costs $100 per year to empower an orphaned or vulnerable young person, for a 3-year period totaling $300. Then, with a 95 percent success rate, that person and their family are financially independent forever.
As of this writing, the F4O – Zoe Empowers Program has 3,500 orphaned and vulnerable youth in our program, with another 1,000 coming into the program in 2025. Given the right amount of funding, this partnership could lead to a total enrollment of 10,000 within the next 5 years.