With third-world poverty, low education rates, and children orphaned and made vulnerable by the HIV pandemic and overall loss of hope, rural communities in South Africa stand in stark contrast to the modern and thriving urban and suburban areas in the country, even though they are only minutes apart.
7 Rivers Outreach is working 1) to create a network of Christian foster care homes for orphans and vulnerable children, 2) to establish an after-school Discovery Center that will provide Bible, sports, arts, and educational activities while checking on the health and well-being of area children, 3) to maintain an adult job-skills and entrepreneurship training program, and 4) to encourage the local Entabeni church-plant. All of this in time will be funded by and based out of the developing 100-acre 7 Rivers Farm.
Over the next few years, 7 Rivers Outreach is building four small homes for its Zulu Christian employees who will each be fostering 3-4 children in their home. It is also bringing in a Christian nurse, social worker and teacher to begin the Discovery Center at a local building that needs renovation.
1/3
of the KZN population are children
842K
(about 21%) of those children are orphans