Our Mission Statement: To demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ by equipping local churches in southern Africa to meet the physical and spiritual needs of children orphaned by AIDS in their communities.

Our Vision: To empower children orphaned by AIDS and their communities by:

• Strengthening the work of pastors and local churches through education, leadership development, and the provision of financial support.
• Committing to scalable projects that can be sustained through local resources.
• Engaging our partners to participate in the mission through service, prayer support and financial contributions.
• Being a witness and agent of hope to encourage local communities and pastors and partners to provide an expanded vision of the possibilities for ministry.

Our Values: Christian, Partnership, Inclusive, Integrity, Stewardship, Servant Leadership, Creativity, Transparency, Sustainability.

Our Model’s 3 Distinctive Traits:

1) Seminary Graduates: We partner with theologically sound, accredited seminaries in southern Africa, then reach out to their graduates to identify the best community leaders in the church across a wide range of denominations.

2) Local Priorities: Each graduate partnering with us identifies gaps in their community, with the help of community & church leaders. They then determine what the church can do, the community can do, and what remains. The church then creates a local orphan care plan using tools created by African pastors.

3) Local Credit: Whenever possible, recipients of care from our funding only know about their local ministry, not about us. This helps limit dependency and creates ownership, as well as accountability. From the start, it also helps position churches to stand on their own after our funding ends.

What we Fund: We fund 4 types of projects in an orphan care plan: a) physical needs (typically school fees, seed/fertilizer, medication, AIDS awareness, home-based care, water, etc.); b) spiritual needs (counseling programs, retreats, VBS activities); c) income generation (brick making, tailoring schools, pre-microfinance grant programs); and d) support systems for the local church (graduate networks to create systems of learning across denominations and tools, such as youth development and farming support)

Our Staff: Ryan Keith, President – Grad of Harvard’s Kennedy School with Masters in Public Policy (Non-Project Management); Remmy Hamapande, Africa Director – Former Barclay’s Bank Risk Assessor/Loan Manager & Children’s Pastor; Fibion Ndhlovu – Zimbabwe Director & Pastor in Bulawayo; Ellen Shaffer – Dir. for Project Mgmt & Co-Director of Church Relations; Much of Forgotten Voices is led by volunteers. Meet our Leadership Team.

Our Board of Directors: an array of business, ministry, and technical experts. Meet our Board.

Why we believe so strongly in our mission:

Forgotten Voices is demonstrating the love of Jesus Christ by equipping local churches in southern Africa to meet the physical and spiritual needs of children orphaned by AIDS in their communities.

When Jesus spoke the command to care for widows and orphans, we believe that He meant what He said.  In Africa, this is the single greatest thing anyone can do.  As communities continue to be literally desolated by the HIV/AIDS virus, surviving children have turned to the church for help and hope.  In a place where death and brokenness are the hallmark of existence, Forgotten Voices is on a mission to provide our African partners with the support they need to be agents of love and reconciliation to the nearly 2 million orphaned children in their own towns and villages.

We smile because they are filled with hope.  We weep because they have lost their parents to AIDS.  We ache because they have dreams to become architects, accountants, and community leaders yet lack the resources to do so.  We mourn because their childhood has been stolen by the overwhelming responsibility of parenthood and survival.  They represent 2 million children across southern Africa who have become orphaned by the AIDS virus.  In a voice that is uniquely their own, these vulnerable children ask, “Who will care for me now?   Who will love me when those whom I love are gone?”  We hope the answer has something to with Forgotten Voices International.

Our vision is to embrace the vision of these incredible children.  The purpose of Forgotten Voices is to share the stories of our friends in Africa in such a way that encourages others to enter into their lives.  The world has a right to know that there are places like southern Africa, where the luxuries of clean water, nutrition, medical treatment, education and even family do not exist.  There are places where children fight poverty and disease with every ounce of remaining strength.  There are places where these beautiful young ones are more likely to believe that the world has abandoned them than to believe that someone values their life.

This knowledge has compelled us to connect with hard-working, creative, caring, and compassionate Africans who have dedicated their lives to serving these vulnerable children with the love of Jesus Christ.  Our vision is to embrace their vision of hope for the orphans they love.  Though Forgotten Voices may help develop action plans, provide funding and direction, or raise money, these local pastors and community leaders are the heroes, we are not.  For it is their steady and strong leadership, courage, and Godly obedience that continues to transform the temporal and eternal lives of children throughout southern Africa.  Our vision is to see the physical, intellectual, and spiritual development of Africa's vulnerable children and to support those local leaders who have made this the objective of their lives.