1. Pay the required $35 Application Fee.

2. Complete the application form.

3. We review your application.

4. Our admissions committee makes a decision about your application.

5. We will email you the committee’s decision within 5 business days.

6. If offered an admission, you will need to pay the $350 deposit to accept the offer of admission.

7. After you have accepted the offer of admission, we will schedule a financial planning meeting to help you plan your finances & fundraising.

8. You start making preparations to move to Austin for the 3 Month Training in Austin. After that, you will be headed abroad.

“In the words of Margaret Meade “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the
world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has”.
Indeed Shaping Destiny exemplifies this quote and I pray you will join us promote God’s work.”
Joyce Awuro,
Baltimore, Maryland

“The hearts of the people who work with Shaping Destiny are pure in their motivation to give the poor a better chance in life. This is because Jesus has given us so much, and we want to share what we have with others.”
Grace Brown, MD
Temple, Texas

“Our Key Club at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon has started a pen pal project with the kids at Shaping Destiny’s children’s home. On June 12th we are going to be putting on a race to raise money for the orphanange to build a kitchen. The race is called the Shaping Destiny 5K. We are so excited to help change these kid’s lives and in the process have realized that they have started to change our lives as well.”
Becca Eddy
President of Sheldon Key Club, Eugene, Oregon

“Shaping Destiny has a strong foundation based on Christ’s servant leadership principles and values. I thank God for the good work you are doing and pray that He will continue to guide you and enlarge your tents. I would strongly urge everyone to rally behind this vision and promote the growth of this noble work financially, materially and in prayers.”
Elder Nellie Bakuwa
Omega Church, Houston, Texas

“Shaping Destiny is doing great work in Africa, and soon around the world. The people in the organization have a great passion to help orphans, disadvantaged children, widows and anyone else that desperately needs help. If you truly want to make a difference in this world then I recommend checking out Shaping Destiny”
Nathan Reschke
Southwestern Assemblies of God University, Waxahachie, Texas

It’s one thing to have a good heart to serve orphans. It’s quite another thing to be able to offer them real help that local people can’t offer. Hugging them, teaching them to read, painting houses can all be done by local people better and cheaper than volunteers could ever do. It costs less than $100 per month to hire a well trained school teacher to teach the students all month and do a better job because they know the culture and the language. Sometimes orphans don’t even speak English.  It costs less than $400 per month to hire a well trained medical doctor to care for orphans full-time. But it will cost at least $2,500 for one volunteer to go. Most volunteers who use other agencies to go volunteer end up spending at least $3,000 to go serve for one month. And this is a very conservative estimate. If it’s only about caring for orphans, it will be wise to hire a local school teacher and pay them at $100 per month to care for orphans for 30 months instead of a volunteer going to do it just for one month!

Unemployment rate is usually around 50% in these poor countries. So hiring a local teacher to do the job gives them employment and prevent their own children from going hungry! The job gets done better and their local economy gets stimulated.

Then imagine the risk that the volunteer incurs. The stress of preparing for international travel. Dollar for dollar, it would seem that it’s wasteful to go do something when it could be easily done there by locals who will gain employment and be able to feed their families (so that they too don’t become beggars).

Why take our training?

It equips people to go and help equip the local people while also helping orphans. It trains volunteers to go and help both orphans and their local community instead of going to take jobs that they can be paid to do. If you live in America, for example, where the unemployment rate is 7.7% nationally, what if people from Europe, Australia, & Africa came and volunteered to work for all the nonprofits in America and do the city government jobs? Americans would lose their jobs and unemployment rate will skyrocket! Helping would actually hurt the countries than help them. But what if the European, Australian and African volunteers came and helped make it easier for Americans to get jobs at the same time that they help meet the immediate needs? That would be so much better and respectful. Americans are people who would love to take care of their own poor and their own communities. Going and helping them so they can be a part of helping solve their own problems shows respect for them. It’s better than coming and helping do work in their communities while 50% of them are jobless. Doing that actually worsens the local economy. When they have jobs, they can shop and feed their families. The local shops make money and can feed their own families and employ other people. These other people can also feed their families. All of them can pay taxes and their local governments can become stronger. Going and doing the work free in a way that doesn’t empower them to get jobs or become involved hurts the community.

