Economic Empowerment Archives - Page 2 of 2

La Providencia: A Lifelong Commitment to Care

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Economic Empowerment Anthony’s* feet swung from the chair, hardly touching the floor. He was eager to talk and happily answered the government-appointed psychiatrist’s questions, unmindful that he was being evaluated. She asked him to draw a picture of where he lived and who lived with him. He drew a picture of his house with a mom and a dad and himself along with six children. The fact that the government considered him an “orphan” wasn’t apparent to him. In his mind, he had a family that loved him and his [...]

La Providencia: A Lifelong Commitment to CareAllison Coble2024-01-17T18:05:32-05:00

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

Reducing Stigma: Retrak’s Model of Reunifying Street Children With Families

Tags: Economic Empowerment For any child longing to be reunited with his or her family, the emotional and psychological hurdles can be enormous. This is particularly true for children being reintegrated with their families and communities after living on the streets—due to a range of issues, including family breakdown, death of a parent, and poverty. Street children, in some ways, live their lives in the shadows. They are often forced into unpaid labor positions or a lifestyle of begging. Yet despite the aspects of life that are largely unseen, the stigma attached to a child who has [...]

Reducing Stigma: Retrak’s Model of Reunifying Street Children With FamiliesAllison Coble2024-01-17T17:48:46-05:00

HelpKids Centre: Supporting the Love of Families in Sri Lanka

Tags: Transitioning | Economic Empowerment Family-based, alternative care for orphans and vulnerable children is on the rise in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Alison Atkinson and her husband Narel joined Australian Christian Churches International Relief (ACCI) 10 years ago, as field workers in Colombo. They established the HelpKids Centre, a local, community-based organization that strengthens local families living in slums and severe poverty. It functions as a community center, providing early childhood education, daycare support, counseling for parents, and medical assistance, supports women in accessing vocational training, and coordinates women’s and children’s clubs. The Atkinson’s approach to [...]

HelpKids Centre: Supporting the Love of Families in Sri LankaAllison Coble2024-01-17T19:15:06-05:00

The GO Exchange: Creating Jobs, Giving Hope, Strengthening Families

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Makilene was an unemployed mother of six and living in extreme poverty in Haiti. She realized over time that she could no longer care for all her children, so she faced the heartbreaking decision to give up her youngest child and took her child and traveled to Port-Au-Prince. She had heard about a woman named Shelley Clay who helps children. Makilene thought she was knocking on the door of an orphanage for her infant daughter when she arrived in Port-Au-Prince, but a very different opportunity awaited her — one with hope [...]

The GO Exchange: Creating Jobs, Giving Hope, Strengthening FamiliesAllison Coble2024-01-17T19:12:59-05:00

Out of Isolation and Into Families

Tags: Transitioning | Economic Empowerment In Armenia there are around 4,500 children living in residential institutions, a situation caused by the weak social protection system, an insufficient number of community-based services and lack of gate-keeping mechanisms due to overall weakness and inefficiency of the system, leftover from the Soviet Union. In the last decade, the Government of Armenia (GoA) initiated the process of reorganization of residential institutions for children and began making significant investments in the development of social services and program alternatives to residential care. However, Armenia faces multiple difficulties in sustaining various initiatives [...]

Out of Isolation and Into FamiliesAllison Coble2024-01-17T19:10:03-05:00

World Relief: Savings for Life

Tags: Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Margret unexpectedly found herself as the sole breadwinner for her five children — three girls and two boys. She was overwhelmed and left with little hope. “It was as if all the gates and doors of hope in life for us were closed leaving us in a dark room,” she said. Her oldest daughter Mwende had just become a candidate to advance in Kenya’s primary school with the hope of continuing secondary education the following year. However, Margret struggled to make ends meet by going from house to house [...]

World Relief: Savings for LifeAllison Coble2024-01-17T19:08:42-05:00

Pioneering Foster Care in Peru

Tags: Foster Care | Economic Empowerment In May 2007, Buckner Peru and Peru's National Comprehensive Family Welfare Program (INABIF) signed an agreement to develop a foster care program. On March 10, 2008, Buckner Peru made history when officials from the Ministry of Women and Social Development and Buckner placed eight Peruvian children into the country’s first foster families. Prior to this significant event, there was no foster care in Peru. Nearly seven years later, children are thriving in families in ways that would have been unknown to them without the foster care option. Their foster [...]

Pioneering Foster Care in PeruAllison Coble2024-01-17T19:06:30-05:00

A Family of His Own

Tags: Foster Care | Transitioning | Economic Empowerment He has one of those personalities that you can’t forget. His nickname “Pastor” came from his love of standing up surrounded by a crowd of his peers preaching from the Bible. Captain America or Iron Man might even at times make an appearance on the Sea of Galilee. Nine-year-old Jason, brings a continual joy and laughter to those who know him. Although Jason’s joy is palpable, the road in his short life has had its share of challenges. Born to a mother with schizophrenia, Jason [...]

A Family of His OwnAllison Coble2024-01-17T19:31:35-05:00

Gotcha Day: Local Churches Support Adoptions and Families

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Transitioning | Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment In our family we have “Gotcha Day” celebrations for our two adopted children. It’s a special day each year when we celebrate and relive the story of bringing home a baby from Russia to become a part of our family. We have fun with cake and a special meal then sit together and go through the photo album. We remember all the special events surrounding the adoption and becoming a new family. I believe our Gotcha Day celebrations [...]

Gotcha Day: Local Churches Support Adoptions and FamiliesAllison Coble2024-01-17T19:28:25-05:00

Partnering with the Local Church & Supporting Families to Care for Their Children

Tags: Transitioning | Economic Empowerment Meeting the needs of orphans and vulnerable children is often best accomplished through partnerships with the local communities and ministries who are leading the day-to-day responses. The Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) supports this principal in their work on behalf of children and families in Zambia. ACE is a Christian nonprofit child welfare organization in Tucson, Arizona that was founded in 1969 by Virginia “Jennie” Woods. ACE’s overarching approach to caring for orphans is to empower professionals, families, churches and communities to care for and support children and families in crisis within [...]

Partnering with the Local Church & Supporting Families to Care for Their ChildrenAllison Coble2024-01-17T19:22:24-05:00