Do you know how much it costs to rescue a child from the affects of extreme poverty?  It’s not just a cliché—you really can change the life of a child for less than the cost of your daily cup of Starbucks.  Sponsoring a child at the Child Rescue Centre costs just 82 cents a day.   That’s $25 a month, or the cost of two movie tickets.

Since 2000, the Child Rescue Centre has been rescuing children from the affects of extreme poverty, war and disease in Bo, Sierra Leone, which has one of the highest under-five mortality rates in the world.  The CRC now cares for nearly 300 children through residential, child support, foster care and post-secondary education programs.  Every single day, the CRC is giving Sierra Leonean children the opportunity to grow up and achieve their wonderful God-given potential.

“During the war, most of us lost our families.  So we are brought under the umbrella of the Child Rescue Centre,” Abdulai explains in a video about the CRC.   Rescued from the street as a child, Abdulai is now working towards an engineering degree at Fourah Bay College.   In fact, 18 of the original CRC children are now enrolled in college or vocational school, and these young people are preparing to change the future of Sierra Leone.

There are still about 40 younger children in the residential program, and the CRC is strengthening our programs in the community to help extremely poor children who live with their natural families or foster parents.  The Child Support Program and Foster Care Program offer children all the benefits of enrollment in the CRC: medical care, nutritional support, spiritual guidance and the opportunity for a good education.   Primary school is technically free in Sierra Leone, but few families can afford the required uniforms and books, which child sponsorship pays for.  Furthermore, desperately poor families may feel that they can’t afford the luxury of allowing a child to attend school instead of working.  This is the double edged sword of extreme poverty: the only way out of poverty is through education, yet education remains out of reach for the desperately poor.

This is where child sponsorship makes all the difference in the world: by making it possible for families to send their children to school, the child’s life is changed and the family’s future is changed.  The community of Bo is lifted up as children receive the education, medical care, and spiritual guidance they need to develop into healthy adults.  Do you see the possibilities?  We knew you would.   This can be your personal world mission—by sponsoring a child through the Child Rescue Centre, you can make a real difference in one of the poorest countries in the world, Sierra Leone.

Sponsor a Child today!

Mary Beth Sams, with Susan Anderson, Clinical Programs Chair

The United Nations’ Millennium Development Goal #4 calls for a two thirds reduction by the year 2015 in the mortality of children aged less than 5 years, based on 1990 levels.  While remarkable progress has been made around the world in reducing child deaths in the past 50 years, the great majority of the deaths that still occur are caused by readily preventable or treatable conditions.  In Sierra Leone, the statistic is devastating: 1 in 5 children will not live past their 5^th birthday.  Maternal health in Sierra Leone is nearly as disheartening.  While progress has been made in recent years, the odds are still not good for a pregnant woman in Sierra Leone: 1 in 21 women will die in childbirth.

While interventions like the establishment of Mercy Hospital are necessary, it is becoming increasingly clear that programs that reach beyond the walls of health care facilities and those that involve the community as partners have a great potential for making a bigger impact on those infant and maternal mortality numbers.  These interventions are cheaper to implement and can be done on a larger scale than a bricks and mortar hospital, and there are inspiring examples all over the developing world where this has occurred both in small scale pilot projects and large scale ongoing initiatives.  We call this approach Community Based Primary Health Care.

While the existing outreach programs at Mercy Hospital focused on HIV & AIDS prevention, malaria prevention, nutrition, and prenatal health are a step in the right direction, we need to take these programs to the next level, with greater emphasis placed on the role of the community as a partner in establishing and implementing interventions that will improve the health of their women and children.

The foundation for building an effective Community Based Primary Health Care program in Bo is already there.  Mercy Hospital provides compassionate, high-quality care which lends credibility to any community based worker who might be affiliated with it.  We have evidence that the Bo community trusts and respects the Mercy system of hospital, outpatient clinics, mobile clinics, malaria volunteers and student HIV awareness groups. The assurance that the Mercy staff, along with the staff from nearby Manjama Clinic, are willing to go out to the community to provide health care has been established.  The next step in reaching those in need in the Bo community and in the nearby villages is to recruit, rigorously train, supervise, and support a cadre of community health volunteers.

A community based health volunteer is a person who lives in the village where the program will take place.  Ideally this person has been identified by the village leadership as being well respected, probably already modeling the behaviors that should be encouraged, such as good nutrition and hygiene practices.  This person will be the liaison between the village and Mercy Hospital/Manjama Clinic and will be the point of contact in identifying children who need the attention of the medical staff, before the condition of the child becomes a crisis.  The community health volunteer will be trained by Mercy/Manjama staff and will be supported to teach their village peers about nutrition, dietary supplements, the importance of breastfeeding and hand washing, and the importance of using clean water.  This community based volunteer will be empowered to spread information about how malaria is contracted, how bed nets can prevent malaria, and how HIV is spread from person to person, including mother to child.  The community health volunteer will be equipped by Mercy and Manjama staff to be the first line of defense in this fight against infant and maternal mortality in the Bo region.

