Community Strengthening Archives - Page 2 of 3

Breaking Isolation, Empowering Families

Tags: Community Strengthening Fifty-one percent of Cambodia’s population is under the age of 24. This is a trend found in numerous developing countries, and some see these disproportionate numbers as a potential problem. Craig Greenfield, however, saw it as a resource when he first began to look for ways to provide support for a large number of families with vulnerable children living in his Cambodian community. In typical Gospel-centered fashion where the unlikely is the likely, God is using those who are often seen as the recipients of development efforts to be the change makers. [...]

Breaking Isolation, Empowering FamiliesAllison Coble2024-01-10T14:28:22-05:00

Expanding a Vision of Care for Kenyan Children

Tags: Transitioning | Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment After years of caring for vulnerable children within a residential setting, Vision Africa, a faith-based organization in Kenya, expanded their vision by adjusting their strategies to support the healthy development of children in families. Vision Africa was founded in 2001 by John and Vera Packard in response to the overwhelming needs of the children they encountered in the community as they administered a children’s home in Nairobi. Initially, they took on the management of two children’s homes from an organization that was unable to continue their administration. John [...]

Expanding a Vision of Care for Kenyan ChildrenAllison Coble2024-01-10T14:26:57-05:00

Noonday Collection: Strengthening Families through Fair-Trade Business

Tags: Community Strengthening If you were to journey across the ocean to Uganda and enter a lively artisan workplace filled with the sounds of chatter and fluttering fingers rolling colorful paper beads, you would meet Olivia. Olivia’s story is not unlike those of other women in the room. Just two years ago, Olivia was a single mother unable to find consistent employment. Out of sheer desperation, she was on the brink of sending her beloved daughter Rachel to an orphanage. Herself an orphan and survivor of exploitation, Olivia felt that she had no other options [...]

Noonday Collection: Strengthening Families through Fair-Trade BusinessAllison Coble2024-01-10T14:24:04-05:00

HOPE International: Making a Way to Respond to God’s Call to Care for the Fatherless

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In southern Rwanda, Jean Marie and his wife own and operate the only restaurant in their small town. They also have a successful farm producing an abundance of crops. Their newfound financial stability has allowed the couple to support 11 orphans in addition to their own 5 children. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a young widow named Mama Atiya has a thriving fish business that has granted her financial security, allowing her to adopt 4 orphans from her community into her family and [...]

HOPE International: Making a Way to Respond to God’s Call to Care for the FatherlessAllison Coble2024-01-10T14:22:44-05:00

Identity Mission: Fostering a Continuum of Family Care Options for Honduran Children

Tags: Adoption | Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Best practice in caring for orphaned and vulnerable children indicates the need for a continuum of care options for children currently living in—or at risk of being sent to—institutions. While a growing number of ministry leaders, practitioners, and researchers agree that children are best cared for within families, the question of what type of family placement setting looms large. One child may have living parents with whom they can reunite, while another may have no trace of a family. It is God’s inherent love for every child that [...]

Identity Mission: Fostering a Continuum of Family Care Options for Honduran ChildrenAllison Coble2024-01-10T14:21:42-05:00

Reaching Vulnerable Teens Through Life Skills and Mentoring

Tags: Community Strengthening When someone envisions orphan care and adoption, it is likely that images of babies and toddlers come to mind. However, across the globe, the group that most often remains overlooked and largely at risk are the adolescents who are on the verge of aging out of orphanages or foster care. These youth are at risk of never having the opportunity to experience the importance of being part of a family. For nearly 12 years my context has been the government-run orphanages of Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. Upon moving to Ukraine [...]

Reaching Vulnerable Teens Through Life Skills and MentoringAllison Coble2024-01-10T14:17:15-05:00

Following God’s Lead: My Journey into Family-Based Care

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Journeys in life rarely take a straight path, and my journey into orphan care is no exception. Yet, God promises that if we trust in Him, he will direct our paths (Proverbs 3:5–6). In my case, God’s directing was a U-turn. In 2010, I signed up to go on a short-term mission trip to serve at an orphanage in Zambia. Five years later, I found myself in Uganda empowering local churches to support vulnerable children and their families, advocating for family-based care rather than the use of orphanages. When [...]

