Greetings!Thank you for being part of our loyal readership. I hope you will become as enthusiastic a follower of our podcast channel, and consider also subscribing to our blog.
Some highlights of stories in this issue:
- COVER STORY: Optimistic Voices Podcast is live with our trailer and very first episode! Special thanks to our wonderful “Voices voice-over stars” and the crew at Floris UMC AV for their recording expertise. If you are a podcast lover, or like talk radio, consider subscribing to our podcast, either on the podcast site or with your own favorite app. listen in and also to get notices when we release new episodes. (You can find more details below, and on our website.)
- MISSION TRIPS! If you know somebody between the ages of 21 and 32 who is actively engaged in a post-high school education or considering how to begin the next chapter of their life, we are sending a Young Adult team to Sierra Leone in December 2022. Forward this newsletter to your mission team leadership, or favorite young adult! If you would like a copy of the sharable flyer to print out, please email or call us! Interest meeting June 25th. Learn more.
- CRC Case Managers continue to improve their skills as they receive training from SFAC. (story below) Dan Hope from SFAC is also featured on Episode 1 of the Optimistic Voices podcast.
- World Blood Donation Day was yesterday!!! But you can still donate locally, or when you travel with us to Mercy Hospital in Sierra Leone. You will be a life saver like the folks in our story. (story below)
- UPDATE on the NO MORE ORPHANS! strategies for West Africa. HCW and the CRC held the Rising Tides Family Reunification Workshop in Freetown, bringing together leaders from 50 child welfare agencies across Sierra Leone, as well as a delegation from Nigeria and one from Liberia. In March of 2022, that group came together to discuss their progress in adopting reunification strategies and to discuss ways that CRC and HCW might do more to help. (story below) Read next month’s newsletter and subscribe to the HCW blog and podcast to get more news on more exciting progress! (Yes, that is a teaser - there is more good news coming!!!)
Thank you again,
Melody Curtiss,
HCW Executive Director and part-time sound engineer for Optimistic Voices Podcast!
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Timely Updates and Information for June:
- The Family Empowerment Advocacy initiative we launched in partnership with the Child Reintegration Centre has transformed the way that advocates are learning about the lives of families supported by the work of the Child Reintegration Centre, as well as transforming the lives of families. 100% of our child sponsorships have now shifted to support the CRC’s work of empowering families. Learn more about FEA HERE
- The HCW team will be presenting the Breaking Bread table fellowship for US-based faith leaders during the 2022 summit of the Christian Alliance For Orphans, which immediately follows
- the 21st Annual Charity Golf Tournament on Monday, September 12th, (Become a team sponsor - and golf, or be an event sponsor to increase the event impact)
- and precedes the annual Church of the Resurrection Leadership Institute, where Helping Children Worldwide and a coalition of UMC mission and faith leaders will engage in a Table Fellowship/ Breaking Bread dialogue with Methodists from around the world & other attendees on service to the orphan and widow. Check out the COR LI early bird special for savings on registration if you want to attend the LI event.
- Partner churches are stepping up - Go for Bo 5k is set for September this year, rather than October. (link below)
- In 2023, the annual HCW Rising Tides seminar will be hosted in two locations: the child focused seminar will be in West Africa with our new partners in Liberia, and Together for Global Health will be in Washington, D.C.! We will host a fundraiser for TGH and are actively recruiting donations beginning in October to underwrite the TGH RT conference. A big note of gratitude for our event Co-chair Andrew Morrison, and the RTGH committee. Contact Yasmine Vaughan and Emmanuel M. “Nabs” Nabieu, if you have an interest in becoming a sponsor, a presenter at the conference or a table captain at the fundraiser. Stay tuned for more information on how you can support RT Global Health!
