Supporting Children

The Endless Family

Wellness Advocate Becky Rogers knows that bringing families together can change the world. That’s why she moved her own family to Ghana and founded Families Mentoring Families, devoting her time to reuniting families and helping them thrive.

For parents and children in Ghana, it can be difficult to maintain a functional family unit when challenges with education, jobs, human trafficking, child abandonment, and financial instability are so prevalent. With few opportunities for education, Ghanian men often have trouble making a living and supporting their families, and many single mothers find it nearly impossible to get by without social services for housing, food, or vocational training. From what Becky observed, the country had a great need to reunite parents and children, as well as support children who have been abandoned, to hopefully create whole, self-reliant communities.

With support from Blue Diamond leaders Jon and Emily Pfeifer, Becky took on the colossal task of developing the Family Restoration Center, providing housing, education, and resources to Ghanian families in need. Not only would this dream take a lot of work to make it a reality, but Becky and Families Mentoring Families required significant funding. With support from the Pfeifers and two matching grants from the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation®, Families Mentoring Families was finally able to purchase the property in Abuaso, Kumasi, Ghana, for the center. Now that the Family Restoration Center is up and running, Becky says, “When a person visits this property, the peace and healing felt here is truly tangible and real.”

Creating a Space to Grow

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Most Haitian orphans live on the streets, begging and rummaging through dumpsters just to survive. A Child’s Hope Foundation (ACHF) has spent 17 years partnering with and supporting orphanages around the world.

In Labrise, Haiti, the Rescue Center for the Needy Children—or Centre de secours des enfants en difficulté—(CSEDI) cares for 34 orphans, most of whom would likely not be alive today if it weren’t for the center. In addition to the orphans, the CSEDI also houses the orphanage directors and their three children. With only one building that’s about 3,000 square feet, the CSEDI was in desperate need of expansion.

In 2020, the dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation® helped expand the building by 800 square feet, including the addition of a kitchen and dining area. Prior to this renovation, all cooking and eating was done around a firepit in the ground. Additionally, the CSEDI campus now includes a small playground and outside bathroom, as well as some humble schoolrooms where approximately 80 children attend school.

This project and partnership with A Child’s Hope Foundation is far from finished. Now that many of the physical and nutritional needs of the children have been addressed, ACHF is turning to the emotional and personal development of these orphans and other children in the community by building a new school adjacent to the CSEDI orphanage. Initially, the school will serve 150 children, but it’ll have lots of room to grow.

Learning Lifts Us Higher

Nothing changes lives more dramatically than education. It can lift families—even whole communities—out of generational poverty. To make this happen in places where people work hard simply to survive, humanitarian groups must understand the specific needs of each community. It’s becoming increasingly clear that, in many underdeveloped or more rural areas, schools where a teacher can live or stay onsite is beneficial for students. Schools that have living quarters secure better instructors for longer periods of time, resulting in better instruction, opportunities, and consistency for their students.

The dōTERRA Healing Hands Foundation® is proud to support TRUE Africa by donating nearly $40,000 to fund the construction of teacher living quarters at the Buyomba Community Academy in Uganda, as well as bathing stations and latrines for 10 teachers and their families. This project will benefit student safety and learning, the effects of which will be felt for generations to come.