BY EMMA STONEHOUSE CRANE, our partner network in Uganda, has a vision for all children: that they would live in the care of safe and secure families. For the 50,000 children who live in 800 orphanages, and the 10-15,000 children on the streets in Uganda, this means finding families who will give them supportive, long-term …
It’s estimated that there are 145 million registered orphans across the world, and of these only about 9 per cent have lost both parents. Many families are unstable and millions more children are separated from one or both parents due to violence, abuse, alcoholism, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, and other conflicts. Too many children are suffering …
BY ISSY MITCHELL “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.” Mark 9: 37 In an attempt to create a community that values and empowers children, where they would previously have been excluded from all or most church activity, 20 churches in the Nuwakot area of Nepal have now become ‘Child …
BY JUSTINE DEMMER Justine Demmer, Viva’s Network Consultant for Asia, gives us a glimpse into a recent trip to Cambodia where she visited a floating church, and the children who call it home. I step outside of our accommodation in Siem Riep, North-Western Cambodia to find an open wagon drawn by a motorcycle. Our child …
Services for vulnerable families in the UK are being squeezed at a time of unprecedented demand. Churches are particularly well placed to offer meaningful support but there are, of course, significant barriers to growing this work, such as lack of volunteers, finances and in-depth understanding. Both the scale of need in the community and the …
As several council-run children’s and families services in Oxfordshire face cuts, more than 100 people attended a conference last Saturday (5 November) to pledge to work together more effectively to meet the needs of vulnerable people in their communities.
For the first time, the Costa Rican government has funded its children’s department to set up a project specifically focusing on helping children with disabilities, supported by Viva’s partner network in San José. Brenda Darke, a regional consultant for Viva on the issue of disability, outlines the situation in the country, the encouragements from the …
Every day more than 50 children need to be taken into care in the UK. They are likely to have come from chaotic, neglectful, abusive or desperate situations and will have suffered trauma. Some will need a home for a few nights, some for a few years, and some will need a permanent home for …