About Us

About IVO

How we care

Since its founding, International Voice of the Orphan (or IVO as we like it call it!) has tirelessly worked to care for the special needs orphan through four core areas; providing a safe home at The Gem Foundation, providing Surgeries/Medical Care via Ruby’s Friends, Feeding The Orphan and Short Team Go Teams to serve the orphans.  IVO led teams serve the orphans while giving others the opportunity to witness first hand the orphan crisis and have their hearts also stirred to action.

special needs orphan laughing
About IVO

Our Work:

  1. IVO strategically partners with The Gem Foundation in Uganda, East Africa to provide for the special needs orphans, Gems, residing in their care. Dwight and Linny’s daughter Emma is the Founder and Executive Director of The Gem. Emma moved to Uganda at 19 years of age fiercely determined to provide a home for the often forgotten special need orphans of Kampala.  Her dream was to have a home where each Gem would feel safe, protected, loved and have specialized medical care and therapies. Emma married her high school sweetheart, Joshua, two years after moving to Uganda and together they currently lead the ministry of The Gem caring for 42 Gems.
  2. The second major need we have discovered is a lack of proper medical care for the special needs children. IVO provides lifesaving surgeries and urgent medical care to special needs orphans and vulnerable children through donations to Ruby’s Friends.  Ruby’s Friends was named after Dwight and Linny’s daughter Ruby, who has severe medical needs including Multiloculated Hydrocephalus, Cerebral Palsy & Quadriplegia.             (Read her story here)
  3. The third major need we often discover is a failure to provide adequate food and nourishment to orphans resulting in a number of medical issues and special needs. IVO has fed over one million meals to orphans and vulnerable children in four countries: Uganda, India, Sri Lanka, and an undisclosed country in West Africa.

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