CRC Family Reunification Workshop for Leaders and Case Managers
Summer/Fall of 2021 | Freetown, Sierra Leone
Do you remember how we asked you to dream about "No More Orphans" in 2018? Here's how we can accomplish the dream together.
There are an estimated 20,000 street-connected children (children who live or work on the street without appropriate care) in Sierra Leone. These children are largely separated from their families by the terrible toll of extreme poverty: neglect, abuse, and lack of provision, as their parents struggle to survive. Most unaccompanied minors are not orphans at all. Poverty, not death, is the number one reason children are separated from their families in Sierra Leone. Equipping and empowering families to care for their children is the best way to help them remain intact. Family empowerment restores dignity and responsibility, and provides families with a pathway to success.
Three years ago, after successfully reintegrating every child in the Residential Care facility with a loving family, Helping Children Worldwide and the CRC committed to tackle the widespread issue of family separation (often called the "Orphan Crisis") and bring every child off the street to be reunited with family. We asked you to imagine the idea of "No More Orphans" in Sierra Leone.
Rescuing children from the street, tracing their families, and then rebuilding and redeeming those families is not a dream. It is a daily reality at the Child Reintegration Centre. But the CRC can only directly work with about 500 families each year, and it may take several years for a family to become fully functional and stable. How can we help the thousands of other children that long to have a stable family of their own?
This campaign is the next step towards ending the orphan crisis in Sierra Leone. Please join our initiative to educate child welfare agencies throughout Sierra Leone by supporting the CRC Family Reunification Workshop for Leaders and Case Managers. This is how "No More Orphans" in Sierra Leone becomes reality!
There are an estimated 20,000 street-connected children (children who live or work on the street without appropriate care) in Sierra Leone. These children are largely separated from their families by the terrible toll of extreme poverty: neglect, abuse, and lack of provision, as their parents struggle to survive. Most unaccompanied minors are not orphans at all. Poverty, not death, is the number one reason children are separated from their families in Sierra Leone. Equipping and empowering families to care for their children is the best way to help them remain intact. Family empowerment restores dignity and responsibility, and provides families with a pathway to success.
Three years ago, after successfully reintegrating every child in the Residential Care facility with a loving family, Helping Children Worldwide and the CRC committed to tackle the widespread issue of family separation (often called the "Orphan Crisis") and bring every child off the street to be reunited with family. We asked you to imagine the idea of "No More Orphans" in Sierra Leone.
Rescuing children from the street, tracing their families, and then rebuilding and redeeming those families is not a dream. It is a daily reality at the Child Reintegration Centre. But the CRC can only directly work with about 500 families each year, and it may take several years for a family to become fully functional and stable. How can we help the thousands of other children that long to have a stable family of their own?
This campaign is the next step towards ending the orphan crisis in Sierra Leone. Please join our initiative to educate child welfare agencies throughout Sierra Leone by supporting the CRC Family Reunification Workshop for Leaders and Case Managers. This is how "No More Orphans" in Sierra Leone becomes reality!
God sets the lonely in families." Psalm 68:6
THE JOURNEY TOWARDS "NO MORE ORPHANS" By 2018, the CRC had successfully reintegrated all the children from residential to family-based care, and provided the families with strong case management and strengthening tools to keep them moving towards dignity and independence. This is the piece that matters most: equipping and empowering families to care for their children so that they no longer need outside help to stay together.
Family empowerment keeps children at home, healthy, and in school, and enables families to raise strong, successful adults. The CRC reunification program works well, but the CRC is just one organization, and there are not enough case managers to rescue every street-connected child. To bring 20,000 children home to their families, other child welfare organizations must be trained and activated.
SHARING OUR SUCCESS. HCW and the CRC collaborated with 1MillionHome to develop an introductory training on the essentials of child reintegration, and began coaching other child welfare organizations to successfully rescue children and reintegrate families. HCW and the CRC leveraged our partnerships with like-minded organizations to establish a replicable model of the CRC’s successful reintegration program, and presented it to the Sierra Leone Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, in order to explore a coordinated solution to the family separation crisis in Sierra Leone.
The successful Attachment Theory workshop developed with UMaine Honors College led to the development of a "Train-the-Trainer" workshop to teach other organizations how to reintegrate families. The CRC's financial literacy training is also being developed into a Train-the-Trainer module. The Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs has asked the CRC to train every organization in Sierra Leone on family reunification and strengthening. With your help, every case manager in Sierra Leone will learn effective, proven practices for reuniting children with their families and helping those families become strong by attending the CRC's Family Reunification Workshop.
