Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)

Grace Village
The child comes to us either from the hospital or home where s/he was born, small vulnerable and needing loving care, warmth and security, or the older child hurting and confused not understanding why they were abandonned or why parents have died and left then so alone. They need basic care, protection, food, counselling and an enormous dose of love and affection from our caregivers.
A home environment - Five homelike units with caregivers or Nannies who provide the day to day management, meals are prepared in each group home, the children sleep in two bedrooms one for boys and one for girls. The children share double beds to create a sense of companionship in an attempt to avert loneliness and fear.
Recreation activties - Games, football, simple skipping games, and imaginary games figure largely in the younger childrens repertoire; there is a playground where they can use swings, seesaws and climbing frames. The favourite game for older children (boys) is football. The girls like nothing better that to sit  around and chat and perhaps braid each others hair.

Grace School
There is a school on the premises for KG through 8th Grade that meets the special needs of the children that is targetted to their specific requirements. We also teach handicapped and blind children from the neighbourhood. High school children attend public school in Shire. Grace School has been an asset in that we have been able to add blind children to grade one. The change from formal teacher driven classes for grades five through eight to distance learning with a class supervisor has helped to place our students on a national level and create for them the basis of student-centered learning as recommended by the government.

Grace Village health supervision
There are five children who take anti retroviral treatment and have careful follow up in the local hospital for their HIV/AIDS status. These children live, play and attend school together with their village siblings. It is lovely to see them all together. They have been taught to call an adult when anyone falls and bleeds, thus treating everyone equally and all blood is cleaned with precaution.
Growth monitoring especially of the babies and toddlers is done monthly, the older children are done more sporadically unless they show signs of weight loss. Sick children are followed by the village nurse, if seriously ill they may be hospitalised We want to see the children learing good healthy customs so health education and big sisters teaching helps them learn how to be clean, to wash their hands frequently and the efficient use of mosquito nets to prevent malaria.

Community Orphans and Vulnerable Children
In line with the Ethiopian Women’s Affairs Ministry (the umbrella government agency for childcare) the preferred method of childcare is keeping the child within the environment in which s/he has been born or brought up. Where an older sibling has been managing the home, albeit with difficulty, Abraham’s Oasis seeks to assist them financially where often simply a helping hand is all that is required.
Stipend Child Supports and Medical Assistance -  The Community Child Care Project assist children to survive and to find a measure of contentment despite their heartaches, through the work of supervision, counselling, and advising them in relation to their education and how to improve their grades; their social lives and how to live safe and healthy lives.  We seek to motivate the brighter students to continue to improve and we tutor the slower students when possible. We ensure that the children are not exploited in any manner either at school, their communities and / or at home.
Financial assistance is given on  amonthly basis to each child selected by the local government offices. We go to the schools, the homes when required and see the children each month in the office. Their situtation is reviewed regularly. Medical problems are treated at the local goverment health facility, and treatment and medication is covered by the Abraham’s Oasis. There are plans to employ a psychologist to help with counselling these vulnerable children.

Elementary School Support
Many rural schools in Ethiopia suffer from the lack of basic teaching tools. The aim of Abraham’s Oasis is to strengthen these schools through initially supplementing their needs and then helping them through selected income generation schemes proposed by the said school for sustainable outcomes, to eventually support themselves. One of the highlights for us in 2010 was a regional award presented to Abraham’s Oasis for the building of four classrooms in Kelakil for the children of that community.