By KELSEY HAZLEWOOD
The Arizona Republic
June 21, 2007 - It’s About Giving Post
Carla Crain used to be a high school teacher at Boulder Creek High School in Anthem, Arizona. She looked forward to summer vacation just like everyone else, but her vacation plans were different.
Cain’s love for children extended far beyond the classroom to orphans across the globe. About four years ago, Crain embarked on her first international volunteer mission to Kenya to help run a Bible camp for children.
Two years later, she helped run another Bible camp in Zambia through another organization.
While trying to plan her third trip, Cain felt she could make an even greater impact by providing her physical skills as well.
“I decided I wanted to go with an organization that did a little more building,” Cain said. “More than just Bible schools.”
Through her church, Cain found Glendale-based Hope 4 Kids International. She traveled to Uganda to assist with medical clinics and construction, and fell in love with the organization.
“I felt like they did more to increase (the villagers’) lifestyle,” Cain said.
Two years later, Cain became the full-time team director for the group and is in charge of planning all the international volunteer trips. There are seven she has planned for this year, including projects in Africa, Peru and Romania.
“I don’t go on all of them, unfortunately,” Cain said.
Hope 4 Kids was started 33 years ago and has been in more than 94 countries, said Angie Simon, who is in charge of public relations at the organization.
“Our mission is to bring love, dignity, joy and hope,” Simon said.
The organization provides a number of services to the countries they visit. They host free medical clinics and provide services such a blood and dental work. The organization also does a lot of construction work and painting, and volunteers even helped build a 37-room hospital in Uganda.
Another function of the organization besides the volunteer trips is sponsoring orphans. Currently there are more than 1,000 children with AIDS sponsored through Hope 4 Kids. They also have a 200-acre piece of farmland in Uganda where volunteers raise livestock and various crops that help feed the children in surrounding villages. Volunteers give food to the children, play with them and teach Bible school lessons, Cain said.
Most of the volunteers are medical professionals or teams from various church organizations. However, Cain said anyone is able to go. In fact, she highly encourages it.
“You can tell people all day long what Africa or a third-world country was like, but until you actually see it for yourself, there’s really no describing it,” Cain said.
Cain feels her son has captured the program’s essence when he returned from his volunteer trip to Africa and told her, “That was the happiest place on earth.”
