Frequently Asked Questions

Our Child Sponsors have the power to make a difference in the lives of children facing poverty and hopelessness. Their regular donations help provide a lifetime of joy and hope to those who have been abandoned and are in need.  Our sponsors participate in group sponsorship that provides the following benefits to children.

• Food, clothing, and shelter to children who live in the Shaping Destiny Transition Home.
• Education. Your donation helps pay tuition and provides books for our children.
• Medical care. Your funds help provide medical care for our children.
• Vocational /job training. Some of our children are more suitable for job training and donations for those sponsored children help pay for them to complete a training program.
• Families for Orphans. This occurs through our local Adoption & Foster Care Program or Kinship Program. In the past, Shaping Destiny was primarily an orphanage that housed about 85 children and intended to increase it to 150. However, we have learned that God created children to live in families, not orphanages. Research from Harvard and the University of California has shown that children who are institutionalized often suffer brain damage that can be seen on MRI. In our experience, it is very difficult to give children the love they need when there are so many together. Putting them in an orphanage is also very expensive and has no biblical precedence. God’s solution to needy children is a family. Our partnership with local Christian families provides food, clothing, shelter, and parental guidance to the children we serve. Our Child Sponsors then help cover education and medical costs for these children. This partnership has blessed local Christians tremendously and is giving them the opportunity to participate in orphan care. It has also saved a tremendous amount of money in food costs which helps us support missions work. Instead of an orphanage, we now have a transition home with a small number of orphans living there at a time. The kids are eventually placed with a more permanent local Christian family which can care for them and meet their needs with the support of our Child Sponsors.
• Advocacy for children. We advocate for children’s needs to be met using the “asset-based-community development” (ABCD) model.
• Evangelism and discipleship. Our evangelism is not limited to orphans. We evangelize all people, however, we pay special attention to evangelizing and disciplining the poor, especially orphans. We believe that spiritual salvation is extremely important. As such, in all our work, we make sure that we put evangelism and discipleship first. For example, hundreds of our orphans have come to Christ through our ministry.
• Missions. We have missionaries who visit children regularly and disciple them. It also allows missionaries to dedicate their time to working to improve the organization.
• Administration. Cover the organization’s administrative costs and other ministry costs.

As you know, our sponsors are group sponsors (not individual sponsors of children). We thank God for your loving heart and desire to communicate with an orphaned child overseas. For many years, we facilitated and encouraged communication between our child sponsors and the children they co-sponsored.  Even though money was pulled together to serve children as some needed less while others needed more than the sponsorship amount, we still matched individual sponsors to children and encouraged them to communicated. However, in order to serve our children well, we changed our model from running an orphanage to placing children within local families. We realized that even though letters and communication from sponsors overseas were helpful, they carried so many “side effects” that outweighed their benefit. It became apparent that the only benefit to continuing them was to enhance donor retention. It was at that point that we decided to stop the practice for all new sponsors and gradually end it for existing sponsors. So, the short answer is no.

If you are a potential donor or a current sponsor who doesn’t see how such a change makes sense and is considering not supporting the children or canceling your support, Dr. Acha would love to have a phone or zoom conversation with you before you make the decision to help you understand the details. After that, you can decide as you think God wants you to act. Dr. Acha and our Board of directors who are volunteer leaders like you made this decision which obviously could affect the children’s financial support. He would love to learn how you feel if you have misgivings about it.

Many of our Child Sponsors ask if they can send a special gift to the children they are cosponsoring for holidays such as Christmas or birthdays. We are so excited when sponsors and donors want to send a gift to the children we serve in Cameroon!

Please click here for help sending a gift.

Child cosponsorship is $35 per month for one child. There are a few convenient options for giving cosponsorship funds. These options apply to all other donations as well (general, missionary support, leadership development, etc.)

Online Options:

1. Automatic monthly payments with Debit/Credit card.
   This option allows you to set up your recurring sponsorship through your debit or credit card.
   Braintree (the payment processor) charges a 2.2% + $0.30 transaction fee for every donation.
2. Automatic monthly payments through PayPal.
   This option allows you to set up your recurring sponsorship through your PayPal account that is synced to your bank or debit card.
   PayPal charges a 2.2% service charge for every transaction.

Check Options:

1. Personal Check
   Make out your checks to The Kenneth Acha Foundation
   Mail to our mailing address.
2. Automatic Bank Payment
   This option allows you to set up your recurring sponsorship through your bank. There typically are no fees associated with this although it varies by bank.

    

   If you have other payments set up through your bank this will be super easy for you but if this may be a first, all you’d need to do is log into your bank online and select a tab that most banks have at the top that says Bill Pay or Automatic Payments. You’d enter in $35 as the amount and schedule it to come out monthly on whatever day you desire. All you need from us is our name and where your bank should send the check.

   Make out to The Kenneth Acha Foundation
   Mail to our mailing address.

You can sign up for our monthly email Newsletters in the signup form located in the footer on our website. We’d also love for you to follow us on social media. We’re active on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and you can easily find us by searching “The Kenneth Acha Foundation” or by clicking the social follow icons in the footer of our website.

Please contact us to talk to a team member about visiting your church or small group to share more about orphan care and what God is doing through our ministry.