Life magazine issue 16

ISSUE A POSITIVE FUTURE IN CAMBODIA

TACKLING INDIA’S SILENT KILLER

VENEZUELA’S SUCCESS STORY

THANK YOU!

Through your faithful support, our 2022 Christmas Match Appeal, ‘My Family’ raised £65,000 to give even more children the opportunity to grow up and thrive in a loving, safe family. In the appeal we met Kimberly in Guatemala, whose life has been turned around by foster care, supported by Viva. From feeling abandoned by her mother and living in a children’s home, Kimberly was shown love by foster parents Karina and Pablo, and then reunited with her mother!

We are thankful for the transformation in Kimberly’s life –and grateful for your ongoing gifts and prayers that are supporting children like her around the world.

Viva is dedicated to changing more children’s lives to fulfil their God-given potential. We impact over 3 million children in 27 countries through our 42 partner networks, which comprise more than 5,400 local churches and community organisations.

Viva, CMS House, Watlington Road, Oxford, OX4 6BZ, UK 01865 811660 | info@viva.org | www.viva.org

Registered charity number: 1053389 Photos: CarNet Nepal (p1), Stone Barrell (p2 & p7), Ukraine UN Women/Maxime Fossat (p6), John Cairns (p15)

I’ve been a great fan of the work of Viva for many years – so it’s a huge privilege to join the Viva team as the new Chief Executive. It’s an honour to lead such as amazing team as we support our 42 partner networks of churches and organisations in cities around the world to have more impact in the lives of children.

Together for children. It is a very simple, but extremely powerful idea.

Following Jesus’ example, we’re ‘for children’. The challenges facing children in the world are big. In one way or another, Covid impacted nearly all the world’s children. More than 200 million children live in warzones. And it’s the world’s most vulnerable children who are most impacted by climate change.

FROM THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE PHIL GREEN

Viva exists to work with these churches and other organisations to enable them to have a greater impact, together.

Viva has over 25 years’ experience of bringing churches and organisations together. What attracted me to Viva was its reputation of not just bringing people together to talk but bringing people together to take action – for the long term.

We are dreaming, and developing a plan to ensure that we increase our impact ten-fold in the years to come. What’s happened before has only happened because of the generosity of you, our supporters, who have made this life-transforming impact possible. Thank you.

If you’re not already a Viva supporter, I hope what you read in this magazine will inspire you to join us. If you do, we can do even more together for children.

The solution is churches coming together. The good news is, that in nearly every place where there are children in crisis, there are churches –many of them already committed to supporting children and their families. You can use the response form on page 13 to make a gift, or online at give.viva.org

FORGING A PATH FOR A POSITIVE FUTURE

Learning Spaces are Viva’s response to the urgent, post-Covid need to help children catch up on lost years of education.

Matt Coulson describes how his eyes were opened on a visit to one such centre in Cambodia.

Sometimes we might think our eyes are open, but really they are closed. Closed to injustice; closed to our surroundings; closed to a wider understanding.

On a recent trip to Siem Reap, I visited a Learning Space in a remote location, run by our partner network, Peace Team Cambodia. There, I saw 20 children, aged five to nine years old, engaging passionately in an online video about healthy eating. It was awesome to see!

One teacher, Chanthou, told me a story of a little boy called Akrun who came to her to ask her how to brush his teeth. Chanthou gave Akrun a toothbrush and some toothpaste, and explained how to brush correctly.

The next day the same boy came back and asked how to cut his nails. The teacher patiently explained how to do it and they practised together. The next day the boy came back and asked for some food; the teacher provided some bread rolls.

I was a little surprised that this boy needed this kind of rudimentary help so I asked why this boy had had no previous help to learn these tasks.

The teacher explained to me that Akrun was one of the six in ten children who are “left behind” in this region of Cambodia. This means he is placed with neighbours or grandparents and allowed to roam free with no guidance or support.

Chanthou shared more about Akrun’s home situation. This little boy lives with his neighbours, as his parents are both working in Thailand and unable to care for the boy. With no other options available, they have left the child with the neighbours and give them a small allowance for him. However, this money is essentially for his food, so, when it is not enough –because of rising inflation or lack of food options – the child goes hungry.

