The transitional Care Centre is a Short-term residential care centre. The children in transitional care are referred to Grace by the MOLSA Regional Authority. Those admitted to the centre have been determined by the authority as being abandoned, legally relinquished or truly orphaned children. They live in the Grace Centre residential house which provides a caring family environment for the children joined by a communal play area to other Grace houses. In this way the children and workers feel a sense of family and community.

The philosophy of Grace is that all children have the right to a loving and caring family, who can provide for their needs.  Therefore, the transitional care facility does not provide long term orphanage style care. The Grace team endeavours to have children who cannot return to their families, matched to a family locally in Ethiopia through a foster care program (see below), or internationally to America or Australia.

Where it is not possible for the child to be with their family, close or extended, the social worker team would then look at placing them within a Foster care family. This will be most important for the older children as they have a sense of culture, community and well developed language skills, which makes their need to remain in their community more vital for their ongoing emotional wellbeing. 

Foster families will be assisted by the centre with health care, work, and admission for all the children in their care into the school sponsorship program.  The foster families would be specifically chosen to be carers for the children, based upon a number of criteria, including suitability of housing, number of children in the home and ability to care. They would be monitored closely within the project so that there is no mistreatment, either intentional or otherwise, of the children, nor abuse of the privilege of sponsorship.

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