Friends of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (FOVC)

About us

Friends of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (FOVC) is an Ethiopian based non-profit, non-governmental and non-political humanitarian organization dedicated to bringing hope, love, and dignity to the most vulnerable children and women in Ethiopia particularly in the southern Ethiopia.

FOVC-Ethiopia was founded by a young Ethiopian Engineer, Desalegn Daka, in August 2006 with the aim of making life better for vulnerable children in Damot Pulassa district/woreda/ of Wolayta zone in SNNP region. During the past eight years, FOVC has built a strong reputation for community-based, integrated child care and development programming, with programmatic expertise in child education and nutrition; health and personal hygiene care; water and sanitation; malaria prevention; women’s empowerment (through poultry and animal husbandry, crops farming, business skills trainings, and handcrafting projects); and capacity building of the organization. FOVC has experience working in three districts in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR).

We have focused on providing support to OVCs through the structures of schools. This has included:

• a service for finding foster homes or extended families for such orphans through which over 200 orphans have been placed in safe homes;
• a house-to-house visiting program to encourage foster families;
• a feeding program in schools;
• an educational materials support like school uniforms, exercise books, pens and pencils;
• a girls and women empowerment project for female-headed households to help them keep their families together;
• a health and personal hygiene care service;
• a sanitation and environmental improvement initiative in schools;
• a water wells development project to improve access to clean water; and
• an education project for caregivers, social workers and teachers to help them deal with the challenges of having orphans in schools and classes.

FOVC envisions a future where children and women in southern Ethiopia live healthy, happy, and productive lives.

FOVC’s mission is to educate and support vulnerable children and empower poor women in southern Ethiopia, so that they able to overcome poverty and become healthy, responsible, productive, and happy individuals.

We do this through:
• Giving practical care and support to orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) through the provision of hot nutritious meals, clothing and shoes, school uniforms, school materials, personal hygiene care materials, and medical fees in the case of illness;
• Equipping and empowering female headed poor families to keep their children in family-context through the provision of vocational and skills trainings, livestock such as sheep and dairy cows, and improved seeds (maize, teff, and potatoes etc) and modern fertilizers;
• Improving sanitation, personal hygiene and environment to create better living, playing and learning place for children and whole community;
• Improving access to clean, safe water to prevent water born diseases prevalence to children through the water wells development project; and
• Maintaining and improving our organizational capacity of delivering quality services to clients/beneficiaries.

The overall goal of the H.O.P.E Child Sponsorship Program can be stated as follows:

The overall goal of this project is to improve the personal, emotional, spiritual and social well-being and educational status of 1050 poor orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) within the next three years in seven the project intervention woredas (districts) in southern Ethiopia through sustainable community-based care and various support mechanisms.

More specifically, the purpose of the project is:

Within three years, community-based support and care is provided to about 1050 orphans and vulnerable children living in seven districts (woredas) in southern Ethiopia, with an emphasis on keeping families together and ensuring that there is adequate social, psychological and material care for the orphans.

Key Interventions of the H.O.P.E Child Sponsorship Program

Giving practical care and support to over 1050 orphans and vulnerable children in seven districts through the provision of:

 Hot nutritious meals at schools or food items to eat at their homes,
 Clothing and shoes,
 School uniforms,
 School fees and materials (exercise books, pens and pencils),
 Personal hygiene care materials such as lotion, hair foods, soaps, and feminine care materials, and
 Medical care and fees in the case of illness.

Increasing the communities’ capacity to support and care for orphans and vulnerable children through:

 Establishing and equipping Centers of H.O.P.E which recognize and register orphans and vulnerable children, mobilize resources from the local and international communities, and provide support to orphans and vulnerable children where need;
 Training Centers of H.O.P.E staffs, District’s Healthy Extension Workers (HEWs) and leaders of Community-Based Organizations such as “Idir” to build their capacity in providing community-based care and support to orphans and vulnerable children; and
 Community workers, home visitors and volunteers regularly visiting the homes of the registered orphans and vulnerable children to identify their needs and provide onsite psychological support.