OA's Beginnings
OrphanAid Africa was founded by Lisa Lovatt-Smith in October 2002. Lisa is an established author whose published work includes 13 books on design and photography. She was an editor at Vogue magazine for many years while living in both Spain and France. In 2002 Lisa decided to volunteer with her daughter at children’s home in Ghana. There were more than 100 destitute and abandoned children living at the home, some brought to the home by police or social welfare workers because the children’s parents had died of endemic sicknesses such as malaria, AIDS, or tuberculosis. Very often, however, the children were abandoned because the parents simply couldn’t afford to take care of them. This experience proved to be so life changing for Lisa that she left behind her glamorous lifestyle in Europe and moved to Ghana full-time. Her desire to help orphans was a long-lasting and substantial one, driving her to launch OrphanAid Africa with the aim of helping make sure no child should need to grow up in an institution, unloved and with few prospects for the future.