The House we built

The home built by Breaking Ground 2009

Thanks to ‘Breaking Ground 2009’ and the Hovde Foundation 100’s of volunteers raised the funds to build our new home. When completed in December 2010 it will be home to 60 children. Our building is specially designed to provide our girls with a loving family environment:

• 4 floors high with 3 bedrooms for girls and one for a ‘house mother’ per floor.
• No more than 15 girls per floor, living as a family unit.
• Living room, kitchen and bathrooms on every floor.

Sustainability

Going Green
OHMH projects aim to be sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Solar Power
The roof of our original building is covered with solar panels to provide us with an increasing percentage of our electricity needs.

Farm
We grow our own vegetables and fruit and we keep cows for milk and turkeys for meat. These commodities are expensive and so producing our own means that we can take better care of your donations without compromising the care we provide our girls.

Tilapia fish farm

When girls come to us they are typically malnourished and in need of protein rich food. Fish are very expensive and so we built our own small-scale tilapia farm. We currently have several thousand fish for our own consumption but will soon be selling fish to local hotels and restaurants so we are not wholly dependent on fundraising.

One Community Many Hopes

We take great care to be a contributing part of the community in which we work. We employ local staff, we buy local goods and we assist our neighbors where we can.

We have erected taps outside our gates to provide local villagers with water from our well. Twice a day you can see men and women line up for fresh, clean drinking water. Some have walked 8-10 miles to save just a few pennies.

We do this because:

1. It is the right thing to do. We are family in a community.

2. Without clean water parents drink dirty water. They get sick. They die. New orphans are created. We are about tackling causes and this is one of them.

Consequently we are held in high regard by those around us and have the local support network that is vital to help us hear of and reach children who need our help.