Our training helps make that possible.

The needs that exist in developing countries provide opportunities for their governments and nonprofits to hire some of them to work and take care of those problems but also be able to put food on the table for their families. So the best way to help is to help and cause no harm. We want to train you to do that.

If volunteers don’t get training, they are more than 99% likely to cause harm than good. It’s important to balance the need to gratify ourselves by going with the need for the people to be empowered and truly helped.

Voluntourism (going and volunteering in poor countries) has become a big business industry. It’s 2 billion dollar industry in the U.S. In 2010, one company, projects-abroad.org made a profit of 3 million U.S dollars that was shared between their two owners. They, like many other volunteer organizations are companies that run for profit. Even when they tell you that they are non-profit, they run for profit. Do your homework and please don’t be one of the people who supports them with your dollars so that they continue to do things that cause harm to poor communities. Doubt what I am saying? Watch this video by a reputable news organization: Watch Video.

Whether you volunteer through us or some other organization, our prayer is that you would do your homework and check our motives before you head out. If you are going to do something that can be done by someone in that community, think twice. Help is always needed in these countries. The trick is to help without hurting. It takes self-less people to help without hurting. Our training really equips you to go help without hurting.

For more information, read this excellent book by two university professors: When helping Hurts.

For another post on this site, read this great post: Why volunteers need training

You can pay the entire tuition in full or in installments.

The next step for you to do is to pay your $350 deposit to confirm your position in the class. The deposit is crucial because it guarantees your position in the class.

We believe that volunteers can change the world. But this doesn’t happen at random. For a volunteer to be effective, they have to be the right person in the right place at the right time. It doesn’t matter how well educated and skillful a volunteer is. If they are not trained, they will end up hurting and not helping the volunteer cause (for us, it is orphans).

Consider this:

1. The unequal expectations of many volunteers: Most people who want to volunteer in an African orphanage will not be excited if an African stranger was to come into their home to cuddle and care for their baby. Yet, they are okay being untrained, unverified strangers that African authorities must simply accept as trustworthy.
2. We are all created equal: All people are created equal and deserve the same level of dignity and care irrespective of the ability to pay. These children may be orphans, but they deserve qualified individuals caring for them just as anyone else. In Europe & the U.S, laws prevent unqualified citizens from serving children or operating daycare centers. These developing countries often have laws on the books to protect children but they are either too corrupt or too poor to enforce these laws. Does that give us the right to go and abuse their weak systems to care for children when we are not qualified? Should we give them the same treatment and care that we ask others in our society to give our children?
3. Psychological trauma & attachment problems: “Short term volunteer visits in orphanages create psychological trauma and attachment problems that have a long lasting damaging effect on the orphans” Says Dr. Ken Acha, MD a U.S. trained missionary physician who has served orphans for seven years. Ask any doctor and they will tell you that loosing a loved one (husband, wife, boyfriend, sibling etc), divorce or breakup between boys and girls, moving from one home to another, even temporal separation from loved ones creates tremendous psychological stress. These children have already gone through so much having lost their parents and many been mistreated. Have you heard stories of volunteers who say the kids “hug them and don’t want let go” when they are leaving? The kids do that with many of them. And that is not healthy! That is psychologically destructive to the child. Can you imagine making good friends and by the time you know and trust them, they are gone… and this happens over and over? It damages your ability or subconscious desire to seek friendships for life! That’s part of the reason why we don’t take any volunteers who want to work less than 2 months. We even encourage six months and up but would accept 2 months when the need is strong but nothing less than 2 months.
4. Many orphanages around the world are run for profit for the owners. They get money from short-term volunteers.
5. Many volunteer matching organizations are multimillion dollar businesses: Many of them are run for profit. Voluntourism is a multimillion dollar industry. Watch the video below and listen to how much profit the owners of projects-abroad.org made in 2010. It’s a company and they made 3 million dollar profit. They took in over 20 million dollars.
6. Unqualified Volunteers: Many orphanages will let an untrained U.S, European or Australian teenager enter a classroom and start teaching kids the first day they arrive. Can you imagine that? How much certification do you need to do that in the U.S or Europe? That sounds like hypocrisy with standards. It’s not okay to take care of a weak government just because it is weak and can’t maintain standards. We should just treat others like we would want to be treated. “Love your neighbor as yourself” Jesus Christ said that.
7. Many of them don’t do background checks: Would you be okay with having perfect strangers with no background checks come and play with your children? We must give to orphans the same love, care, and respect that we give to our own children.
8. Sexual Abuse of Children: In some countries, foreigners have been convicted of starting orphanages so that they can sexually abuse children.
9. Taking jobs from poor local citizens: In many poor countries where volunteers go, the unemployment rate is as high as 60%!!! A high school teenager from the west will raise $4,000 to $5,000 to go and in that community they will hug orphans, paint houses, teach them how to draw, play games with them etc. First, they are unqualified. Second, they will cause psychological trauma & attachment problems when they leave. Third, there are many poor citizens in that country who will be so glad to be trained to do that job better only for $50 per month. Yet, we would spend $4,000 to $5,000 to go for two weeks or one month! When we leave, we hurt the children, we hurt the local economy, we encourage many people to form orphanages to use that to steal money to have a living… etc.

