Abode for Children, a non-profit, based in Evans City, PA,
was formed to make a difference in the lives of children who have no one else
to care for them.Through donations and
sponsorships Abode for Children is accomplishing amazing things!
Ogoja, Nigeria
Our first project began in the year 2000 at the St. Joseph
Orphanage/School in Ogoja, Nigeria.Thomas Rutkoski was invited to speak at a
parish mission in Africa. While there, Thomas passed through the
poverty-stricken village of Ogoja and was so moved by the plight of the
hundreds of orphaned children living uncared for, on the street, in cardboard
huts, that he knew he had to do something to change their desperate
situation.So Thomas dedicated the
profits from his first book “Apostles of the Last Days” to build an orphanage
and school in partnership with Father Peter Abue, the Nigerian priest who
invited Thomas to the region in the first place. Thomas established a sponsorship
program for the orphans requesting just twenty dollars a month to help provide
one child with food, shelter, an education, and hope for the future.This sponsorship program is the backbone of
Abode for Children in that it helps to provide a constant stream of support for
the most basic needs of all the children.
Today, over 900 children attend St. Joseph Orphanage/School.The orphanage houses 200 orphans while the
school has opened its doors to an additional 700 poor and needy children of the
local villages.
These are children whose parents died from accidents, disease,
or inter-village wars with nowhere to go. These are children whose parents are
so sick or poor they can no longer provide for their little ones and cannot
afford to feed them one good meal a day.We also help children whose parents have abandoned them to fend for
themselves or perish trying.
St. Joseph Orphanage/School has been expanded and now includes
ten classrooms, a library, an assembly hall, a kitchen, five dormitory rooms,
and a vocational center where the children learn woodworking, sewing, and
farming. The school expansion project was made possible through donations to
Abode for Children outside of the sponsorship program.You see, it is important for Abode for
Children to also raise funds for capital projects, which benefit not only the
orphanage/school but the entire community.We are diligently working to raise the remaining $17,000 needed to finish the current construction of
the on-site medical clinic. For less than the price of most new cars, we will
be able to provide immediate life-saving medical care to over 900
children!It is amazing how every dollar
donated to Nigeria or India is stretched far beyond its capability in the
US!Unfortunately, until the medical
clinic is completed, transportation must continue to be arranged to ill-equipped
clinics that are miles away, on dangerous, poorly maintained, dirt roads.
Cherukupalli,
India
In the city of Cherukupalli, in southeastern India, .Abode
for Children built St. Thomas Orphanage and Mary Rose Buds High School in
response to the 2004 tsunami in India. Bishop Gali Bali of the Guntur Diocese sent
out a plea for help to Thomas Rutkoski.Miraculously, generous donors presented themselves, and groundbreaking began
in 2006 for both an orphanage and a school which opened the very next year in
June, 2007.
More than 1/3 of malnourished children of the entire world
are living in India.The boys at the
orphanage come from poor families, who would otherwise be forced to work
alongside their parents on farms and in factories carrying heavy loads on their
heads or wandering about the streets risking becoming victims of exploitation
and disease.
We are currently in the third year of operation with 27 boys
in residence at St. Thomas Orphanage in India. Over the next five years we hope
fill the orphanage to its capacity of 80 boys, and Bishop Gali Bali hopes to
obtain funds to build a girls orphanage to be able support poor girls of the
Guntur diocese.
The Bishop tells us that the India project is just the
ground floor of a growing town because it is projected that a whole community
will grow around the orphanage and school.
How do we serve
the orphans?
Abode for Children, its sponsors, and donors help St. Joseph
Orphanage/School and St. Thomas Orphanage to provide a pathway out of poverty
to needy children.We are breaking the
cycle of poverty, raising productive Catholic citizens who will help build
their local economy and spread the Catholic faith to their children and to those
they meet.
The children in Nigeria and India attend daily Mass early in
the morning.Next they help with chores
such as sweeping and helping to prepare breakfast.
In Nigeria the children must fetch water from a well two times
per day because there is no running water; something we take for granted here
in the United States.
The children of Ogoja consistently earn first or second
place in an annual competition of traditional dance and marching.
This past summer (of 2009), sponsors celebrated because the
little Nigerian children that they had supported since 2000, were now part of
the first high school graduating class.Fifty-three
young men and women are now making a new start for themselves pursuing higher
education or working to make a living to support their families.
You can make a difference too!By becoming an Abode for Children sponsor for
$20/month you can help pass on the Catholic faith to children in need and share
in a child’s triumphs through personal correspondence.Sponsors receive a letter, photo, drawing, and
a copy of a report card from their children on a regular basis and are able to
write letters and send photos sharing their life with their sponsored
child.Our donors learn first-hand how
they are making a difference in the life of their child. Would you be one of
them?
Our next steps…
As our orphanages grow, so do the
needs of our children. In Ogoja, young boys and girls have grown into teens,
and can no longer be housed in the same building.In Cherukupalli, a girl’s orphanage is needed.
Busses have also been requested by each project to transport students to and
from school.It bears repeating, that St.
Joseph desperately requires funds to complete their medical clinic.St Thomas is requesting funds to complete
their classrooms floors and walls and to create staff quarters.We need you to help provide funds for these
larger expenditures. We cannot provide these funds without your donations for capital
projects.
Conclusion
Through God’s providence, your kind and generous support, and
Abode for Children, --St. Joseph Orphanage/School, St. Thomas Orphanage, and
Mary Rose Buds High School will continue to provide a pathway out of
poverty.
Abode for Children needs you to
share in our commitment to provide a life-changing atmosphere where children
are nurtured and guided to become productive Catholic citizens in their
respective countries.We welcome you to
join us in our mission.
If would like to help in some way
please call 724-538-5700 or send a check to Abode for Children, 230 E. Main St. Evans City, PA 16033. Make sure you put a note on the check what project you would like to fund. God
bless you.
You make check out our website www.abodeforchildren.org.
