Sixty leaders from thirteen nations in Southern Africa gathered recently in Pretoria, South Africa. The Southern Africa Leadership Forum, coordinated by Together Africa Without Orphans (TAWO), was designed to motivate participants, churches and NGO’s to work together to promote and support family based care and family preservation around the African continent.
Comprised of lawyers, church leaders, social workers, NGO directors, government representatives and global orphan care leaders, the delegates focused on cornerstones of the movement, tools for equipping churches and working together as teams. After working together, the delegates agreed upon several core principles for the African movement:
- Communication and collaboration between churches, NGO’s and local government are critical for the success of an Africa-wide movement.
- Pastoral training is desperately needed, particularly regarding God’s heart for the orphan, understanding our adoption into God’s family, and how a local church should respond to families and the fatherless in their midst.
- Churches must equip families with key skills through parenting training and understanding how to best support adoptive/foster children.
- Prayer teams must be empowered to develop and expand throughout the continent.
- All orphan ministry must be centered in the gospel.
CAFO’s Global Movements Initiative equips pastors and leaders to create local church movements/networks that inspire adoption/fostering among local Christians all around the world.
To learn more how you can be involved, please visit cafo.org/global/get-involved.