Following God’s Lead: My Journey into Family-Based CareAllison Coble2024-01-10T14:14:54-05:00

When a Mother Embraces Hope

Tags: Community Strengthening Every day in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital city, there are mothers who rise in the Kore’ slum not knowing what they will feed their children, how they will provide for their basic needs, and if they will find work for the day. This reality is especially true for the multitude of single mothers with little or no help from family members. Without support, work is a daunting task, as access to childcare is out of reach for most. However, for some women in Kore’, this is changing through the work of Embracing Hope Ethiopia [...]

When a Mother Embraces HopeAllison Coble2024-01-10T23:28:47-05:00

Potter’s House: Transformation Through Livelihood Strengthening

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In the garbage dumps of Guatemala, children are born and raised in an environment that can impede human flourishing. They grow up in the middle of society’s waste, which makes it difficult to see a future beyond the desolation. In this community, family culture encourages partnering and starting a family of their own when they reach adolescence, with many children leaving formal education behind by age 12. It is not uncommon for 14-year-olds to begin living with a girlfriend or boyfriend; marriage rituals are rarely celebrated and it is the general [...]

Potter’s House: Transformation Through Livelihood StrengtheningAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:16:37-05:00

Supporting the Church Body to Keep Families Together

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Working in partnership with local initiatives is an effective response to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children. Preventing family separation, and children being welcomed into new loving, safe, and stable families is what success looks like in this type of work. In communities all around the world, church partnerships play a vital role in upholding the importance of family and supporting care of orphans and vulnerable children. An organization doing such critical work is World Orphans. The US-based nonprofit works to empower the church to care for orphans by partnering [...]

Supporting the Church Body to Keep Families TogetherAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:14:56-05:00

Challenging Heights: Platforms for Children’s Voices to Be Heard

Tags: Community Strengthening Jesus was quick to say, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them” (Matthew 19:14). His words were countercultural in a time and place when children’s voices were rarely heard; His words continue to provoke our thoughts and actions as we engage with children, especially those most marginalized. The Faith to Action Initiative recognizes the need to create platforms for children’s voices to be heard as one of its core guiding principles: “It is important to listen to the voices of children and families, respond to their concerns, and [...]

Challenging Heights: Platforms for Children’s Voices to Be HeardAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:39:42-05:00

Pivoting Methods to Create Sustainable Impact: One Woman’s Story of Transition to Family-Based Care

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In the local Ugandan dialect, Akola means simply “she works.” Yet, for many Ugandan women and their families, it represents much more. Akola Project began in 2007 with the mission to empower women in poverty to transform the well-being of their families and communities through economic development. Since its start, Akola has helped create economic stability for 400 women and over 3,000 dependents in their care. This impact is possible because of a young woman’s willingness to pivot her method of achieving her calling. In 2004, Brittany Merrill Underwood, [...]

Pivoting Methods to Create Sustainable Impact: One Woman’s Story of Transition to Family-Based CareAllison Coble2024-03-11T11:37:59-04:00

Bright Hope: Providing Family Support through Church Partnership

Tags: Community Strengthening Children grow best in families. This is true whether a child is born into great wealth or extreme poverty. However, in far too many communities around the world, it is poverty that is preventing children from growing up in the care of a family. Poverty is a driving force that pushes children into orphanages or thrusts them out into a life on the streets, creating social orphans and vulnerable children. Fortunately, local churches and faith-based NGOs around the world are partnering together and responding to the needs of these children in the [...]