- You can always join in with our Rising Tides efforts in global child welfare reform by hosting a Breaking Bread Table Fellowship at your church, culminating in signing the Global Church Pledge and send us a story about the event to post on our blog. (resources linked below)
- Dr. Aruna Stevens, Dr. Gary Gilkenson and HCW’s own Global Health and Mission’s Technical Advisor present on the topic of Continuity of Care as the focus of all our work for International Health Mission on Thursday, June 16th! How the Health Workforce Is Driving the Future of Care, featuring: Gary Gilkeson, MD, and Yasmine Vaughan, MPH, Technical Advisor for Global Health and Missions, Helping Children Worldwide and Mercy Hospital and Aruna Stevens, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Mercy Hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone will interview local medical providers working in rural communities in Sierra Leone as well as global health experts with hands-on experience in providing medical services in those communities. We'll hear from Lisa Ailaniello, RN, MSN, NNP-BC, PNP-AC, Director, Medical Benevolence Foundation Center of Global Nursing Development; Philemon Mulenga, BS Nursing, Nurse Midwife and Training Officer, Christian Health Association of Malawi; and Timothy Nunn, MD, Medical Director, CURE Ethiopia
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Optimistic Voices Podcast is finally here! |
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If you are a podcast lover and and you are also passionate about helping vulnerable children and families, this is the perfect match for you. Join us as we launch Optimistic Voices Podcast. Click here or on the poster above to subscribe and listen to the trailer.
It is now available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Overcast, and several other podcast platforms.
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Listen in on our very first episode on Child Welfare featuring Dan Hope, CEO and Social Worker at Strengthening Families and Children (SFAC), and Andrea Seigel, Consultant and Social Worker at Helping Children Worldwide as guests.
Subscribe to our podcast on any of these platforms to get prompt notification about new episodes.
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Don't forget to share and leave a review so we can be able to produce better and more engaging content for you as our podcast grows. |
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Example instructions for subscribing to our podcast using your Iphone Podcast App on iOS:
- Open the “Podcasts" app (it has the purple logo that looks like a microphone with sound waves - or a clothespin with two circles around it..)
- Tap Search.
- Tap the search bar to edit and type "Optimistic Voices", then tap search.
- When the results pop up, tap "Optimistic Voices" (with Helping Children Worldwide at the bottom).
- Tap the Plus (+) button at the top right corner to Follow.
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Hosts: Dr. Laura Horvath, Emmanuel M. Nabieu, Yasmine Vaughan, Melody Curtiss
Vital voices in the fields of global health, global child welfare reform and family separation, and those intent on conducting ethical missions in low resource communities and developing nations. Join our hosts as they engage in conversations with diverse guests from across the globe, sharing optimistic views, experiences, and suggestions for better and best practices as they discuss these difficult topics.
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The podcast is a complement to our new Empower! Magazine. Scan the QR code to the right to read the inaugural edition of Empower! magazine on your phone, or go to our website helpingchildrenworldwide.org and read online. (You can also call our offices at 703-793-9521 x 101 and we’ll mail you a print copy.)
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NEWS FROM PARTNERS - Mission in Africa |
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CRC Case Managers continue to improve their skills to better care for vulnerable children and families. |
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CRC Case Managers receive training from SFAC |
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Through HCW’s partnership with 1MILLIONHOME, the CRC has been able to receive regular case management and social work training from Strengthening Families and Children (SFAC), which is based in the UK. SFAC has been providing social work training to practitioners on the ground all over the world, for more than 20 years. CEO and trainer, Dan Hope, has traveled to over 30 countries to train social work and case management teams, and HCW has long hoped to have Dan travel to the CRC to continue to build the capacity of the amazing team there, but COVID put a crimp in those plans. Dan and the CRC team met regularly via Zoom throughout 2021. Finally, in April of 2022, Dan was able to make the trip to Bo - his first to Sierra Leone, with Laura Horvath and Dr. Andrea Siegel to provide a week’s worth of training in person.
Four days of group work, interactive learning, and practical step by step instruction covered the key topics of (1) understanding the continuum of services, (2) using in-depth family needs assessments, (3) risk assessment decision-making, and (4) analytical best interest decision making. This was followed by two days of consultancy session with the CRC Director Olivia Fonnie, Case Supervisor/Child Protection Officer, George Kulanda, and the HCW team on the team’s skills, strengths, resources, capacity, and where the CRC team fits and meets the needs of the community in which it serves.
