Unity 4 Orphans is called to care for orphaned and vulnerable children by providing education, counseling, and nutrition and preventing orphanhood by strengthening families.
For many of the children we serve in Latin America, the grip of multidimensional poverty seems too strong to break. As a result, they may end up dropping out of school, falling prey to gangs and prostitution, or facing orphanhood as their families are fractured and broken apart.
Strengthening Families Can Help Prevent Orphanhood
U4O believes the best way to serve a vulnerable child is to work tirelessly to prevent them from being orphaned by strengthening their family. This upstream approach focuses on the fact that a family is the best line of defense for a child, and how God designed children to grow.
Flourishing is available to the children we serve in every area of their lives. This means that young women decide for themselves when they get married and start their families in homes free from abuse, and young men grow into strong and kind leaders with great jobs that provide for their entire familial unit.
–Caitlin Snyder, Executive Director
Multidimensional poverty is a difficult cycle to break, but through our holistic programs, children can begin to build brighter futures. They learn through tutoring, counseling, and building relationships with caring, trustworthy in-country partners that their lives are valuable.
Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Children Instills Hope and Security
Children experiencing poverty may be incapable of visualizing anything better than the lives they’ve witnessed their parents living. This can instill a scarcity mindset and belief that their lives must follow the same generational cycle. When we meet their needs for food, education, and healing from emotional trauma they’re able to imagine a life of abundance.
We want to be a bright light in the lives of these children and communities– not only to ease the burden of their current circumstances, but also to help them feel loved and cared for, and have hope for the future.
–Laura Fellows, Board Member
Completing an education and receiving a college degree or earning job training builds confidence. Poverty isn’t just physical; it also impacts the way a child experiences the world, and we strive to expand the opportunities they have available to them.
U4O’s Mission to Transform the Lives of Children Living in Poverty
The challenges the children we serve face are multi-faceted. We recognize the very real difficulties they face every day, including abuse, teenage pregnancy, and a lack of educational opportunities. Through our program partners and holistic program set, we’re able to intervene and offer children brighter futures.
U4O’s mission is unique because (1) we work in partnership with and through local, native members of the communities they serve who are truly invested in outcomes; (2) we provide a comprehensive, holistic suite of Gospel-centered programs designed to provide true transformation; (3) we develop and nurture our trusted partners, who are connected to us through our global Faith network; and (4) we have expertise in operating in hostile, oppressive Latin American countries.
–Paul Polakowski III, Board Chairman
The cornerstone of U4O’s belief system is that every child can flourish, pursue their education, and establish healthy families of their own one day. This is evident when a student graduates from our ESL program to become an English teacher, attends university to achieve their dream job, or establishes a family and home free from abuse. Cycles of abandonment and generational poverty are being broken thanks to U4O’s programs and dedicated partners.