The CRC case management team continues to build on their knowledge and skills, sharing every challenge and every lesson learned with the global child welfare community. HCW is committed to helping the CRC develop more effective ways to address the unique problems faced by vulnerable children and families through funding, advocacy, and the sharing of expertise.
WHY THAT GETS US TO "NO MORE ORPHANS." Inspiring every case manager in Sierra Leone with the understanding that families need to be equipped and empowered, rather than separated and broken apart, is the next step in a national collaboration that will result in the end of family separation. That is how we get to "No More Orphans"!
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Join our campaign to end the orphan crisis in Sierra Leone by engaging people you know to help provide the necessary resources. Make it fun. Make it a competition or a party. Take joy in seeing how your team comes together to support the reintegration of vulnerable families, leading them out of extreme poverty and brokenness towards independence and stability. Just as the CRC is stronger as part of a coalition, you are a stronger advocate as a member of a team!
Yes, you can choose to simply donate, but you can do more when you participate as part of an advocacy team, gathering resources to get us to the next level.
HOW DO I PARTICIPATE? Join the campaign and invite your friends, your family, and anyone who has a heart for vulnerable children. The Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs has asked the CRC to train every organization in Sierra Leone on family reunification, so there are no more orphans in Sierra Leone. Let's help every case manager in Sierra Leone attend the Family Reunification Workshop, so we can bring every child home to a strong, stable family!
YOUR PARTICIPATION IS HOW "NO MORE ORPHANS" BECOMES REALITY!
Family empowerment keeps children at home, healthy, and in school, and enables families to raise strong, successful adults. The CRC reunification program works well, but the CRC is just one organization, and there are not enough case managers to rescue every street-connected child. To bring 20,000 children home to their families, other child welfare organizations must be trained and activated.
SHARING OUR SUCCESS. HCW and the CRC collaborated with 1MillionHome to develop an introductory training on the essentials of child reintegration, and began coaching other child welfare organizations to successfully rescue children and reintegrate families. HCW and the CRC leveraged our partnerships with like-minded organizations to establish a replicable model of the CRC’s successful reintegration program, and presented it to the Sierra Leone Ministry of Gender and Children’s Affairs, in order to explore a coordinated solution to the family separation crisis in Sierra Leone.
The successful Attachment Theory workshop developed with UMaine Honors College led to the development of a "Train-the-Trainer" workshop to teach other organizations how to reintegrate families. The CRC's financial literacy training is also being developed into a Train-the-Trainer module. The Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs has asked the CRC to train every organization in Sierra Leone on family reunification and strengthening. With your help, every case manager in Sierra Leone will learn effective, proven practices for reuniting children with their families and helping those families become strong by attending the CRC's Family Reunification Workshop.
The CRC case management team continues to build on their knowledge and skills, sharing every challenge and every lesson learned with the global child welfare community. HCW is committed to helping the CRC develop more effective ways to address the unique problems faced by vulnerable children and families through funding, advocacy, and the sharing of expertise.
WHY THAT GETS US TO "NO MORE ORPHANS." Inspiring every case manager in Sierra Leone with the understanding that families need to be equipped and empowered, rather than separated and broken apart, is the next step in a national collaboration that will result in the end of family separation. That is how we get to "No More Orphans"!
WHAT CAN YOU DO? Join our campaign to end the orphan crisis in Sierra Leone by engaging people you know to help provide the necessary resources. Make it fun. Make it a competition or a party. Take joy in seeing how your team comes together to support the reintegration of vulnerable families, leading them out of extreme poverty and brokenness towards independence and stability. Just as the CRC is stronger as part of a coalition, you are a stronger advocate as a member of a team!
Yes, you can choose to simply donate, but you can do more when you participate as part of an advocacy team, gathering resources to get us to the next level.
HOW DO I PARTICIPATE? Join the campaign and invite your friends, your family, and anyone who has a heart for vulnerable children. The Ministry of Gender and Children's Affairs has asked the CRC to train every organization in Sierra Leone on family reunification, so there are no more orphans in Sierra Leone. Let's help every case manager in Sierra Leone attend the Family Reunification Workshop, so we can bring every child home to a strong, stable family!
YOUR PARTICIPATION IS HOW "NO MORE ORPHANS" BECOMES REALITY!