The allowance doesn’t cover the cost of actually looking after Akrun and making sure that he knows how to do basic things. It doesn’t cover parental love and affection.

Akrun travels on the back of a motorcycle for half an hour to Viva’s Learning Space. For the two hours he is there it is his safe space to ask questions, to be parented, to learn and be inquisitive, and find a way to grow in spite of his circumstances.

His teachers and mentors patiently work with him and the other children in similar situations to forge a path to a positive future.

My eyes opened wide. I saw the stark realities these children face, and the amazing, sacrificial nature of our team and volunteers who act out of a deep-rooted desire for children to be safe, thriving and learning. I saw that a Learning Space is much more than a support mechanism.

It is a family; a place to grow and be encouraged. It is a place where Akrun can feel safe from the issues of neglect and a place where, because of the love of his teachers, he can overcome them.

Viva’s partner network in Cambodia operates ten Learning Spaces for over 1,500 children, five days a week, all year round, ensuring they are integrated in school, supported in their education and inspiring them as positive role models.

Viva trains Learning Space mentors and provides a suite of materials including a handbook, resource guide and learning journal. We also monitor and evalute the progress of the Learning Space.

I am extremely proud of the team that work to see these children able to overcome the inequalities of abuse, neglect and addiction their community faces. They are heroes training future heroes!

Matt Coulson is Viva’s Asia Director

CREATING RESILIENT FAMILIES

IN UKRAINE

Victoria is a mentor for displaced families in Ukraine – and a big advocate of Viva’s Resilient Families programme.

When the Ukraine crisis broke out in February 2022, we became involved in conversations with different organisations and networks seeking to respond quickly. One of these was Innovista, a charity focused on equipping leaders and with a wide network of partners in Ukraine and Moldova.

With them, we rapidly redeveloped our Covid Phone Mentoring programme into a new version that directly addressed the issues which families face during conflict – and ‘Resilient Families’ was born.

Victoria told our partner Innovista about a family where the youngest child, aged six, was really struggling –not eating, speaking and refusing to go to school.

She says, “Resilient Families had a profound effect on them as a family. It enabled them to ‘speak out’ and not keep secret what they had been carrying for almost a year. The session where we talked about mental health was very intense and the family discussed emotions and feelings for the first time.”

A smartphone app measures the programme’s impact. Our data shows the material is reaching a wide range of situations – some families who are still in Ukraine, some who are in Ukraine but left home, and some in another country. Many are separated from immediate family so Resilient Families is extra crucial for support. Please pray for many more people to access this Programme.

Article by Kezia M’Clelland, Viva’s Children in Emergencies Specialist

“This project supports parents who are close to burnout. The materials enable them to trust me and open up without fear of judgement.”

This June, join hundreds of thousands of people across the world in prayer for children.

The theme of our 2023 World Weekend of Prayer is ‘God’s world: our home’. The very first sentence of the Bible says, “In the beginning God...” Before time, God is “I AM”. It is God who brings order out of chaos and creates the universe. He sets men and women on the earth and commands them to care for it together.

We live in God’s creation: he has made it our wonderful home to look after. It is a beautiful home in which we have a duty to work together to deliver comfort, security and love for the children of this era and the generation to come. Our prayers will focus on praise for God’s creation, for actions to care for creation and for collective interventions to support children most impacted by climate change and pollution.

Go to www.worldweekendofprayer.com to download our resources including a four-page prayer resource, videos, song and PowerPoint presentations. You can also sign-up now to receive a prayer diary leading up to the weekend.

Will you, your small group or church congregation join us in prayer this June?

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. (Romans 8: 19)

A MODEL NETWORK

Hugh Stacey shines a spotlight on our partner network in Venezuela – an unlikely success story of hope and sustainability in a country that is socially and economically unstable.

Venezuela has been in a state of crisis for close to two decades, with widespread corruption affecting almost every area of society. Most Venezuelans have very little hope of seeing the circumstances in their country change, and as such, they have been experiencing one of the greatest immigration crises the region has ever seen. According to the UN Refugee Agency, over seven million Venezuelans have left the country since 2015.

