Many parishes and orphan care initiatives aim to follow the example of St. Luke's Community-Based Orphans - one of the first models of such care. The rules are simple but demanding:

• Work with all community leaders, traditional chiefs, Muslim leaders, other churches, political activists, women's groups etc
• Accept all orphans, regardless of faith
• Set aside those whose extended families are coping
• Sit down with each family and look together at the hard questions:
  * Is there food to eat?
  Have the orphans got clothes, ballpoint pens and exercise books for school?
  *Can the older ones find money by growing and selling crops or by making mats and baskets to sell at the market?
  *Are illnesses being treated?
  *Do they have mosquito nets (malaria is the biggest killer after Aids)?

The community or parish can only address these problems if they have money to buy food, including the expensive proteins children need - beans, peanuts, fish, eggs, and provide seed, fertiliser, tools, clothes etc.
MACS provides the funds to help parishes and orphan programmes address the needs of community-based care.

MACS has also donated funds towards the highly effective Malindi Orphan Care Group, a project involving permaculture farming and skills training for orphans (see first hand accounts below for more details).