These are just a few problems.

YET THE NEED IS GREAT. HOWEVER, YOU NEED TO BE TRAINED! WE TAKE FEW VOLUNTEERS AT A TIME, we train them and send them to go and not only work with orphans but more importantly work in training local citizens and getting them involved in the work of orphan care. We have orphanages, but many of our kids are put in foster homes where we involve the local community to take care of orphans. And these people don’t get a pay check from any one or a government to care for the children (as is done in the U.S and Europe where the government pays the people living with kids). But these people need training and support. The orphans need counseling. But you can’t go offer counseling when you haven’t been trained. Our director is a trained U.S physician. Some of our volunteers are trained to know the basics of counseling so they can be useful besides just hugging orphans. You have the heart, we can help you do it right… or you can go do it through some organization that won’t make you feel guilty that you are not trained and prepared. Your choice!

We provide training that is very inexpensive. Check out these volunteer giants: projects-abroad.org; globalvolunteers.org; globalvolunteernetwork.org; proworldvolunteers.org. If you calculate the cost of our training and everything you will spend with us, it will be less than the cost of volunteering with them for the same length of time. Yet, they don’t offer any training like we do with our 3 month intensive training program.

The Choice is YOURS. CHOOSE TO CAUSE TRUE CHANGE.

Helpful Articles:
HSRC*: Inside the thriving industry of AIDS orphan tourism, by professor Linda Richter is the executive director of the research programme on Child, Youth, Family and Social Development.

CNN: Voluntourism does more harm than good

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Program Assistant
Consults with:  Program Director and other staff.
Department/Group: Orphan Care Management
Reports to: Program Director
Location: Batibo town, Batibo Subdivision, Momo Division, NW Province, Cameroon, Africa
Is Travel Required: Yes.
Benefits: Please see benefits at the bottom of the page.
Position Type: Full-time, Monday to Friday, 8hrs / day. 40hrs per week.
Contact Person: Poornima Pullan
Recruitment begins: Rolling basis.
Posting Expires: Ongoing
Is Required Training?: Yes, three months of training is provided in Austin, Texas or Cameroon (tuition applies).
Term of Employment: At Least One Year. Renewable on a yearly basis.
Applications Accepted Online : Click here to apply

Job Purpose:
Transform the lives of orphans from homelessness/hopelessness/poverty/exploitation to children who are successful in school, filled with hope; by supervising the recruitment of qualified abandoned orphans from the villages, and putting them into one of our three programs, and providing counseling, meeting needs, and sponsorship

Duties:

The program assistant will work closely with the Program director to:

• Maintains staff by recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training employees.
• Transform orphans’ lives by recruiting, orienting, supporting, coaching, and sending them to school.
• Manage program finances: Oversee all expenditures and receipts of money.
• Ensure that the orphan bases are running properly.
• Ensure that all children in foster homes are well cared for.
• Ensure that all foster parents have been counseled and supported to care for orphans.
• Counsel guardians / relatives of orphans and inform them of expectations.
• Write reports and take photos that will be sent to our U.S team for dissemination to partners.
• Ensure that only qualified orphans are selected for sponsorship.
• Assist in organizing biannual Foster Parent Education Conferences.

