Reddit mentions of Roofs and Roots: The Care of Separated Children in the Developing World

>How would you say you are qualified for what you are doing? Family-based care is complicated business and I certainly wouldn't trust myself to set up a program from scratch. Did you consult anyone before you started? How did you find the initial cash and partners down there?

Well, I should point out that in my branding/design career I worked with lots of non-profits and also with corporate startups. I saw how they were structured, and had already developed something of an organizational philosophy, mostly based on the gaps I saw in strategic planning of complex programs. So, that helped.

As far as the actual family care aspect, I spent a lot of time analyzing what didn't work, read a ton of research, and consulted with anyone in the field who would talk to me. One publication that really helped was called Roots and Roofs. It spelled out in clear detail with compelling research that most residential orphan care produces bad results, and that keeping kids in stable families is the best option.

Faced with the reality that many kids we encountered had no stable families that could or would care for them, I began to work with our Cambodian staff to determine how we could create a model that is scalable (providing care to lots of kids), but maintains as many positive attributes of a "real" family (e.g. single family dwellings, full-time directors who raise their own bio kids along with the orphaned kids, group meals, shared tasks, long-term planning, family vacations, etc.). From there, it was a lot of trial and error, and a lot of trust in our indigenous staff to raise the kids with a balance of international standards for child care and local standards for cultural family models and roles.

>What would you say has been the toughest challenge you faced in the following categories: red tape at home (US), red tape abroad, culture at home, culture abroad (culture shock perhaps?)

Red tape at home Proper accounting standards and board structures.

Red tape abroad Oh, there are so many. But we put a high priority on hiring wise (and sometimes crafty) locals to help us navigate these waters. But simple banking tasks, government registrations and permits, contract negotiations, etc. that would take a few hours or days in the U.S. take months and even years in Asia. I can elaborate more, but I'm trying to bust this out before I leave the office.

Culture at home Although we're a Christian organization, we're pretty diverse and intentionally multi-denominational. Each of the congregations we work with has a different internal culture, and sometimes different motivations and contextualizations for the value of our shared projects. This is difficult. It's also often tough to contextualize what's going on overseas for people who don't understand the cultural contexts within which we work. Hell, I don't always understand the culture. But I have to act as an interpreter, deciding what to tell and how to tell it.

Culture abroad This could be its own post. Or book. Or library. I am and will always be a student of the cultures within which I work overseas. I'll also always be an outsider, and that's important to acknowledge. The one area that is most vexing is what is often considered "honesty/forthrightness." Because our Asian counterparts view the world so completely differently, and view hierarchy differently, and view "face" differently, it is easy to feel like you're being lied to constantly. It takes a lot of effort to view things through a more passive (not precisely, but sort of) lens. I just want my counterparts to come straight out and tell me the bad news without softening the blow to save me or them face. It never, ever happens that way, even though we work hard to put partially bi-cultural people in positions of influence in the organization.

>Do you sometimes feel that what you are doing is missionary work?

I feel like I'm on a mission, but I'm not a missionary, if that makes sense.

>How many churches are supporting your cause these days?

About 20.

>How do you choose the area you want to support? Are you 100% convinced that every medical clinic and school was absolutely necessary? I know this is a bit of a tough question, don't answer it if you don't want to. I just know that dealing with redundancy of programs due to unsound advice / outright lies and corruption can be awful to deal with.

Once we decided to pursue a model of residential care that fit our capabilities and our philosophical framework, we dumped all of the projects that didn't directly enhance the lives of the kids living within that model. We don't do medical clinics anymore; we send our kids to local doctors. Although we do operate one school in a neighborhood that has no other good options, the vast majority of our kids go to local schools. We are very focused, and say "no" all the time, often to the displeasure of our staff, our supporters and even our board members.

>How do you keep indigenous workers doing what they should be doing? I know we occasionally have trouble from our branches over there because they do not mention problems until it is too late as they are afraid of losing face.

This is a constant battle. When we succeed, it's because we invest heavily in relationships with a very small number of people at the top, specifically our national directors and a few other project leads. We try to encourage proactive reporting, but that would never happen if we tried to maintain close relationships with home directors, tutors and help staff. We talk via Skype every week with our top guys, we send board members overseas regularly just to hang out, and we bring our top staff to the States as often as possible. I am careful to never get angry about bad news -- I only get mad when bad news has been kept from me.

I hope this helps. I have to go pick my son up from soccer. I will continue to answer follow ups if you like!