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Wow Cares for Orphans
and Widows

WOW has always been about Home Based Care (HBC) for vulnerable orphans and widows. Our mandate, then and now, is to be “the hands and feet of Jesus” to dying and at-risk orphans and widows with a view to representing the Lord to them as “father to the fatherless and defender of widows” (Ps. 68:5).

WOW makes thousands of HBC visits every year. These are made by our “army” of local church volunteers (mainly widows themselves) who lovingly care for the sick and the dying with great dignity. 

Our Values

My call was, “Every church a Mother Teresa”.

Jim Cantelon, WOW Founder and President

Home Based Care

Testimony

This is sixty-four year old Chilembwe. He is married with six children and he says: 

In 1997, I fell sick. Volunteers from Somebody Cares Ministries began home-based care visits. With their encouragement, I began taking medication. I was afraid of death, and they encouraged me to join a support group. Now I am volunteering. I have a connection with the Lord. My anxiety has ceased. Our life returned to as it was before HIV, with me and my wife working and farming. Knowledge of the Lord gave me encouragement to live. Each year, we’ve had a good harvest and the profits pay for my children’s school fees.

Praise God for Home Based Care!

What does Home Based Care involve?

 – twice weekly visits from trained church-based volunteers 

– medicine

– food packages

– transport to clinics and hospitals

– bicycles for our volunteers 

– regular monitoring & evaluation

HBC is comprehensive and each visit begins with prayer. Indeed, our ministry is predicated on both teaching and practising the love of God for the “weakest link”.

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Our Partners
in Ministry

WOW’s core values include a commitment to working with local church-based “champions”. These are proven partners who care for vulnerable orphans and widows with faithful integrity. All five of our partners in four countries mobilize hundreds of volunteers in weekly outreach that includes medical, nutritional, and spiritual support.

In Lilongwe, Malawi WOW works with “Somebody Cares Malawi” (SCM), a comprehensive organization that provides Home Based Care (HBC) for thousands. SCM and WOW are entering their third decade of ministry to the vulnerable.

WOW has two outstanding champion partners in Zambia – Impact Community Outreach (ICO) in the city of Kabwe and CHRESO in the capital Lusaka. Like SCM in Malawi they provide critical HBC for thousands of vulnerable orphans and widows. WOW has been working with these remarkable Zambian partners for over twenty years.

In South Africa, WOW’s champion partner is Cross Connect Community Outreach (CCCO). Led by Kyle Tolman, a young Johannesburg pastor and his team of volunteers, it has a huge impact in the rescue and critical care of desperate orphans in the “irregular settlements” surrounding Johannesburg. WOW and CCCO have been working together for several years helping in the establishment of a new ministry center reaching more children and impacting more communities.

Apart from these long running partnerships in sub-Saharan Africa WOW has been engaged with both Polish and Ukrainian churches in providing food, clothing, and medications for women and children displaced by the recent conflict with Russia. This has been in direct response to the unexpected and disastrous fallout from the war. WOW is grateful for the generous relief funding provided by compassionate donors.

Esther & Helmut Reutter with THE CANTELONS

Chreso

Jim Cantelon & Eric Mwambelo

Impact Community Outreach
and Rob’s Farm

Dalton Silomba, Jim Cantelon & Justin Simbeye

Impact Community Outreach
and Rob’s Farm

Kyle & Niki Tolman with Matthew

Cross Connects Community Outreach and House Nehemiah

Theresa Malila

Founder and director of Somebody Cares MALAWI

Keta Ngosi

Director of Somebody
Cares MALAWI

Chipo Nkhosa

HEALTH COORDINATOR SOMEBODY CARES MALAWI

Ed Dickson

Director Loads of Love

A word from our volunteers
and Partners

“I love being a Home Based Care volunteer because I believe it is one way of me living the testimony I am. Each time I see a patient, my life is able to speak to them because I tell them how sick I was and now I am OK. That’s what drives me.” – DOROTHY

“Being grounded in the word of God is what makes me feel good and I have a passion to serve the sick.” – VIOLET

“I feel energized to give more of my time caring for the sick in my community.” – PATUMA

Instagram and Newsfeed

April 16, 2025

| Jim Cantelon |
As I read this, I thought of Pontius Pilate’s rhetorical question as Jesus was brought before him for judgement, “What is truth?” This question resonates throughout history. Truth is the foundation for life. If that foundation is shaken who can build a life?

April 02, 2025

| Jim Cantelon |
HIV afflicted people who had been living free from worry because of these meds are now facing a grim future ending in an early grave.

March 19, 2025

| Jim Cantelon |
The recent decision by the White House to shut down USAID is having a chilling effect on WOW’s African ministry partners. For 25 years WOW has been on the forefront mobilizing local African churches in the care of orphans and widows victimized by HIV and AIDS. This has seen us engaged not only with this […]
Read more

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