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Rising Tides Reunion Luncheon
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In October 2021, HCW and the CRC held the Rising Tides Family Reunification Workshop in Freetown, bringing together leaders from 50 child welfare agencies across Sierra Leone, as well as a delegation from Nigeria and one from Liberia. For five days, these leaders learned about the importance of children growing up in families, how to trace families, push and pull factors that drive or pull children into institutional care, and how to transition from orphanage to family care models. One of the most important outcomes of this week-long workshop was the creation of a network of organizations that continue to connect via WhatsApp, and through a variety of trainings offered by the CRC’s Transition Coaching and Mentoring Department.
In March of 2022, the CRC Team and HCW’s Emmanuel Mohamed Nabieu, hosted a Rising Tides Reunion luncheon in Freetown, bringing these leaders back together again to enjoy fellowship, reflect on the workshop experience and the key lessons learned, and to share updates on steps these organizations had taken toward shifting their model of care. Participants were encouraged to share honestly about the challenges they face, and to offer advice and support to one another.
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FAMILY EMPOWERMENT ADVOCACY |
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Empower A Family
In Sierra Leone, families on the low end of the economic spectrum generally provide for themselves through some combination of subsistence farming and street selling, often living on the edge of survival.
Read more
www.helpingchildrenworldwid...
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Join us for "A Day of Fun for a Lifetime of Hope."
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World Blood Donation Day
Today is World Blood Donation Day. Thanks to the generous support of Church of the Lakes, Mercy Hospital has a solar-powered blood bank, allowing them to keep blood on hand 24/7.
Read more
www.helpingchildrenworldwid...
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You can Table Fellowship with your local congregation or other friends interested in child welfare ministries with our Breaking Breads materials and join the Rising Tides movement to lift all boats! |
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Mohamed Nabieu, Laura Horvath, Melody Curtiss and Yasmine Vaughan have been traveling to visit with partner churches to share many ways to get involved with the mission to strengthen and empower families and communities. Even if you can’t join us at the Leadership Institute in Kansas City, or the Christian Alliance for Orphans International Summit in Atlanta, you can begin the conversation about how do engage with important work to end the family separation crisis at your own church. There are resources for international partnerships, for local church leadership and for young adults. Contact Dr. Laura Horvath to discuss which table fellowship guide would work best for your needs and how to get the resources. You can also register to obtain the resources and review them to help you decide how you could use this resource in your ministry!
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MORE WAYS TO SUPPORT HCW'S MISSION |
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GO FOR BO WHEREVER U R!
Ebenezer UMC's Go for Bo race in 2022 will be live in September!
With a 5K, a 1-Mile Fun Run and a Tot Dash, Go For Bo offers the perfect race for all ages and abilities.
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Did you know that you can support HCW by shopping on Amazon? |
Make Helping Children Worldwide your designated AmazonSmile charity and every time you shop, Amazon donates a small portion of your purchase. Click on this link to get started.
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“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” — Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa
"I think all Americans believe in human rights. And health is an often overlooked aspect of basic human rights. And it's one that's easily corrected. The reason I say that is that many of the diseases that we treat around the world, I knew when I was a child. My mother was a registered nurse. And they no longer exist in our country." - Jimmy Carter, former President of the United States
"Just because a child's parents are poor or uneducated is no reason to deprive the child of basic human rights to health care, education and proper nutrition." - Marian Wright Edelman
"Every 3 seconds in the developing world, a child dies needlessly due to lack of basic health care and other things we all take for granted." Claire Danes
“In our job, you will never go home at the end of the day thinking that you haven’t done something valuable and important.” - Suneel Dhand
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Psalm 82:3
Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;
maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.
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Families and children gather at a medical outreach in Fengehun village. Learn how the Child Reintegration Centre and Mercy Hospital are helping families like these: www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org
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