Dennis ALLADOE and the Orphan Fund

Orphan Fund made possible by a grant from Baptist Global Response

   On Sunday our family drove out near a village to see the church of Dennis ALLADOE; he runs a school made up primarily of orphans and a church made up primarily of children.  He had asked us to contact BGR to give him an orphan fund for 21 orphans that would have been on the streets had he not taken them in.  BGR bought their school supplies for this school term.

 A little after we arrived, the village chief did. Then the ceremony began. Everyone was introduced to everyone else, songs of thanksgiving were sung, and then Dad explained how BGR was doing this, what it was doing, and why.

  The orphans sang and danced for us and Isabelle stood up and said a formal thank you to everyone in French, and ending with, "Thank you very much." in English to us.  The Chief's 'Second in Command' also gave a speech, thanking BGR for taking care of the children.

The orphans lined up with their new clothes and shiny new shoes.

 Then we handed out all of the supplies; backpacks, books, protractors, sport uniforms, pencils, and so on. One sweet little girl received a backpack with a 'Frozen' picture on it. She wore it on her front to display the picture of Anna and Elsa to the world, even when everyone else had theirs on their backs! (see first picture)

Tristan giving her the Frozen backpack

One of the orphans had a sprained ankle and we carried his supplies to him

Afterwards we went outside for more pictures (and better lighting).

The Chief is the third man from the right in the back row wearing the blue and Mme. ALLADOE is on the far right.

In the picture above, some of the orphans distant relatives are in the back, though some are their mothers and some are their fathers. Most had lost their mothers and Isabelle had lost both parents.

Dennis ALLADOE on the far right, Mme. ALLADOE on the far left

Mom and Dad took individual pictures with every orphan, and I don't have the time, bandwidth, or patience to include everyone but here are the best!

There is a story behind Mom's smile....

Family shot that the photographer took of us :)

Tristan and one of the orphans

Me with Dorcas, Dennis Alladoe's daughter

Aidan with Richard (pronounced, Ree-CHa) Dennis Alladoe's son

Christianna and Dorcas

Tristan and the Village Chief

  We had so much fun representing BGR, the International Mission Board (IMB), and our local mission. Thank you, everyone who helped make this possible!

Special thanks to: Past. & Mme. Dennis ALLADOE, M. Marcellin, Mlle. Esther, the photographers, and the orphans.