Blog

Education: ASM provides student sponsorships for children from extremely poor families. An annual sponsorship provides one student with uniforms, school fees, and school supplies as well as contributing to teacher training initiatives to enhance the quality of eduction provided.

Health & Nutrition: Malnutrition not only stunts physical growth, it also permanently affects brain development.  A child’s ability to learn in school greatly depends on adequate nutrition and overall health.  ASM is tackling child mulnutrition in tandem with local schools, churches, and Savings and Credit Asociations (SCAs) in a way that will improve immediate health & nutrition and improve long-term prospects of sustained health.

Child Protection and Rights:  All children, regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity or gender,  have the right to be protected from abuse, neglect and exploitation.  At ASM, we teach, train and empower parents, teachers, religious and community leaders to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to protect children and youths and respect their rights.

Spiritual Formation: Our aim is to provide a context in which children can first and foremost experience God’s love.  When that happens, it impacts all other relationships, enabling them to enjoy positive relationships with peers, family, and community members.  Furthermore, they learn about and appropriate their role as stewards of God’s creation.

Child Development

• Education: ASM provides student sponsorships for children from extremely poor families. An annual sponsorship provides one student with uniforms, school fees, and school supplies as well as contributing to teacher training initiatives to enhance the quality of eduction provided.
• Spiritual Formation: Our aim is to provide a context in which children can first and foremost experience God’s love. When that happens, it impacts all other relationships, enabling them to enjoy positive relationships with peers, family, and community members.  Furthermore, they learn about and appropriate their role as stewards of God’s creation.
• Health & Nutrition: Malnutrition not only stunts physical growth, it also permanently affects brain development. A child’s ability to learn in school greatly depends on adequate nutrition and overall health.  ASM is tackling child mulnutrition in tandem with local schools, churches, and Savings and Credit Asociations (SCAs) in a way that will improve immediate health & nutrition and improve long-term prospects of sustained health.
• Child Protection and Rights: All children, regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity or gender,  have the right to be protected from abuse, neglect and exploitation.  At ASM, we teach, train and empower parents, teachers, religious and community leaders to ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to protect children and youths and respect their rights.

Community Development

• Economic Empowerment

      Savings And Credit Associations

Those in rural communities generally save their money to provide schooling for their remaining children or to buy seeds or livestock.

Those in semi-urban or urban communities generally have entrepreneurial goals and are working towards starting small businesses.

SCAs are also ideal contexts for training on a variety of topics of direct relevance to members.

To support ASM’s work in establishing SCAs and enhancing existing SCAS with relevant workshops.

• Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH

In conjunction with WASH,ASM provides a means for families to obtain clean water which otherwise isn’t available.

Household water filters:  Waterborne illnesses cause children to miss school days and contribute to malnutrition in the entire household.  Clean water is priceless.

• Sustainable Energy

ASM partners with families in obtaining energy products which result in significant immediate and long-term impact.

Improved fuel-efficient stoves:  The time spent collecting firewood and the respiratory illnesses caused from cooking without adequate ventilation create barriers to health and limit time available for schoolwork or economically productive tasks.

Lights for Homework: The majority of rural homes have no electricity.  ASM partners with families in obtaining environmentally friendly lights so students have adequate time to complete their assignments.

Church Engagement and Empowerment

ASM partners with local churches which are active in the communities where ASM’s sponsored students live.

Our empowerment approach involves teaching churches about the multi-dimensional nature of poverty, which then broadens the church’s understanding of holistic ministry. 

With this foundation, ASM then acts as a facilitator as churches develop context-appropriate strategies for their outward-focused vision of addressing all forms of poverty to bring about holistic community transformation.