Bright Hope: Providing Family Support through Church PartnershipAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:33:40-05:00

Family First: A Global Partnership Between Roblealto and Bethany Community Church

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Roblealto Child Care Association puts families at the forefront of its work with vulnerable children in San Jose, Costa Rica. Roblealto supports a holistic approach to restore at-risk children to loving and supportive relationships with their parents and provides resources for parents to achieve self-sufficiency for their families. Roblealto’s programs include four child care centers throughout San Jose, group homes, and a youth alumni group to support and empower youth leaving their programs. Child care centers seek to prevent separation of children from their families and strengthen family support [...]

Family First: A Global Partnership Between Roblealto and Bethany Community ChurchAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:28:29-05:00

Displacement and Family Separation for Syrian Refugee Children

Tags: Community Strengthening According to the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the world is facing the biggest refugee crisis since WWII, having surpassed 50 million people who have been forced to leave their homes as refugees, as asylum seekers, or as internally displaced persons (IDPs) within their home countries. This massive increase is driven largely by the civil war in Syria, which will reach the five-year mark in a few months. According to World Vision, “The crisis in Syria affects more than 12 million people—more than those affected by Hurricane Katrina, the Haiti [...]

Displacement and Family Separation for Syrian Refugee ChildrenAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:23:26-05:00

The Image of God and the Abilities of All

Tags: Community Strengthening The United Nations declared today, December 3rd, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Around the world on this day, the abilities of all people are to be celebrated, even (and especially) those of vulnerable children. Followers of Christ believe that all human beings are created in the image of God (Imago Dei), and therefore have the capacity and the right to thrive in relationship with one another. Yet while God’s image is within all people, in many parts of the world children with disabilities continue to be relegated to the uttermost [...]

The Image of God and the Abilities of AllAllison Coble2024-01-17T18:07:45-05:00

Finding Life After Institution

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In Kenya, a movement of remarkable new leaders is working to assist young adults who have aged out of institutions and are trying to find their way in life. This network of people is the Kenya Society of Careleavers (KESCA) organization, “by and for adults (18+ years), who spent all or part of their childhood in children homes, orphanages, and/or rehabilitation centers.” The systems that “raised” them often provide no mechanisms for navigating life after they leave the institution, and with no familial support network, life can be devastatingly [...]

Finding Life After InstitutionAllison Coble2024-01-17T18:01:43-05:00

Strengthening Children and Families Through Agricultural Development

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Roots. They dig deep into the soil, drawing up water and nutrients so the rest of the plant can flourish and bear fruit. If roots are infected, or too shallow, or lacking essential nutrients for survival, the entire plant will become susceptible to disease and fail to thrive. Similarly, children rooted in chronic poverty are far more susceptible to exploitation and abuse. When we talk about the root causes that create vulnerable conditions for children and orphans, we often have to dig deep into the brokenness lying beneath the soil’s surface. [...]

Strengthening Children and Families Through Agricultural DevelopmentAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:57:06-05:00

Fostering Hope in Guatemala

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In Guatemala, when a child becomes an orphan, is a victim of abuse or exploitation, or is separated from family-based care, the primary response, historically, has been to place that child in a residential care facility. In 2013, UNICEF reported that 5,800 Guatemalan children were living in orphanages with large disparities of caregivers and children. Unfortunately, research shows that there are long-term, and sometimes permanent, negative effects institutional care can have on a child physically, emotionally, cognitively, and socially. Buckner International, a Christian organization working [...]

Fostering Hope in GuatemalaAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:56:19-05:00

Fuller Theological Seminary: Equipping Students in Family-Based Care

Tags: Community Strengthening Fuller Theological Seminary is helping students thoughtfully understand and support evidence-based practices in action as practitioners. Thought leaders around the country at centers of learning like the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller, work to mold the experienced, as well as the inexperienced, into practitioners who go into the world to implement orphan care practices that align with the best interests of children. Fuller Theological Seminary’s Dr. David Scott, Assistant Professor of Intercultural Studies and Children at Risk, and Dr. Sheryl Ryan, Adjunct Faculty in the School of Intercultural Studies, are two [...]

Fuller Theological Seminary: Equipping Students in Family-Based CareAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:54:57-05:00