Yet, in the middle of chaos, Viva and our partner network, RENACSENIV, remains hopeful about what can be achieved. It impacts the lives of over 50,000 children with a team of just seven people. In 2022 they:

• helped 280 children get back into formal education through Learning Spaces

• supported 22 new churches in updating their policy manuals to improve child protection standards, and

• successfully ran 18 initiatives with local churches to increase their in-country influence.

Additionally, during the annual Network Health Check (NHC) monitoring that we conduct across all our partner networks, Venezuela was one of only a handful of

networks to receive a perfect 100 per cent score – hitting all its sustainability benchmarks, with Viva’s support, and inspiring other networks in Latin America and beyond. NHC is an important piece of Viva’s annual operation, where we measure various factors that contribute to a network’s effectiveness and longevity: things such as governance, leadership, programme impact, local influence and financial reporting.

Viva’s Network Consultant for Venezuela, Isaac Saldivar, is full of praise for the network and likens the team’s structure and operation to that of a Swiss watch! In terms of member churches and organisations, it is our largest partner network in Latin America. Not only is the team coordinating projects and campaigns across 19 of Venezuela’s 22 states but they are considered ‘the authority’ on everything and anything to do with children for the Evangelical Alliance of Churches in Venezuela.

While neighbouring countries wrestle with the reality of Venezuela’s mass immigration crisis, one of the other positive consequences of a difficult situation was the founding of Viva’s partner network in Peru by a former member of the Venezuela network.

There, Learning Spaces have performed an essential role as referral centres, connecting families to resources and services they need.

Despite this incredible success, Venezuela’s problems remain as prevalent as ever. Even with a perfect NHC score and seeing their influence spill over into Peru, they now have the interesting task of figuring out what to do next.

Over the next few years, RENACSENIV plans to build on the strength of the national network and launch three regional ones. Not overburdening one centralised network would mean that they could further increase their efficiency and programme quality, while also focusing on growth.

The success of our partner network in Venezuela truly flies in the face of what we hear about the country, and Latin America and the Caribbean in general.

We know that the region’s inequality and wealth disparity is among the most severe in the world.

We know Venezuela’s Perceived Corruption Index is the worst in the region, even receiving the fourth worst score globally.

Yet, we also know that the work that Viva’s partner network is doing in Venezuela is nothing short of extraordinary.

It’s encouraging to see what is achievable within one of the world’s most unstable nations, and it is something of which we can all feel privileged to be a part.

Hugh Stacey is Viva’s Supporter Development Manager

MAKING SCHOOLS SAFER IN INDIA

Tragically, all the CCTV cameras and safe touch sessions did not prevent a Grade 7 student from taking her own life because she could not take the humiliation of her science teacher any more.

Self-harm is the biggest cause of death of 13 to 17-year-olds in India.* Mental health awareness in our country is abysmally low to deal with the consequences of emotional and psycho-social abuse that is going on. Emotional abuse stems from bullying, teacher humiliation, peer pressure, a tough learning syllabus and parental expectations. Some indicators of emotional abuse are depression, anxiety, obsessions, suicidal behaviour and substance abuse.

Students who commit suicide do not necessarily have mental illness. Their coping mechanism to deal with small frustrations, failure or loss is poor, according to Dr Harish Shetty, psychiatrist at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital. Any event relating to one’s immediate environment may result in an emotionally traumatic experience.

According to the World Health Organisation, the mental health workforce in India for 100,000 people is 0.3 psychiatrists, 0.12 nurses, 0.07 psychologists and 0.07 social workers, which translates to about one person to care for 200,000 people.

* Source: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation

Education departments issue frequent orders to schools for installing CCTV cameras and ending corporal punishment. There is an effort to prevent the visible physical and sexual abuse of children, but very little is being done to prevent the invisible emotional abuse. This is the silent killer.

