creating families
Building Dreams, One Home at a Time: Sheltering Hope
Creating homes
We currently have eight functioning houses located in the Matola Santos community. Each house provides a home for a family consisting of a house mother and 4-6 children.
- We supply each of our houses with the contents our families need such as furniture, appliances linens, and kitchen items.
- Each mother is given an amount that covers the family’s monthly expenses. These include food, water, electricity, charcoal, school snacks and hair needs for the children, any house needs such as replacing light bulbs, mops, etc.
- The mother is also given a subsidy for her own personal use. She is not an employee, but a beneficiary of our foundation.
- Twice each year (June 1 and December 1) the children are taken shopping for their clothing needs. Their house mother oversees all purchases. If a need arises between these dates, their house mother notifies a staff member, and we determine how best to meet the need.
Homes
Provided
children
in care
house
mothers
We promote family-based orphan care
We believe that children belong in families, not institutions or centers. Decades of research prove the best place for a child’s physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual development is in a family-based home.
- The Sunshine Homes Project creates families by pairing a widowed or vulnerable woman with 4 - 6 orphaned children.
- The children are raised by a Mozambican house mother (or zeladora), within a Mozambican community, in the Mozambican culture, according to Mozambican customs.
- The children remain in our care until they complete their education. We will then assist them in finding employment and set them off to an independent life as a contributing member of their society
Creating Families
We currently have eight families living in our 8 homes. Each family is limited to 6 children.
Providing everyday support and guidance to each family, we look after each family member’s spiritual, physical, and emotional needs. We strive to ensure that every one of our children do not think of themselves as an orphan but as a child in a normal family.
Each year during the children’s school holiday in August, we take any children who have living extended family members for a visit with their family.
OUR CHILDREN
OUR MOTHERS
EDUCATION
Community Project
The project is very simple – it is a safe place where children can come to play, learn, dance, sing, and eat breakfast (tea and pao). We call this project “Beacons of Light” because that is what they are to the surrounding community children and their families. It gives our substitute mothers purpose and raises their self-esteem.
When our Sunshine Houses children are at school, their substitute mothers operate this small project for the vulnerable children who live in the community around their homes. Because these women live in the community, they know which children are living in homes where their parents struggle to provide for their needs. With the permission of the children’s parents, our substitute mothers each invite 12 children to attend the project.
Our foundation additionally helps these families by providing financial support for any medical or educational needs that these children or their family members may have.
Educational Support
In 2022 a learning center was built providing providing a place for our children to participate in a variety of programs. The centre is equipped with a library of books and a newly installed StarLink internet system that will greatly enhance the education of our children. With the recent donation of computers we have begun a technology course for our children. The centre offers a space for our children to receive tutoring in the afternoons as well as access to a variety of extra lessons (instrumental, dance, art and sports).
How donations assist the Homes Project
Sponsor a Home
Support a Mother or Child
Bless a House Mother
Our dedicated house mothers are volunteers who lovingly raise the children entrusted to them. To thank them for their selfless service, we provide each mother with $100 per month as personal spending money.
Celebrate a Child’s Birthday
Fund a Community Project
Our Beacons of Light Community Projects offer enriching experiences for children. Each project costs $80/month , or $240/month for all three projects - just $7 per child!
General Operating Support
Staff Support
Clothing & Shoes
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Sunshine in Africa
Sunshine in Africa has been shining for over a decade, sharing stories of hope, purpose, and transformation. What began with a dream to bring opportunity to Africa is now a thriving journey.
Come be part of the adventure -discover the heart behind the mission.
"This means the purchase of scads and scads of uniforms, book bags, shoes, belts, socks, school supplies, and text books. The list is as endless as the number of children for whom we must buy. "
"When we put out requests for donations for such causes, we truly are overwhelmed by the goodness that pours out of people."
" It has brought the meaning of our work into a new perspective for me. We not only are bringing children out of a hopeless past; we are saving them from a hopeless future. "
