Throughout the month of June, Helping Children Worldwide's Technical Advisor for Global Health and Missions, Yasmine Vaughan, has been attending the Christian Connections for International Health conference. This year's conference theme was Loving your Neighbor: a Christian Response to a Changing World. Not only did Helping Children Worldwide attend the conference, but on the fourth day, a short video was presented by HCW regarding our approach to medical missions. The video featured Dr. Gary Gilkeson and Dr. Aruna Stevens discussing their shared history and how our partnerships in Sierra Leone helped strengthen the health workforce. The video was well received by conference attendees, and lead to a number of new connections. Thank you Dr. Gilkeson and Dr. Stevens for your participation!
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One of the greatest challenges small NGOs engaged in child welfare work face, is that it’s hard to conduct the kind of rigorous monitoring and evaluation of our programs that help us to understand the real impact while we’re engaged in the hard work of running the program. That’s why HCW is so excited to announce that we have been selected as a recipient of one of only 5 coveted CAFO Research Center Challenge Grants. Other winners included ZOE Empowers, Agape Children’s Ministry, Refuge Zimbabwe and Kid’s Alive International.
The grant pairs each NGO with an experienced academic researcher to provide in-depth data and assessment on a promising practice within the CRC program. We are delighted to have been matched with Sarah Neville, a Ph.D. candidate and experienced researcher with Boston College’s School of Social Work. As a part of this year-long research project, Sarah will travel to the CRC to train the staff in data collection; including specific study procedures and research ethics. CRC staff will of course be able to apply these skills to future monitoring and evaluation projects. Findings will be submitted as a manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal upon completion. The ‘promising practice’ HCW chose to have Sarah evaluate is the CRC’s Family Strengthening Workshop, which provides an opportunity for caregivers with their children, to learn how to function better as a family. Specific topics in the workshop include: emotions, self care, apologizing, routines to promote attachment, teamwork, saving, delayed gratification, anticipating unexpected expenses, identifying family strengths and values. The workshop focuses heavily on games, stories, and other action-oriented activities, and incorporates Sierra Leonean cultural materials as well as faith-based wisdom (with options to use texts from the Christian or Muslim traditions). The hypothesis of this study is that the Family Strengthening Program program is effective at (1) changing parenting behaviors, (2) improving emotional regulation, (3) improving caregiver-child attachment, and (4) improving financial literacy. Quantitative data will be collected before and after the 2day workshops which will bring 50 caregiver/child pairs to the CRC for this training. A sample size of 100 caregiver/child pairs will provide us with the ability to randomize the study - 50 pairs will be selected to participate in the workshop, while the remaining 50 pairs will serve as a control group for the purposes of this study. Those participants not selected to participate in the workshop at this time will have an opportunity to participate in 2023. We’re excited to embark on this learning journey with Boston College, CAFO and the CRC. We’re eager to find out - good or bad - the true impact of the CRC’s Family Strengthening Workshops on the CRC families who participate. We’re optimistic that the news will be good, but even if it’s not all good, we’ll have information we can use to improve and strengthen our practice. And if it is, we’ll be able to share the practice, and it’s impact with our donors, potential grantors, and other child welfare organizations who might be able to use it to benefit their own clients. Monday, September 12, 2022 • Westfields Golf Club, Clifton, VA A DAY OF FUN FOR A LIFETIME OF HOPEGuiltless pleasure! Have a great time playing golf as an act of kindness!This opportunity to simultaneously have fun and make a lasting impact on lives is brought to you by the HCW charity golf tournament, an experience limited to 132 amazing people like you every year. Over the past 21 years, people just like you have raised more than a million dollars just by taking their buddies golfing. Proceeds from this annual event fund the activities that change thousands of lives through the vibrant ministries of our partners, Child Reintegration Centre (CRC) and Mercy Hospital, Sierra Leone. What impact will my involvement or contribution make?
What can I do?
(2/3 of your per golfer registration is a fully tax-deductible contribution to HCW. Check out the Full Sponsorship Levels.) Helping Children Worldwide helps children worldwide by strengthening and empowering families and communities. We work in rural African villages and depressed urban areas with international partners to provide medical care and family supports for education, child welfare, and economic growth in communities in the most impoverished corners of the globe. Your support of this classic event has a huge impact every year on thousands of children. Please join us for a fun, inspiring day of golf and fellowship!
To learn more about how to get involved, please visit: 2022 HCW Golf Tournament |
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