An Orphan Spirit does not discriminate by Religious Belief. This Evil Spirit affects Christians, Jews, Muslims and all others equally. The result is an Orphaned Heart. For over a decade, Orphaned Heart International has been sharing Christ’s healing with victims of violence, trauma, and injustice bringing about regional transformation of East Africa mainly Uganda, Kenya, and Rwanda.

Today, the rebranded Orphaned Heart Intl has begun expanding into Tanzania, Nigeria and the United States with open doors to move into Liberia, DR Congo, and the UK. Now our focus includes Orphan Care workers, Foster and single parents of preschool thru 12th grade children in addition to Pastors and lay leaders.

East Africa collaboration with the Church of Uganda and the Church of Rwanda (Province de L’Eglise Anglicane au Rwanda) involves training clergy and lay leaders in trauma pastoral care and healing ministry. But we also reach the hurting people directly by holding large, regional, 4-Day Festivals that follow the pattern recorded in Isaiah 61.

Preach the Gospel to the poor. Heal the brokenhearted. Bind their (traumas) wounds. Set the captives free (deliverance from an "orphaned heart").

Our Founder, Janet Helms, a graduate of Trinity School for Ministry and longtime member of Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, PA, has been helping orphans in Uganda since 2001 through a kinship model. In 2006, she started working with students from Uganda Christian University (UCU) to bring psychological and spiritual healing to those who have been orphaned by AIDS, polygamy, violence, and abandonment. She helped students to form a spiritual family through sharing their stories, praying for each other, studying Scripture, and doing ministry together. “This is about empowering Africans to teach Africans,” she said.

That July, Helms organized the conference, “Healing the Orphaned and Broken Heart,” to bring healing to clergy and students and to train them in how to share that healing with others. Some of the clergy who attended the conference came from Rwanda and carried the teaching they received with them back to Rwanda, which has many orphans from the genocide in 1994. The Rev. Ernest Mahoro, a priest from Rwanda who attended the Conference at UCU, commented, “People have no emotion. They do not laugh or cry. The psychological and spiritual wounds have not healed. Now we have young adults who are committing suicide. This wound does not heal without spiritual intervention.”