A few weeks back I said that I would use my blog to profile families and people that I met during my trip to Ethiopia. I figured I should start out by profiling the group that I went with. Blessing the Children International (BCI) is based out of Michigan. Keith Strawn, BCI President and Founder, was led by God to care for improvised orphans and widows, so in 2001 BCI was born. This calling eventually led to the opening of the BCI Academy and the Adana Children Center in Debre Zeyit, Ethiopia in January 2008.
The BCI academy currently houses grades 1-6 but eventually it will go up to grade 12. BCI has a child sponsorship program that currently has 114 children enrolled in it, approx 80 of those children attend the BCI Academy and the other children attend local schools. It takes $90/mth to fully care for a child in the BCI program. ALL, literally 100%, of that money goes straight to Ethiopia. None of the child sponsorship money stays back in America. Here is how BCI breaks down how the money is sent:
1/3 – Direct child support (like food and clothing)
1/3 – Education (school tuition, books, uniforms, school supplies, etc.)
1/3 – Ethiopian Programs and Services (like children’s medical care, activity days, social workers, etc.)
Here is an article comparing BCI to other sponsorship programs: https://webmail.suntrust.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://blessingthechildren.org/Forms/BCI_Post_2010-07.pdf
A child can have 1, 2, or 3 sponsors. You are able to help sponsor a child for $30/mth, $60/mth or you may decide to be that child’s only sponsor for $90/mth. There are many children in the program that are still awaiting full sponsorship and there are many more children in the community that are waiting to become a “BCI kid” but need sponsors to get accepted. To sponsor a child go to: http://blessingthechildren.org/caring/sponsorship.html
The great thing about BCI (other than 100% of the money going to Ethiopia) is that you can truly have a relationship with your sponsor child. You are able to write them letters and send them packages. Also, the children write their sponsors once a month and the letters are mailed to the BCI Michigan office and then they mail them out to you.
BCI welcomes mission’s trips all year long. They have 10 scheduled trips per year that individuals and groups are able to sign up for or if you have a rather large group and you are not able to come during the 10 set dates, you are able to contact BCI and they will work with you to accommodate your travel dates. BCI was such a pleasure to work with, they were very accommodating and never got upset when I emailed them question after question after question. Their goal is to help you have the best experience that you can while serving God and the children of Ethiopia.
Once a month, BCI has an activity day at one of the partner churches. All of the BCI kids and families come and there is a worship service, games and crafts, and a feeding program. What was really awesome about the feeding program is that they hire some of the BCI moms to prepare and serve the meals so not only are the children and moms being fed, but the moms are being provided with an income!
BCI also has two foster homes; one houses 4 children and the other houses 9 children. The children accepted into the foster home are in dire situations with absolutely no family that is able to care for them. BCI doesn’t believe in the “institutionalized care” of children. They believe that children thrive better when they are in a loving home. A lot of the children in the BCI program are orphans but BCI has been able to secure loving homes for them but of course, there are children that literally have no one so that is what the two foster homes are there for.
Other than child sponsorship, there are so many ways that you can help BCI. You can mail money and specify where you want it to go, such as, school construction, food support for a particular family, shoes, etc. Or you can donate money and allow BCI to decide where to use it. There is so much that needs to be done. Please, don’t hesitate to ask me any questions about BCI or my trip.
I pray that through my trip and experiences, God touches many hearts of my friends and family and many of these children will get sponsored and checks will be sent for projects. I also pray that God will show others, like He has for me, ways that they can cut back on their spending to bless some of these precious children. I have, first-hand, seen the difference between wants and true needs. Needs are scary and devastating and heart-breaking and people with these true needs require assistance.
