Providing one-on-one attention, care, and love to the world’s most vulnerable of children.
Without loving human interaction, children living in orphanages can lose one month of linear growth for every three months they spend in institutionalized care.
Spence-Chapin created the Granny Program in 1998 to address this problem and improve the lives of vulnerable children around the world. The Program brings loving caregivers, or “Grannies,” to help the children they work with overcome significant developmental delays, learn what it is to trust and love, and receive the attention and care they deserve.
Spence-Chapin is currently running Granny Programs in Colombia, Ghana, and South Africa.
The Granny Program is only able to operate and expand through the generosity of our supporters.
More than 5 million children around the world reside in orphanages. The majority of these children have been exposed to significant trauma, neglect, violence, and loss in their short lives. When they arrive at an institution, the group environment and lack of resources too often mean that they become deprived of consistent, nurturing human interaction. Without someone in their corner to advocate for their needs and provide them with nurture and support, children experience lifelong detrimental effects, including developmental delays, challenges with healthy attachment, and struggles with mental health. The Granny Program is there to change that.
The Granny Program utilizes a simple yet effective model to create profound change in the lives of children residing in institutionalized care. The Granny Program model screens, selects, and trains “Grannies” from the local community to visit individually with their assigned children five days a week, with a focus on speech and language development, motor skills enhancement, and relationship attachment skills building. Grannies receive extensive training in general child care, secure attachment, bonding, supporting a child who has experienced loss or trauma, and play therapy models. Unlike traditional volunteer models, Grannies are paired with their child long-term, often for their duration in the children’s home.
Over 90% of children experience marked improvements in their developmental milestones and emotional and mental health within six months of being paired with a Granny. Children who were significantly behind in learning to speak, walk, or write begin communicating, take their first steps, and hold their crayon with confidence. Those who had been labeled “problem children,” who exhibited emotional outbursts, began to play well with their peers, communicate their needs and feelings, and learn tools to help them manage their emotions. The Grannies also experience profound transformation, feeling a renewed sense of purpose, and gaining skills and knowledge that they share with their families and communities.
The Granny Program serves hundreds of children, and we believe that each of those children deserve to dream of a better future. That’s why we created Dear Future, an exhibition featuring the deeply impactful stories and dreams of children living in an orphanage in Cali, Colombia. This is more than just an art exhibit. It’s a movement born to raise awareness about the urgent importance of supporting vulnerable children around the world.
Dear Future does not have any in-person exhibitions currently planned, but you can still experience the exhibition online through our virtual tour. Have a space you would like to see Dear Future in? We would love to work with you. Reach out to us through this contact form.
Supporting the dreams and futures of children living in institutionalized care not only matters—it makes the world a better place.
The Step Up initiative empowers children in institutionalized care by allowing them to choose their own new pair of back-to-school shoes and bookbags each year.
Project Play is a program dedicated to building new structured outdoor playgrounds and providing birthday and holiday gifts for children in institutionalized care.
Learn about Spence-Chapin’s domestic and international initiatives aimed at providing targeted humanitarian aid and sustainable solutions to address community needs worldwide.
Waiting Children Profiles
Thank you for your interest in adopting through Spence-Chapin! We are able to share the profiles of children who are considered to be the most in need and are waiting internationally to be matched with an adoptive family. The children featured on this page have been waiting for the longest to find families and consist of children who are older, part of a sibling group, or children with a diagnosed medical condition. In order to respect the privacy of these children, this page has been password protected.
Spence-Chapin takes the privacy rights of the children that we are seeking to place very seriously, and share the profile with you under the following conditions:
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF PASSWORD ACCESS
That you acknowledge and understand that
1. Misuse of the content, and/or linking to any sites that reflect practices that involve the sale, abduction, exploitation, or trafficking of children is strictly prohibited.
2. You have been given limited access to confidential information in the form of images that you will not disclose to any person or in any manner that is inconsistent with applicable policies and procedures of Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children.
3. The confidentiality obligation shall continue indefinitely, including at all times after my association with Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children.
4. You are not permitted to release, copy, distribute, or sell any of these images to third parties in any form.
5. Impermissible disclosure of the images may result in legal actions being taken against you, by or on behalf of that person.
6. You are doing this freely, voluntarily and with a full understanding of what you are agreeing to by entering/accessing this blog.
7. Thank you for your interest in providing a loving home for a waiting child! We look forward to connecting with you soon to continue discussing adoption paths at Spence-Chapin. We hope that you like us on Facebook, follow us on twitter, and keep up with our families through our adoption blog!
Warm regards,
The Adoption Team at Spence-Chapin
Phone: 212-400-8150
Email: [email protected]
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