The need for child protection officers at schools and children’s projects

A district child protection officer estimates that 50,000 children in her district are at high risk of emotional abuse and neglect due to family discord and discrimination at home and at school. There is only one child protection officer for each district supported by a handful of social workers.

Viva has trained teachers and childcare workers in 150 schools and projects, and we found that almost all of them don’t have a designated child protection officer to make teachers aware of symptoms of emotional abuse.

Viva’s child safeguarding intervention

Viva runs three levels of safeguarding training:

1. Safe touch training for children: a 30-to-40-minute, ageappropriate training session for children on what safe touch is and how to report abuse.

2. Child protection training for school teachers: a 4-hour training for teachers or any adult working with children. It includes understanding child rights, child abuse, awareness of laws, code of conduct for working with children and reporting abuse.

3. Safeguarding policy writing workshop: a 3-day safeguarding policy writing workshop for proper implementation of child protection systems and policy at schools and institutions working with children.

As a result of Viva’s training, one school reported that it included the new practice of teachers filling in the abuse incident reporting form.

A quarterly meeting of the child safety committee was also scheduled in the school calendar.

A child protection specialist helped the manager of an orphan boys’ home to write their first safeguarding policy. The ignorance of child protection laws had prevented the home to apply to social services for registration.

After the child protection policy is in place, the manager of the home is confident that children are protected according to the law.

Please pray for fruit from discussions with the government for Viva to train 18,000 primary school teachers in government schools of Delhi.

Article by Gary Kamaal, Viva India Director

SUPPORTER PROFILE

DAVID MORGAN

From the age of 17, David Morgan would preach regularly at local churches in the Swansea area. Now, at the age of 73, he continues to use his talents and preach in local churches as a way to fundraise for Viva.

David is one of Viva’s longeststanding supporters, beginning his relationship with us back in 1997, but even though David has been speaking at churches from a young age, he has never pastored a congregation himself.

During a time when his home church, Mumbles Baptist Church, was without a pastor, he took it upon himself to find someone to fill the pulpit or to speak himself. In the early days, when Viva was struggling to find a board chair, he stepped in until we could find a suitable replacement. As a businessman, he likes to find a solution or be the solution.

He’s a kick-starter by nature and a firm believer that you should replace yourself while you’re still active.

When we asked what made him want to partner with Viva, he admitted that he was attracted to the charity from a business standpoint – for someone looking to achieve more with their money, Viva’s model is a very costeffective choice.

As of January 2022, he has officially retired from leadership roles in his church and is back to being a regular church member again –although this hasn’t stopped him from continuing his speaking engagements at the 10+ churches that invite him to share something about Viva throughout the year.

We’re hugely grateful to David and his wife Karen (pictured) for their faithful support.

MEET IMAN

Find out more about Iman Murtonen Zadock, Co-ordinator of Mwanza Children Action Network (MCAN), Viva’s partner network in Tanzania.

What is your background?

I’ve been passionate about defending people’s rights since I was a child. Since my father was a pastor, many people, including my parents, believed that there was a calling in me to become a pastor too. They prayed for me diligently. I found a complete and clear direction whilst at school and was inspired to undertake a Bachelors Degree of Science in Social Protection at the Institute of Finance Management in Dar es Salaam. Here my dream was sharpened to help me to serve vulnerable groups of people within the community.

How did you get interested in working for MCAN?

Through Pastor Frederick Eliakim, chairperson of the steering committee at the time. After getting to know MCAN and how it works in collaboration with Viva, I realised my career goals were aligned with their vision and mission. I have been creating change for the wellbeing of children in Mwanza for the past five years.

What is your role?

To co-ordinate the activities of MCAN members and link us with Viva. I am responsible for MCAN members to be empowered with skills and knowledge and to provide information about ongoing events.

How does partnering with Viva benefit MCAN’s members?

They receive support to improve their standards of work with children. For example, through this partnership, Viva has sponsored Quality Improvement System (QIS) training for members. This is aimed at developing the capacity of members to be able to improve their child protection concepts, financial systems and governance structure. Watch a video where I talk more about QIS at: https://bit.ly/ QISTanzania

What is MCAN’s current emphasis? There has been an increase in various forms of violence against children and therefore our current emphasis as MCAN is to build our members ability to fight against this.

