Extending Compassion 6.24.18- Payton Calvert
Good Shepherd’s Fold was started in 1994 as a smaller children’s home with close to 200 kids. Not long after its birth, Franklin Graham visited GSF and felt convicted that Samaritan’s Purse needed to buy land for the organization to expand. The compound is now over 100 acres and has many more components of community development in addition to the children’s home. There is an agricultural program to elicit the maximum crops from the labor, a primary school, feeding programs, physical therapy outreaches, a craft business, a tailoring school, crops and livestock, and many other programs.
The Ugandan government has become stricter in recent years concerning the number of children’s homes and are strongly encouraging a foster care system approach as well as forcing a large majority of them to close. GSF is an accredited home and therefore is approved to remain open and may assume responsibility for more kids in the coming weeks. As a result of the foster care movement GSF has decreased its numbers to 65. Their focus to reintegrate families stems from their utmost desire to see families restored with the child’s best interest in mind. While small numbers for the home is a positive sign, the staff of Good Shepherd’s Fold are not willing to compromise a child’s wellbeing for this decrease.
This week I was able to accompany two of the social workers to Family Life Group in one of the surrounding villages. This is a weekly program set up between the GSF social workers and some of the guardians of the children in residence. I appreciated being apart of this meeting because it gave me a clear picture of the relationship GSF establishes with the families it works with. They are walking alongside these families to handle whatever they are going through while leading a Bible study with them. There appears to be consistent and open lines of communication between GSF and the families which speaks to the fact that this organization cares for the wellbeing of the entire family and wants to see them all following the Lord. I am interested in social work as a possible career choice and so this experience was invaluable to me. I hope to return to the Family Life Group meetings again in the future, as it was a highlight of my week.
