Emergency Medical & Special Needs Program
At Acres of Love, we are passionate about welcoming the most vulnerable children; those living with disabilities who cannot find adequate care elsewhere.
More than 40% of children admitted to our care have moderate to severe medical needs. These include HIV/ AIDS, tuberculosis, cerebral palsy, cancer, down syndrome, paralysis, autism, hearing impairment, CHARGE syndrome, spina bifida, Prader-Willi syndrome, Hemophilia, Ehler-Danlos syndrome, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and severe malnutrition. These children require individualized care to allow for best possible outcomes. Both HIV and FASD are unique in that many of our children come to us with HIV or FASD in addition to other disabilities. Acres of Love strives to ensure that each child:
Receives the specialized care, education, and assistance they need to develop soundly.
Has a team of specialists to ensure that short and long-term needs will be met with the highest possible quality of health and residential family care available.
Lives in a safe, nurturing, and happy environment, with the support and security needed to develop to reach his or her fullest potential.
Feels welcomed into a permanent family, with a sense of stability and future free of abuse and neglect.
Receives a sound and individually tailored education plan, leading to a fulfilling life.
The primary goal of our EMSN Program is to equip and empower our Acres of Love team (social workers and Team Coordinators) to accept children with progressively more medically complex needs into our Family Homes. We want to continue to meet the expected and unexpected needs of our infants and children with emergency and extra medical needs.
The EMSN Program is crucial to our future success in caring for children with more complex medical needs. Our EMSN budgetary framework is vertically integrated and designed to fund specific line items, in order to supplement the Family Home continuum-of-care model program (which is horizontal in structure); allowing us to provide long-term, holistic care.
We believe that each life has value, not determined or affected by medical needs. Our commitment to serving the most vulnerable population of children in South Africa is lived out on a daily basis as we continue to welcome children into our Family Homes who are literally struggling to survive. However, Acres of Love is committed to helping the children do more than survive; we help them thrive.
