Asia’s Hope is a Christian, multi-denominational organization founded in 2002. We provide family-style — not institutional — care for orphaned children at high risk of sexual and economic exploitation in Cambodia, Thailand and India.

At each of our 35 homes, children whose parents died or abandoned them receive new mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers and enjoy all of the benefits of belonging to a stable, loving family.
    All of their medical, psychological, social, educational and spiritual needs are provided by local, indigenous staff members who understand their language and culture and what it takes for them to be successful, independent adults in their own country. We offer each child in our care the opportunity to attend university or vocational training when they graduate from high school.
    We believe that our family-style, indigenous-led model can revolutionize the world of residential orphan care. We believe that we are helping to lead the way forward by creating new and better kinds of orphanages, ones that truly meet the complex needs of millions of orphaned children worldwide who will never be adopted internationally or reunited safely with extended family members.
    By standing with Asia’s Hope, you are transforming the lives of the more than 800 children currently in our care. But you are also helping us change the way orphanages are conceptualized, funded and run, changing the lives and futures of some of the world’s most vulnerable children.

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For more information on our projects, people and perspectives, please call us at 614.285.5813 or send us an email.

Family-style Care Model

Academic studies and anecdotal experiences confirm what Asia’s Hope has long believed — that institutional care generally produces poor long-term outcomes for orphaned children. In thousands of overcrowded institutional orphanages across the world, children receive sub-standard care from poorly-paid shift-workers who have neither the skills nor the opportunity to form lasting bonds with any of the children in their care.
    Each Asia’s Hope children’s home is based on a family, rather than an institutional model. Asia’s Hope hires a full-time mom and dad for each home. These parents live at the home and raise their own biological children alongside the Asia’s Hope kids. When orphaned children are brought into the home, they are treated not as patients or boarders. They’re considered brothers and sisters, sons and daughters.
    Asia’s Hope limits the size of each home to maintain a workable staff-to-child ratio. Asia’s Hope’s ideal home size is 20 children. Each home functions as a family; the kids do chores, cook together, eat together, do homework and go to church together. In the context of this loving home, Asia’s Hope’s children receive the support and care they need to reclaim their lost childhood and build the foundations for a successful future.
    Each home operates with a balance of independence and community. The dad and mom work with the Asia’s Hope Country Director to develop a monthly budget, and they submit detailed reports on projected and actual expenditures to the Country Director and the Board of Asia’s Hope. All Asia’s Hope homes are required to meet uniform standards of child care and protection, but every home is different; directors set their own expectations, rules and schedules. The staff of the homes meet together regularly for encouragement, accountability, fellowship and training.

Partnership Model

Asia’s Hope’s strategy is to match each children’s home with a partnering organization that can provide long-term encouragement, affirmation and financial support. Each of our children have been orphaned — separated by death or abandonment from their parents — and are at immediate, high risk of sexual and economic exploitation.
    Our partnership model provides Asia’s Hope’s primary source for children’s home funding. With this model, Asia’s Hope enters into an agreement with a partnering organization willing to accept responsibility for the home’s monthly budget. Asia’s Hope then works to foster the relationship between the partner and the home, facilitating updates, personal communications and visits to the homes.
    Asia’s Hope also works to recruit and retain donors to participate in other funding projects. These include both non-recurring (e.g. activities, equipment, capital improvements and expenditures) and ongoing (e.g. staff salaries, post-secondary education support, vocational training) expenses. When possible, Asia’s Hope gives donors specific projects they can “own.” Asia’s Hope also provides photos and/or videos to promote the need and to demonstrate the effects of the partner’s financial support.
    Asia’s Hope seeks corporate, foundation and individual donations for special projects, capital expenditures and improvements, and for contributions to the general fund.
    Asia’s Hope sets aside 18% of every dollar donated for shared use, underwriting nearly every aspect of the organization’s budget — from staff salaries and travel expenses to medical emergencies and government fees — and nearly eliminating the need for expensive fundraising.

History

Founded in 2002, Asia’s Hope began its work in Cambodia partnering with existing, indigenous organizations. Asia’s Hope’s first projects focused on housing and leadership training of university students from rural backgrounds. Within the first three years, Asia’s Hope began a gradual narrowing of its focus to concentrate on children, specifically orphans.
    In 2005, Asia’s Hope expanded into to Thailand, opening its first children’s home for hill tribe children in Doi Saket, just north of Chiang Mai.
    Asia’s Hope established its first of six hildren’s home in Northeastern India in 2011. Today, Asia’s Hope operates six children’s homes in India, 10 children’s homes in Thailand and 19 in Cambodia. The organization also runs two schools in Cambodia and numerous micro-enterprise and vocational training programs in both countries.
    Asia’s Hope has always been a grassroots organization, and even as it has grown, it has maintained a high level of volunteer support. Asia’s Hope has only three paid employees in North America, but more than 200 in Asia. All of the organization’s paid employees in Asia are indigenous to the country in which they work.

Beliefs

Asia’s Hope is a Christian organization. Asia’s Hope believes that God has a special place in his heart for the poor and oppressed, and wishes to use his people to bless “the least and the last.” The organization believes that they have been called to minister primarily to orphans, children who do not have parents or close relatives able or willing to care for them.
    Asia’s Hope believes that God is especially offended by the horrors of human trafficking, the exploitation of weak and vulnerable people for sexual or economic gratification of the powerful and privileged.
    The orphans Asia’s Hope serves are prime targets for this kind of predatory abomination, and the organization believes that rescuing and raising these children in a loving environment is essential work for the people of God.
    Asia’s Hope believes that orphaned children should be raised in the context of loving homes, not in impersonal institutions. Each of the organization’s children’s home directors views themselves as a parent, not a caretaker, and the children are raised as brothers and sisters.
    Asia’s Hope believes that Asian staff and ministry partners should be trusted and empowered to make real decisions that affect themselves and the ministries they oversee. Asia’s Hope strives to approach international ministry with humility and mutual interdependence, and with a servant’s heart.

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Operating Principles

Since its inception, Asia’s Hope has been defined by indigenous leadership, grassroots support and multi-denominational alignment. Those attributes, which kept the organization strong when small, have built a strong foundation capable of sustaining significant growth.

Indigenous

Any international aid or development effort must rely heavily on the support, the knowledge and a sense of ownership among leaders of the community receiving the aid. Asia’s Hope’s day-to-day operations are run by able and trusted indigenous, national leaders.

Grassroots

Asia’s Hope values the contributions and participation of the thousands individuals who make the organization’s work possible. Asia’s Hope is committed to maintaining a structure that empowers individuals to get involved at a grassroots level. Asia’s Hope is committed to maintaining low administrative scale and relying, to a large degree, on partnering organizations, board members and other volunteers.

Multi-Denominational

Asia’s Hope is a distinctively Christian organization, founded on and governed by biblical principles, dedicated to extending God’s love and mercy to the “fatherless and the widow.” The organization is, however, distinctively and intentionally multi-denominational, welcoming involvement and input from a diverse cross-section of Christian groups and individuals and from non-Christians as well.