Guyana: Children's Center

Barbara Burrowes van Praag
April 1985

When a neighbor told Mrs. Barbara van Praag, our missionary to Guyana, about a piece of property for sale in the capital city of Georgetown, she knew it had to be a very special place indeed. The building was a large yard space with the word "God" designed into the floral arrangement.

The house and property was at first used as a Unification Church center, but it was located too near the general hospital to allow for expressive singing during Sunday service.

On Christmas day, 1974, a local one-year-old baby was thrown out of a window by his stepfather. The church center took the child in, and it has been used as an orphanage ever since. Named the Joshua House, the orphanage has sheltered over 700 children from age one to 16, and has accommodated as many as 60 children at one time.

"The children discover a new family here," said Mrs. van Praag. "The children call the people who take care of them 'aunt' and `uncle'."

She said that many of the children come from the northern part of the country -- the area of Jamestown -- and feels that some may have been saved from the 1978 massacre in that city. The orphanage was run for eight years solely by the Guyana family. In 1982 the orphanage began to receive help from the International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF). They sent a crew and donated $10,000 to restore the building. In late 1984 the building began to lean to one side and the entire three stories had to be almost completely taken apart and restored. The work is now almost done.

The Joshua House orphanage before restoration.

"We are now trying to extend the bottom floor into a nursery school, but still lack the $3,000 necessary to do this," said Mrs. van Praag.

If the children are indigent and not orphaned they keep their original religion. A volunteer from the AMC Zion Church comes and teaches them once a week, and they are also sent out to a Sunday school each week.

The orphanage sponsors a small choir of children age 12 and under, known as the Seraphim Choir. There is also a "Friend of Joshua House" committee made up of non-Unificationists who serve the project in whatever ways they can. Because of this social project, the government fully recognizes the Unification Church as a religious organization.

This year there are plans to expand the educational level and teach Spanish to the children. (Guyana is an English-speaking nation.)

The church also sponsors the East Garden Youth Organization, for young people age 12-30. This is a popular organization that offers debating, athletics and educational projects involving about 40 young people.

They might even include gardening in their activities, since "God" still exists in the yard and needs a little trimming from time to time.