About
Fontaine Children's Charity Foundation (FCCF)
Fontaine Children's Charity Foundation is working with street children living in the city of Nampula in northern Mozambique. We provid the funding to run a program for 80 street boys, ages 6-18, so that they get not only basic human rights, but also love, support and hope.
Right now the program runs twice a week, on Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s. On those days they get food, education, medical attention and time to play and have fun. There is a transitional housing being built that started in May 2007, and we are hoping for it to be completed early 2009.
When complete, the dorm like structure will provide shelter for up to 50 boys. While they live there, the goal is to give them couciling, education, food, medicine, and life skills around the clock. If they have family; whether it be parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc., we want to help them transition back into the homes of their family so that they are permanently off the streets. They will still receive continued support in terms of school fees, uniforms/clothes, food and medical attention if needed from us. With those boys back home, we can bring more boys into the building, off the street and hopefully back home as well. For the boys who do not have living relatives they will live at the building until they are old enough to work and support themselves.
The money raised from the Foundation's various fundraisers and donations received goes toward maintaining the program. All the members of the Board of Directors are volunteers and all funds go directly to running the program and building projects.
The board of directors are:
Tiffany Fontaine – Founder/Director
Sherry Fontaine – Secretary/Treasurer
Janice Tiberio – Director
Laura Istead – Communications Director
Ray Fontaine – Director
Mia Fontaine – Director
Mary Greenan - Director
Laura Boyd - Director
The People:
We work with the Arao family; Moises, his wife Connie and their children Graca, Lethabo and Tariro. The program has been their’s from the start (Mozambique City Mission), but Tiffany Fontaine (the founder of FCCF), volunteered with them in 2002 and decided to help support the program. Since then, the funding that Moises and Connie used to get from South Africa and the United States ended, and we are now the sole source of funds for the program. They live on a large plot of land just outside Nampula in an area called Natiquiri. Their lives are dedicated to working with the street children, and are truly an inspiration.
The street boys are a unique and amazing group. There are no street girls because girls are usefull as domestic help and nannies; although some underprivileged girls do benefit from the program. This doesn’t mean they don’t also suffer hardships, but they do not live on the streets. We do help some girls with school fees, clothes, food and medicine. The boys are on the streets for many different reasons. Some have no parents; they have died from AIDS, disease, landmines, or other causes. Some leave home because the situation there isn’t worth saying for. Perhaps there is no money or food, so they try to live off the street. Perhaps there is a step parent who doesn’t want them around, or they suffer from abuse at home. Each boy has his story. Each boy has fear of his life on the streets. But each boy also has hope, and still knows how to laugh and smile.
How we do what we do:
FCCF sends $2230 USD every month to Moises and Connie to run the program. That pays for food, school fees, supplies, fuel, staff, etc. Once the transitional housing is complete, the monthly budget will increase significantly. For detailed information on the budget please contact us.
On Tuesday’s and Wednesday’s, Moises goes into Nampula (15 minute drive from their house in Natiquiri) and picks up as many boys as he can, returns home to drop them off and goes back until they are all, or whoever wants to be there is at the program. Then the boys have to wash up and clean their clothes. Then they play until everyone is done washing. They have soccer balls, volleyballs and net, basketballs and net, frisbee’s, and footballs to play with. Once everyone is ready, Alima and Luis take them into the small bamboo classroom and teach them everything from hygene and disease prevention, to mathematics and spelling. While they are in class, Theresa is preparing their meal of usually beans with meat and veggies, and rice, but because of increasing rice prices, Moises now buys “shema” which is a maize meal that taste sort of like grits.
Moises and Connie have a chicken farm which helps bring in some income and provides the meat that the family and street boys eat. They hope to also have a much bigger garden then they have now so that they won’t have to buy much at all from the market or grocery store. When the boys live at the transitional housing, they will be on a rotation of chores. One group will be in charge of helping with the chickens, another with the garden/farm, another with laundry, another with cooking, and another with cleaning the building. This way the boys learn life skills that will allow them to be self sufficient. Perhaps some of them will start chicken farms of their own to raise and sell chickens and eggs, or to at least raise enough for themselves. Moises’ wish is that the boys who go through the program help change Mozambique and stay contected to the program. So that one day, they can keep it going even if Moises isn’t there. Hopefully the reason will be that Moises, Connie and their kids are visiting us in Canada!
The Country:
Mozambique was one of the poorest countries in the world. The Portuguese colonized it and therefore the official language is Portuguese. Independence in 1975 brought civil war which only recently ended in 1992. As a result, the country is scattered with land mines and only the areas around the cities have been cleared, although work on this continues. As in many African countries, health is an issue and there are the usual diseases running ramped; AIDS, malaria, parasites, and diarrhea to name a few. Despite all this, the future looks bright for Mozambicans. The economy is getting better, and Nampula has changed immensely since 2002. It is very exciting to see what the future holds; not just for the street kids, but for all of Mozambique.
For more information please feel free to Contact Us.