Question 1

Why are there more girls than boys?

Accepted Answer

We initially started as a girls only house. Females are more frequently abandoned than males. Their ability to work or become educated in this country is severely limited, so they are considered a burden to the family. Boys are seen to have more value because they can become laborers at a young age and contribute to the income of the family. 
 
However, we quickly realized that many orphaned and abandoned girls have brothers in need of a home and care as well. As we don’t want to introduce more trauma into the lives of these girls, we keep sibling groups together when bringing them into the orphanage.

Question 2

How many kids can the House support?

Accepted Answer

Although the house is set up to care for 10 children, due to overwhelming need we are at 24 children. We plan to open more houses as our support grows. The need in this country is tremendous as there are literally tens of thousands of orphaned and abandoned girls in just the city in which the orphanage is located.

Question 3

What does my donation go towards?

Accepted Answer

100% of your donation goes towards meeting the needs of the children. All US board members and officers are volunteers, so there is no administrative overhead. Your donation will provide quality food, excellent living conditions, security, a quality education, and most of all, adults that will love the children every day. Our goal is to ensure donors know that every penny they give is accounted for. Financial decisions are made by the board of directors, so no one person has spending authority. If you ever have questions about our finances, please reach out to Dave via our Contact page. Transparency is always our goal.

Question 4

How does AHA get children?

Accepted Answer

Agape House Asia works with a network of in country Christian pastors to identify potential candidates. We then perform a background check to ensure that the potential candidates are either true orphans (no living parents) or abandoned children (parents no longer want legal custody and have left them on the streets). We then work through our lawyer to gain legal guardianship of the child. At that point, the child is under our guardianship.

Question 5

I want to get involved. What can I do?

Accepted Answer

Our most important need is prayer. We are a Christian organization operating in a 98% Muslim country. Discrimination against Christians is commonplace and discrimination against Christian orphan girls is rampant. There is no social safety net for these girls – once they are on the street, they are on their own. Many won’t survive to adulthood. This is as hostile an environment as can be imagined and we are utterly dependent on the grace of God and our reliance on His guidance. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive monthly prayer requests. 
 
Additionally, you can donate. Pakistan continues to experience double digit inflation. Most of our operating costs, medical costs, etc. have increased by over 30% year over year. We strive to make the organization work as efficiently as possible, but inflation is making it very difficult to maintain our current level of support for these children.

Our goal is to ensure these kids are cared for and loved, so that when they reach age 22 they are well prepared to be successful and true ambassadors of the love of Christ. Check out our Donate page for more information on this.
 
We may have other unique and specific needs that you can help with. Share your gifts and talents with us so that we can find an avenue for you to leverage those in helping the organization.

Question 6

Why do you only focus on Christian orphans?

Accepted Answer

In this country, a person’s religious identity is stated on their national ID card. Given the very real religious discrimination that occurs, this identity pretty much determines the fate of every child. We would like to care for as many children as possible and in no way want to discriminate against who we intake based on the religion of the parent of the child. However, the laws of this country strictly prohibit a Christian organization from interacting with any child of a different stated religion – especially Muslims. The fact that the Muslim child may be living on the street has no bearing on whether or not we can help them. Therefore, we can only intake children identified to have biological Christian parents.

Question 7

Why are House expenses so high?

Accepted Answer

The economics of the country in which we operate are very complicated. Because of taxes, import tariffs, and a general lack of local manufacturing, products cost the same as and typically much more than they do in the US, despite the median income being
significantly lower than in the US. Also, inflation has been running at 30%, year over year, since Covid. This has led to a dramatic spike in costs for everything from medical care to drinking water.

This means our monthly expenses run much higher than what one would typically expect for a third world country. Additionally, there is almost no infrastructure in this country. Water must be trucked in, which is expensive. Corruption is rampant and bribes are required to conduct business such as making house repairs, etc. Import tariffs push prices very high. A used car that may cost $3,500 in the US will typically sell for $14,000.

Question 8

What is the long term vision for Agape House?

Accepted Answer

Although our original vision was to develop multiple Agape Houses with roughly 10 kids per house, that has proven untenable at this time. Our short-term goal is to get these kids moved to a safer area. Our current location is vulnerable to mobs as well as rampant crime. It will cost roughly $500,000 to procure a walled, compound type property capable of housing 25 to 30 children.

Once we have made this move, we intend to repurpose our current house to meet the needs of additional Christian children and their families. Persecution of Christians is growing in Pakistan and we feel led to use our current facility to help these family’s fleeing danger.

Longer term we hope to create additional homes for children. This will take longer than anticipated but we feel God will open doors as we are capable of meeting these massive needs.

Frequently Asked Questions