Of all the people we encountered on our year-long adventure, children impacted our lives the most. We recognized that these children’s lives were tainted. Their situations tainted with suffering; their existence tainted with hopelessness.
Individuals in the past had made choices leading to this place of suffering and entrapment, leaving them helpless, neglected, and in need of love.
Can our decisions, filled with love, speak louder than the choices of generations past? Can that love change the lives of these children, bring them hope, and break the cycle of destruction?
Children are the hope for tomorrow and our responsibility for today.
Ten Thousand Homes provides meals, education, and homes for South Africa’s vulnerable and orphaned children. Their feeding program serves over five hundred children every week. A donation of only five dollars can feed one of these children for an entire month and enable the staff at Ten Thousand Homes to give love and restore dignity to each of these little ones.
Home of the Open Heart in Northern Thailand assists HIV-affected women and children like Mahlee and Jacob. They provide a range of services for individuals affected by the disease, including education, orphan care, and hospice care. When children lose their parents to HIV, Home of the Open Heart is eager to welcome them into their family. They desire to see each child supported by a team of five sponsors, each contributing forty dollars every month. The funds provide food, clothing, education, and other necessary expenses. Such a small amount of money can make an enormous difference in the life of one child.
Samuel’s family still lives in Northern Uganda, but has begun serving areas of South Sudan affected by the LRA. His uncle has started construction on a building in Issore, South Sudan. Through this building, Issore will be provided with education for the children, agricultural development for the community, and medical care for the sick. The village has begun rebuilding through the help and encouragement of YWAM Arua. Soon they will be able to leave behind the damage caused by the LRA and begin a new life.
Catalyst has rescued a number of girls from slums all over Delhi, India. Each of these young women had a life similar to Babbli’s, but upon entering Catalyst’s program, have had their destiny redefined. By the time they graduate, they will have acquired education, safe housing, and a steady job.
Though Catalyst has been able to rescue many children from the slum, thousands are still living and dying there. Treasure House focuses on working with the ones still suffering in the slums. The center acts as a daycare, keeping the kids off the dangerous streets while providing the basic necessities they cannot even access. They are fed lunch, because it could be the only meal they eat that day. They are given new clothing, because their parents only provide the ratty clothes that portray desperation, bringing them more money when they beg. They are provided with proper hygiene, because it can prevent the most basic fatal illnesses found so often in the slums. They are educated, because future employment could free them from their disadvantaged living situations. One center is currently in operation, but they have started construction on a second building in another part of the city.
The two organizations work closely together and are giving the slum children of Delhi room to fully live and dream again.
The Nest in Pogradec, Albania has been working to do just that. Focusing predominantly on Roma gypsies, they provide basic needs, temporary housing, and education for the disadvantaged children of the neighborhood. Because they are so involved in the community, they are able to keep an eye on children vulnerable to harmful situations, diminishing the frequency of trafficking from that area. However, because the idea has been so ingrained into the mindset of these people, the abolition of this custom has proved to be a difficult task. The Nest will continue to fight against the atrocities happening to each of these little ones and the redemption of just one child is reason enough to celebrate.
Learn more about injustice happening all over the world. Check out the websites below.