What is your hope for the network?

That, in the near future, MCAN will successfully bring all Christian churches together to form a strong, united team to respond to children’s needs within our city.

Interview by Annah Tusiime, Viva Africa Communications Officer

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“AND A LITTLE CHILD WILL LEAD THEM”

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God’s Heart for Children is a groundbreaking book. It is among the first predominantly non-Western authored titles of its kind concerning God’s heart for ministry with and for children in some of the world’s most vulnerable situations. It seeks to provide an overview of a kingdom approach describing our responsibility to, for, and with children.

Our goal in convening this new book has been to diversify the authorship of the former ‘Understanding God’s Heart for Children’ to ensure that we hear African, Asian and Latino perspectives on practical theologies of children more clearly. Furthermore, we set out to update the practitioner contributions and case studies to reflect issues which children-at-risk are facing in 2022, including adding a new chapter entitled ‘Engaged in Creation Care’.

6. Affirmed in God’s church

7. Included in God’s mission, and

8. Engaged in creation care

It traces the impact of such farreaching issues as displacement, climate change, human trafficking, persecution, and gender discrimination on childhood development.

Written by over 20 contributors from around the world, each section roots its premise in contextual theology, examines the implications for praxis, provides a case study, and includes questions for discussion and reflection.

Post this form to Viva, CMS House, Watlington Road, Oxford OX4 6BZ

01865 811660 | info@viva.org | www.viva.org

Alternatively you can give online at give.viva.org

The book affirms eight core beliefs regarding the place of children – that they are:

1. Created with dignity

2. Intended to be placed in families

3. Cared for in community

4. Advocated by society

5. Secured in hope

It is already proving to be a vibrant and meaningful tool to guide dialogue and improve practice, especially when practitioners are informed and shaped by contextual theology. We’re delighted that at least 600 copies have so far been sold.

Following on from the publication of the book, Viva is co-ordinating a series of webinars throughout 2023, in partnership with All Nations Christian College, the Global Children’s Forum, the Lausanne Movement and Langham Publishing.

Last year, Viva co-published ‘God’s Heart for Children: Practical Theology from Global Perspectives’. Lucy Hefford writes about its focus and how people are engaging with it.

The webinars are equipping and encouraging people working for and ministering with children, as well as students and church leaders, to be able to take away key practical insights for ministry, and to be able to ground what ‘God’s Heart for Children’ means for them and the children they work with in a variety of global contexts.

They hold a mirror to the wider church and draw upon the unique intersection of childhood, development, theology and mission studies and practice.

In the first webinar, held in January 2023, we explored the ways in which dignity is so often not afforded children. Over 220 participants from all over the world registered.

Hiba Al Jamal, Director of SKILD Centre in Lebanon, helped us think through how to ensure that children with special needs are treated with the God-given dignity they were each born with.

Jan Grobbelaar, a theologian from South Africa, challenged us to allow children to take the lead as a way of affirming their dignity.

I wonder what this might look like in your context? Maybe in your home? Or your church? How can we give space for children to be heard, to lead, to reveal God to us in new ways? As you allow the little child to lead you, do share with us, what did you learn?

In March, we hosted another webinar on the theme of Placed in Families, and there are four more scheduled for the coming months. Will you join us? Find out how to register your place by turning to the advert on the

Lucy A. Hefford is a co-editor of God’s Heart for Children and Viva’s Theology and Practice Researcher

“The church is called to break out from the cells of theoretical theology to stand on the ground of children’s experience, where dignity is still a mirage for the majority.”

DR JESSY JAISON

WEBINAR SERIES 2023

Discover more about God’s Heart for Children by joining our webinar series, which will unpack themes from the new book of the same name and equip you in your calling and ministry.

There are four more webinars this year:

• Community Advocacy and Care (9 May)

• Included in Church and Mission (4 July)

• Secured in Hope (12 September)

• Engaged in Creation Care (14 November)

Scan the QR code to find out more and to register your place.

www.viva.org/ghfcwebinars