ServLife has been partnering with Mercy Children’s Orphanage in Sierra Leone, West Africa, since 2007. The orphanage was started by a native from Africa, Emmanuel Shaw, whom Indianapolis local, Rachel Dryden, met while volunteering on Mercy Ships four years ago. The orphanage currently has 10 children in its care and the children have all been abandoned or have lost their parents to illness or civil war. They are all now attending school and are healthy and happy.

Through this partnership, funds were raised for a chicken farm project that is underway to help support the expenses of the children’s home. Along with this project, a motorbike taxi service has been started and two solar water purification units have also been installed to generate income. The orphanage will sell the water at the local market and school. Through these projects they are attempting to make the orphanage self sustaining.

“I thank Jesus for being the hope we have in a world that can often seem so hopeless,” says Dryden. “He cares to restore individuals and even nations when invited.”