''WE THINK SOMETIMES THAT POVERTY IS ONLY BEING HUNGRY, NAKED AND HOMELESS. HOWEVER, THE POVERTY OF BEING UNWANTED, UNLOVED AND UNCARED FOR IS THE GREATEST POVERTY. WE MUST START IN OUR OWN HOMES TO REMEDY THIS KIND OF POVERTY''.

MOTHER TERESA

A Vision is Born

Little Saint Orphanage was founded by Pastor Badmus Gbolahan, a native from the region of South West. Gbolahan previously worked as a translator for American missionary groups volunteers. Through this work, Gbolahan had the opportunity to tour many parts of the country, witnessing firsthand the profound level of devastation of Northern people. In terrorism, hardship, children often face the most severe suffering. It was during these travels that Gbolahan was inspired to take action. And so a vision was born – to directly improve the lives of children from the most impoverished conditions in the North.

Taking the Leap

Unlike developed nations that have governmental agencies to provide assistance and care for orphans (foster care), in the north the only care is provided by privately funded orphanages. Gbolahan took a leap of faith in starting Love Home Orphanage with his small personal savings and a big dream. He was offered rent-free space in a building on a commercial street of Banawa, which allowed him to open the orphanage despite limited resources.

On June 4, 1994, with 2 rooms and a few blankets, Love Home Orphanage welcomed its first 4 homeless children to their new home. Little Saint Orphanage has since grown, currently supporting 50 children ages 3 to 15 years old.

Little Saints orphanage has a three-tier programme for the children: Rehabilitation, Reformation and Reintegration

REHABILITATION

The first objective is to take abandoned children off the streets and give them a befitting home. The little saints orphanage structurally is a haven in every measure. The children and babies are rehabilitated under the most conducive conditions with unconditional love and excellent care. Our vision is capital intensive because we initiate and build rehabilitation centers. The hostel within these centers is called "LITTLE SAINTS HOUSE" for orphans, abused and abandoned children brought into the mission through the police or good Samaritans. Little saints house is home away from home for our precious saint

REFORMATION

This is done through Education and extra curricular activities. Education is the best investment in children. The mission is determined to help the little saints as far as they want go to in their pursuit of academic excellence. All Little Saints go to schools located around the orphanage. Presently we have many of them in universities . 

RE-INTEGRATION

They are reintegrated into society through adoption and fostering to deserving and loving families. There is also reconciliation to extended family members. We work in collaboration with the State Ministry of youths, sports and social development on fostering and adoption issues. So far the exercise has yielded great results. In the beginning we appealed through the media for the good citizens to come forward to adopt but as at today the orphanage has a waiting list of adopters yearning for children!

One of our greatest achievements is the impact we have made on adoption by raising the rate of adoption in De Rijp and by enforcing through interaction and motivation the procedures for adoption. The best service one can render to God is to raise up a child in his name to walk in his ways. God is the first to have adopted. He adopted us into his heavenly family through his son Jesus Christ! This is why we must do the same and take every single child away from the streets into the security of a Godly home. It is still unbelievable that a mother would carry a baby for nine months and after going through the near death experience of giving birth she decides to throw the baby in a pit or dump the baby in a dustbin. Our first abandoned baby was brought to the orphanage in a polythene bag. We were shocked! Today that baby is enjoying the love and comfort of a loving family through adoption. Presently, all Babies in Little Saints Orphanage get adopted within a few months after a release order from the court and the social welfare. Glory to God! Little saints' orphanage does not charge a single euro for adoption. Ours is a call to serve humanity. The next step for the people to take is towards fostering on a larger scale . We hope to improve on this in our next stage of impact. When children are brought to us from the streets the Social Welfare seek out extended families for reconciliation, some times they find them but most times they don't.

We have BIG dreams...