Helping Children Worldwide’s African Programs will be rolling out Mercy’s Community Based Primary Health Care program in 2012, starting with the March UMVIM team.  Like any good program, we will start small, with attention to training and evaluating our first steps in this direction.  We have excellent resources on the ground in Bo to make this happen: Mrs. Narsu Vandi is the community health worker based at Manjama Clinic, and Mr. Alfred Momoh is the equivalent at Mercy Hospital.  Both Narsu and Alfred are already working in the neighboring villages around Bo, educating caregivers of children, and laying the good groundwork for this program to succeed.  They are establishing good relationships with the leaders in these villages, so that the messages they transmit and the interventions they suggest will be community supported.

Watch for updates on Mercy’s CBPHC program in the coming months.  We have great hopes for this and we hope that by focusing our attention on this initiative, we will take steps toward accomplishing the vision set for Mercy: Achieve a measurable decrease in the infant and maternal mortality rates in Sierra Leone by providing holistic community focused care, regardless of the ability to pay.

Community Based Health Care will have an impact on maternal and infant mortality around Bo, Sierra Leone.

People are getting jobs, thanks to our job preparation programs, the newest addition to Connections for Hope’s array of services.

The programs began with job search workshops, and have grown to include job preparation services. Thanks to the help of several HR professionals, job preparation includes one-on-one employment coaching, which makes a huge difference for those who are not prepared to compete in the job market.  A recent job fair at the Center brought 24 people in, from which 15 people were hired.  That is a success for all of us. 

As the programs develop and grow, we could really use the assistance of HR professionals to coach a growing number of job seekers.  Are you interested in helping people prepare for job interviews and get hired?  Please give us a call at 703-956-6722 or email sarahnewman@helpingchildrenworldwide.org to find out how you can get involved in this vital program.  You can help more people hear those magical words: “You’re hired!”

You're hired!

To learn more about the One Day On Earth project, click here.

While estimates of the numbers vary widely, the U. S. Government recently reported that 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year; 80 percent of them are female and almost half are minors.

These figures do not include the millions who are trafficked into labor and sexual slavery within national borders.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) – the United Nations agency charged with addressing labor standards, employment and social protection issues – estimates there are 12.3 million people in forced labor, bonded labor, forced child labor, and sexual servitude at any give time; other estimates range from 4 million to 27 million. (United States Department of State, “Trafficking in Person Report”, June 2007

The U.S. State Department estimates traffickers make $32 billion annually in their illicit trade.

Sierra Leone, as one of the poorest nations in the world, has a serious problem of forced child labor and trafficking.

The Child Rescue Centre’s response is to initiate a program to rescue children and rehabilitate them. An interim care home is needed to provide a safe space for children to adjust to normal life and allow them to receive personalized attention and care.  When the child is ready, she or he will be transitioned into the appropriate Child Rescue Centre program.  The CRC Task Force has found a good home about 10 minutes  away from the CRC. The homeowner, Eleanor, has been trained
along with the CRC staff in how to work with children who have been victims of child labor. She has a designated room in her home that will provide the space needed for 2-3 children at a time. Renovations on the designated room in her home have begun.  For more information about this initiative, please contact African Programs Director Mary Beth Sams: marybethsams@helpingchildrenworldwide.org.

Parents Raising Safe Kids graduates celebrated with a party Tuesday, December 6th.

On Tuesday December 6th, another successful class of “Parents Raising Safe Kids” graduated and celebrated with a festive luncheon.  The class, offered quarterly at Connections for Hope as a program of Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board, is an effective parenting/violence prevention program that focuses on adults who raise, care for or teach children ages birth to 8 years.  “Parents Raising Safe Kids” is designed to prevent violence by providing young children with positive role models and environments that teach nonviolent problem solving.  Parents learn what to expect from children at different ages, the risk factors and consequences for violence, and most importantly, protective factors and skills for effective parenting, including anger management, conflict resolution, effective discipline techniques and the effects of media violence on children.  For more information about the class, please call Carolina Chavez at 703-956-6722.

Live. Love. LOUD Concert at Floris United Methodist Church, 13600 Frying Pan Rd in Herndon
Saturday, September 10, 7-9 PM
No RSVP Necessary, Invite Your Friends and Neighbors.  Admission is Free!

Live. Love. LOUD. is a multi-cultural, multi-generational, high energy night of music and worship. Through the use of scripture, media and music from contemporary artist such as Lincoln Brewster, Tim Hughes, The David Crowder Band, Hillsong United, and Gungor; the Full Circle Band will collaborate with the Floris’ Latino Praise Team to create an inclusive night where all who wish to can engage the presence of the Living God.

The offering collected during the concert will support the Child Rescue Centre and Mercy Hospital in Sierra Leone, Africa.  Child care is available for children 5 and younger in the nursery on the 2nd floor.