161 – Orphan Care in Tanzania with Brandon Stiver

This episode is brought to you by Vanguard University and the Global Center for Women and Justice, who offer an incredible anti-human trafficking certificate. Whether you're a frontline responder, a social worker, in the ministry, a healthcare provider, or simply a community member who wants to help, this program is built for you. Head over to gcwj.org/ahtc to take the next step and apply today. ---Dr. Sandra Morgan and Dave Stachowiak talk to Brandon Stiver about how having his own family totally changed his perspective on caring for orphan children and why family-based care is so much better than orphanage-based care. Key Points Tanzania’s official policy is actually family-first, but that doesn’t always play out in reality. The vast majority of children that end up in alternative care really shouldn’t be there in the first place. 90% of children in orphanages worldwide have at least one living parent. An orphanage should be the last resort — there are many other options for children. Orphans often become a commodity for orphanages because they help raise money. “It is the belief of Kingdom Families in accordance with Tanzanian policy as well as scripture that family-based care is the highest standard of care for a child. We believe that every child has a right to be raised in a family.” —Brandon Stiver Resources Kingdom Families Faith to Action Initiative Transition to Family Based Care Manual UN Guidelines on the Alternative Care of Children The Law of the Child Act for Tanzania National Guidelines for Improving Quality of Care, Protection and Support for Most Vulnerable Children  National Plan of Action for MVC in Tanzania  Are you enjoying the show? If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe or rate the podcast on iTunes by clicking here. Click here for FAQs about podcasts and how to subscribe. Haven’t been receiving our newsletter? Visit our homepage to join today. Contact us with questions, comments, or suggestions at [email protected] Transcript Dave: [00:00:00] You’re listening to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. This is episode number 161, Orphan Care in Tanzania with Brandon Stiver. Production Credits: [00:00:09] Produced by Innovate Learning, maximizing human potential. Dave: [00:00:29] Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking podcast. My name is Dave Stachowiak. Sandie: [00:00:34] And my name is Sandie Morgan. Dave: [00:00:37] And this is the show where we empower you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in ending human trafficking. Sandie, so glad to be back with you here in the new year. And today a conversation I know that will be yet another lens that is so important for us to know about on elements that relate to human trafficking. And I know Brandon is going to really provide a lot of perspective on care for children. And we talk a lot about children on this podcast of course, but Brandon is going to I know bring us a new perspective. He is an alum of Vanguard University, where the Global Center for Women and Justice of course here is based. And Brandon Stiver grew up on the central coast of California and has been working in orphan care in Tanzania since 2010. Originally working at a Christian orphanage for a couple of years, Brandon realized that even the best of institutions fall dramatically short of meeting the child’s deepest and most intimate needs. Brandon’s deepest desire for Kingdom Families is to continue seeing orphaned, vulnerable and abandoned children restored to God’s first construct, the family. Brandon lives in Moshi, Tanzania with his wife Melissa and their three children. Brandon, we’re so glad to welcome you to the show. Brandon: [00:01:58] Thanks it’s really great to be on. Sandie: [00:02:00] It was especially exciting for me to have him visit Vanguard this fall, and speak to my commercially sexually exploited class. And I think one of the things I noticed about him first when he turned on his slides and started presenting. And of course, my students are focused on prevention and globally when we look at issues of slavery and human trafficking, children are some of the most marginalized. So when he started his slides the first thing I noticed is that there were no pictures of him surrounded by smiling orphans. And I thought Brandon, I’m so proud you’re a Vanguard alum, thank you for coming on our own human trafficking show. Brandon: [00:02:44] Thank you, Dr. Morgan. Sandie: [00:02:46] Now in your bio it talks about how you started and you responded to the passion and the compassion really for children in places where there are not a lot of resources and we all know that following the AIDS crisis in Africa, caring for children became a huge issue. So how did you make the shift from working at an orphanage to developing a family-based solution? Brandon: [00:03:13] Yeah so it is really interesting kind of looking back at the breadth of what we’ve been engaged in for almost a decade now. When I first moved to Tanzania my focus was, I literally felt God calling me to go run an orphanage in Africa. So, I kind of went with that idea of what things were going to be like and started to pursue that. And I worked with some really great people, and they really love the kids, and there was good funding. But when we started to kind of recognize, you know a couple of years in, that there really wasn’t anything done for the kids to make it into families. That it was kind of like you know the kids are going to come in, and this is where they’re going to remain. So just different things were changing in our own families during that time, my wife Melissa and I got pregnant. We started to walk this parenthood journey which really teaches you a lot as well. And I started to recognize wow this really is God’s plan, it’s for a husband and wife to have kids. And that was kind of the impetus that compelled us toward starting Kingdom Families, which we started in 2014. So, you know the first four years of us being engaged in Tanzania, we were doing institutional care and working with the church in other ways. But it was really that understanding of what family is that compelled us towards pursuing family-based options. Sandie: [00:04:45] So I love your website because I’m all about personally partnering public-private with our institution Vanguard University and our government. So on your website, one of the statements I copied and pasted because I liked it so much, is “it is the belief of Kingdom Families, in accordance with Tanzanian policy as well as scripture, that family-based care is the highest standard of care for a child. We believe that...