Skills/Qualifications:

• Must be able to communicate well in English. Strong sense of customer service. Good organizational skills. Experience with children is helpful but not required.
• Must be highly motivated by a desired to serve the poor and to see lives transformed.
• A high school diploma or equivalent experience is required. For this job, passion, a heart for the poor, commitment to serving the poor are crucial elements together with education and experience in getting the job done.

Benefits >>

Introducing Missionary Jobs in Africa

How about this? If you get one of our missionary jobs in Africa (offered by our missionary to Africa program) instead of paying to serve abroad, you would get paid to work as one of our missionaries in Africa doing the same things you would be volunteering to do (and more). Check out our missionary jobs in Africa and if you think you are passionate about serving orphans and sharing Christ, then apply for one of the missionary to Africa positions below.

Missionary Jobs in Africa: General Requirements

Training is required for our missionary to Africa program.

Before we explain the training requirements for our missionary jobs in Africa, we want to emphasize that training is not only required for missionary jobs in Africa but for all volunteer opportunities that we offer. With the missionary to Africa positions, candidates join our local staff to work as missionaries.
If a person is accepted for any of these missionary jobs in Africa, he or she will be required to go through the Missionary to Africa training program offered by Glory Bible College. They will be required to move to Austin Texas to do this three month training program before traveling to Africa to start work. In September, students can choose to go and do the training in Cameroon and so avoid the costs of moving to Austin. You will be getting this training from Glory Bible College, an institution of Christian Higher Learning with excellent faculty. A small tuition applies.

Why is training required?

Many people who want to serve as missionaries abroad have no prior experience. They usually have amazing hearts filled with love. But a good heart, amazing passion, and good intentions don’t translate to effectiveness. It will be to your benefit to resist the urge of going to volunteer without training. Instead get trained through our Missionary to Africa training program. This training equips the student for effective work as a missionary to Africa and prepares them for life in different in the culture. Also, there are 41,000 denominations of Christians worldwide. People who want missionary jobs in Africa have different levels of understanding of the Christian faith. Our training fills any gaps and makes sure we are all trained and on the same page.

Missionary Jobs in Africa: Job Listings from our Missionary to Africa Program

Click on the following missionary jobs in Africa to read the job description, requirements, and benefits.

If you like our missionary jobs in Africa program, please share these missionary jobs with someone you know may be interested. Why keep it to yourself? Someone you share it with might actually be selected to serve! Some of you may be interested in our missionary jobs in Africa but this is not the right time for you. In that case, book mark it, put it on your blog, Facebook Page etc so that you can come back to it later. We offer our missionary jobs in Africa program each year so when you are ready, we will will be here.

Option 1: Receive Free Food and Room at the orphanage. The advantage of this option is that you don’t have to cook your own meals. You eat in the same auditorium as the orphans (meals are delicious) and live on the same campus as the kids. You will share a large room with one or two other volunteers of the same gender. There would be enough space because the rooms are quite large. You don’t have to clean your own room or wash you own sheets unless you want to.
Option 2: Receive 35,000 to 50,000 FCFA per month. This money will allow you to rent your own apartment, cook your own food, and pay your own electricity and water bills etc. You will be getting the same salary that a local person doing the same job will make. They have to live on that small salary and care for their families as well. So it’s doable. Staff will be able to live on this salary if he/she lives a simple lifestyle like the other colleagues will be living. Local staff will show you how to shop and cook. How much is this money in dollars? Exchange rate changes daily: See the current rate here: Currency Converter Here >>

Medical Care: Basic medical care is provide through local hospitals for treatment of simple job related injuries. There is a limit. Each job applicant or volunteer is required to buy their own travel medical insurance.
Vacation: Two weeks paid vacation.
Paid Sick Leave: Up to 14 days /year of paid sick leave for injury/illness.
Training/Development: We provide on the job training for this position. Tuition applies.
Flexible Working Hours: Can adjust work hours within reason and with approval from management.
Annual Increment pay: Pay will increase annually as with the other staff.
Holidays: Up to 5 paid holidays.
Work Related Expenses: Approved work related expenses except for food are paid for by the organization

We provide everything you need to live like a local African. This is an opportunity to take off the needs and concerns of a western society and live simply with all your basic needs met like a local African staff does! Feel free to contact us for questions.

click here >> Apply for Missionary Jobs.