ACTS MINISTRY

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Stories of transformation and empowerment...

Executive Director
Joanna ILBOUDO, tells about the beginning of ACTS. Read about ACTS formation...
Then, read Joanna's vision for the poor...

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Partner with ACTS to feed hungry children...

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ACTS holistic projects provide comprehensive care for orphans, street children and the forgotten village poor. ACTS program includes education for development, nutritious meals, immediate medical care, and life skills training to AIDS orphans, other children at risk. Currently ACTS has 785 orphans and village children participating in the program.

Sponsoring Orphans
You can transform a child's life by sponsorship. ACTS doesn't believe in giving handouts to the poor, but they provide a "hand-up" so they can reach their full potential. Sponsorship provides education, meals, clothing, medical assistance, life skill training and evangelism.

Click here to find how you can help. Click here to read about sponsoring orphans.

Education
Enrollment is up at the ACTS schools to 785 students. That is a 206% increase!

ACTS Center began a grammar school for orphans in October of 2007 and a secondary school in 2008. A graduation celebration for the 2010-2011 school year took place in July, 2011.

Click here to read what students and goverment officials have to say about ACTS educational program.

For the 2011-2012 school term there are 585 students enrolled at the ACTS schools. There are 20 in the kindergarten, 330 in the primary classes and 235 in the secondary school.

The Ten Basic Rights of the Child are taught to the children who attend ACTS schools. Basic moral principles, such as integrity, truthfulness and purity, are also part of the curriculum.

Click here for more information about schools.

Literacy and Vocational Training
For older orphans literacy and vocational training to provide future income and to gain dignity to become productive citizens. It breaks the poverty cycle and gives them hope for a future.

Click here to read a testimony of Roger, a young man, who graduated from vocational training and has launched his own business.

Feeding Program
ACTS serves more than 4,438 meals a week to children at the Hope Orphanage and village children enrolled at the ACTS schools! That is a staggering 187,096 meals a year!

Three meals a day are served to school-aged orphans who were among whose health and nutrition level put them at risk. It was common for these children to go for two or more days without a meal. This made them weaker and more susceptible to malaria, cholera, typhoid and other diseases common to this part of the world.

You can partner with ACTS to feed hungry children.

Click here to find more about nutritious meals.

Housing
Our plan is to have orphans placed in family-like groups under the supervision of a widow. At the present time we are looking at land that can be used to expand our current housing for orphans. We have housing for only 80 orphans at the ACTS Center site that insures safety for these orphans.

Medical Assistance
Medicine and medical assistance is not available to villagers because they are not able to travel to Ouagadougou for treatment and they do not have sufficient income to pay for any medical services. ACTS medical team brings medicine and vaccines for diseases common to Burkina Faso, such as malaria, typhoid, parasites and cholera. Orphans receive treatment at no cost at the Ellel Medical Center.

Click here to read about the Ellel Medical Center.

One girl suffered from seizures so severe that she could not talk or walk. ACTS found medicine that stopped the seizures and her condition has improved so much it is like a miracle in her life. She can talk, walk, go to school and help with things around the house.

One brother and sister have sickle cell anemia. During the worst of the cycle the children lie on the floor and cry from the pain. ACTS is trying to secure treatment for them as the doctor in Ouagadougou who examined them said they would die without treatment.

ACTS is providing medical care and dental care to 725 orphans and 180 widows. These efforts are initially confined to rural, forgotten villages in Burkina Faso. To date, seven villages have been targeted.

Joanna Ilboudo, the Executive Director for ACTS in Burkina Faso, received her theological degree in 2005 and she works hand-in-hand with village pastors to provide spiritual guidance to those who respond to the witness of Jesus Christ. Pastors provide on-going daily support and counseling for village orphans.

Children's Rights
Women and children are the ones who are most negatively affected by poverty. It is therefore important for us to sensitize people, especially children who are the seeds of tomorrow, to seek training in jobs and work hard in order to contribute to the development of the country.

The plight of children forced to work on the streets is a subject normally ignored by Burkinabé society. This is why ACTS published a short story in French, Mooré and Djula on the critical issue of street kids. The book was introduced in schools and reinforced by teachers in rural areas where many vulnerable children reside. Children are encouraged to share the story and message with their parents at home and friends who are not attending school. As a result, others in society will be reached.

Click here to read more about this book and film project.

Background and Description of Need
Burkina Faso is a developing country where poverty is perceptible at every level of society. The UN ranks Burkina Faso as 173 out of 179 countries on their poverty list. The situation is extremely serious in rural areas. Rural villagers are subsistence farmers who rely on sporadic rains for meager harvest yields. They grow millet and a little corn. During the dry season, crops wither and when rains fail death due to starvation adds to the villagers' suffering.

Poverty has been exacerbated by the AIDS pandemic because of the growing number of orphans whose parents died of AIDS.

These orphans live in extreme poverty lacking access to basic education because they can't afford to pay the required fees. They then become rural street kids used in child traffic or decide to flee to larger cities where they end up in a worse condition due to lack of education and job skills.

Orphans who flee to the larger cities are drawn into drugs, stealing and prostitution; they do not know what love is like.

ACTS' vision is “to bring the love of Christ to the hurting people through education, literacy, publishing, socioeconomic empowering programs which bring life changes and gives hope to the poor.”

ACTS reaches AIDS orphans without distinction of their religious background, through holistic projects which restore human dignity. We encourage them to become self supporting and remain members of their community.

Through the practical means described above, ACTS Ministry brings hope and gives a future to AIDS orphans and other children at risk.

By partnering with ACTS Ministry you develop local capacities and reduce misery and death from poverty in the countryside.