Together we can give more children a safer, happier and brighter future
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Kisumu street boys turn from glue to God 5 ways to a child-friendly Christmas! PAGE
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Viva Equip gives carers a helping hand PAGE
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Kids with cameras take over Kampala
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Editorial Joanna Mitchell Donor Relations Manager
What does comfort mean to you? When it’s dark and cold outside I love just curling up under a blanket with the rest of my family, in an array of dressing gowns and animal slippers, and watching a feel-good film. Comfort covers a wide spectrum; from physical feelings of warmth and fullness to the emotions of feeling loved, safe and free from pain. We can spend a lot of time creating environments of comfort for ourselves. It’s hard, then, to comprehend just how painful the lives of many children are when they seek dangerous and short-lived comfort in a bottle of glue. It’s also hard to see how anyone can help meet the kind of gnawing need that pushes a child to this. Amazingly, in Kisumu, Kenya, our network is succeeding in helping street children to find a different kind of comfort, which is prompting them to hang up their glue bottles for good.You can read about this powerful and moving symbol of hope on page 5. People here are also doing their bit to help children experience comfort – page 6 shows how an Oxford book group used their celebrations to give children in countries around the world the chance to enjoy fun, food and friendship at a Viva Christmas Party. Read on and you’ll find some great ways for you to do the same, including suggestions for alternative gifts and a list of fun and simple ideas to make your Christmas more child-friendly. I hope you know true comfort this Christmas,
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Rubbish redemption If you walked down a road in central Kisumu and the gleam of these colourful bottles caught your eye, you could be forgiven for thinking it was just another heap of rubbish. But if you looked closer, you would find something far more precious than that.You would find a symbol of brand-new life for growing numbers of Kisumu’s street children. The streets of Kisumu, in western Kenya, are a permanent home for large numbers of the city’s children. With lives full of loss, hunger and sickness, many of these children succumb to the streets’ most popular mode of escape: drugs. Sniffing bottles of glue, which is cheap and easy to get through the numerous gangs and drug pushers, is an all-too-common way of numbing the realities of street life. Thankfully, there are 40 different projects working in Kisumu that want to offer these children a new reality. They have come together through our city-wide network, Arise for Children, to provide safe places for children to stay, activities to keep them away from drugs and support while they get back into some kind of education. Yet helping these children isn’t easy. Many are traumatised by their life on the streets or by the experiences that put them there in the first place, and can be very wary of accepting help. So, two years ago, Viva’s trainers introduced the network to a counselling tool that uses carefully designed picture cards, games and activities to encourage children to talk about their deep-seated fears and hurts, and builds up relationships of trust between the street workers and the children. The fact that the whole network is using the same counselling method means that there is continuity across the projects, and so a child will benefit from consistent treatment even if they are helped by more than one organisation.
And that is exactly what has happened this autumn. After several months of working with a particular group of street boys, one of the projects had a breakthrough. As well as the counselling they had been given, the boys had also learnt about the hope Jesus can give them for the future. They wanted to finally put the past behind them, no longer trusting in drugs but instead trusting God. So the project erected a large bamboo cross, a symbol of hope and new life, and asked the boys to hang their glue bottles from it. More than 30 boys tied their bottles to the cross as a sign of being freed from their addictions, moving from their old life into a new and hopeful future. The cross continues to stand as a testament to the transforming power of God’s love, and as the projects go on working together, combining their efforts to bring change to Kisumu, we hope to see more and more children hanging up their glue bottles for good.
R Karachi, aged 11, used to live on the streets. Now he is safe with a local project
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This Christmas we can… not only provide food, fun and presents for children who rarely experience them, but also start children on a journey of year-round help and support.
This Christmas you can… make the most of your celebrations by giving children all over the world a chance to celebrate too. Just like last year in the UK, when a local Oxford book group held their annual fancy dress party. “Our book group has a party every year and around 100 people always come,” says party organiser Jo. “Even after we’ve covered costs there is still money left from the tickets, and we wanted to be able to do something really worthwhile with it. Last year we were able to give £300 to Viva as a result, and it was amazing to know that all we’d done was dress up, look ridiculous and have a laugh, but it actually changed children’s lives! We’ll definitely be doing it again this year.”
P “Rita Hayworth and Where’s Wally turned up to the party, and I saw Scooby Doo dancing with Indiana Jones!”
Just like last year in the Philippines, when local projects and churches in Rizal put on a Party for children who had been affected by September’s typhoons. Their main aim was to give them a much-needed meal, a gift and a chance to forget their circumstances and have fun for a day. However, as a result of the relationships formed at the Party our city-wide network has been able to connect many of these children for the first time to organisations that can offer them ongoing help. They are now also running a feeding centre, offering weekly Bible classes for children and providing school supplies and bedding to those still living in evacuation camps.
Children here…
Children there…
“We made Christmas tree decorations to sell so that other children can go to a party at Christmas. It’s not good that lots of children in other countries don’t have presents at Christmas. I want them to be excited like me!” Aidan, aged 6, UK
“I have been sad because my mother is gone and we have no money for things. But I went to a party at Christmas and they gave me a doll, and it is the first one I’ve had! We also played fun games and there was nice food, and so this is my best Christmas. Thank you!” Isabelita, aged 7, Cuba
Turn to Page 15 for great
P Five-year old Tai receives a gift
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ways to a Child-fr Christmasiendly
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Make sure that any presents you buy are helping and not hurting children. For more information on gifts that have been fairly traded and shops that do not sell goods made by children see www.fairtrade.org.uk
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Before you tuck into your Christmas dinner, take a minute to pray for those children around the world who have nothing to eat or drink
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Think creatively about your presents, and offer children you know gifts of your time – take them to see your local Christmas lights, go ice skating, or out for a meal and make sure they feel loved and supported
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When you’re baking Christmas cookies make an extra tray and surprise a child or a family in your neighbourhood Go through your child’s belongings with them and think about giving some things away over Christmas – either to a charity shop or perhaps to a local children’s hospital
present ideas that will help Viva help children
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Viva Equip
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If you are loved, you love. If you are cared for, you care. When we as staff are looked after and given help and support, so we can also give this to the children who come to us every day.
Many heads nod in agreement with Talitha Peay as she sums up the most recent Viva Equip Projects training session in the Philippines.
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Together with 32 other local project workers she has just spent the day looking at why the encouragement and development of staff is vital to the welfare of the children in their care, and has begun to plan how to make it a reality in her organisation. Talitha is from Manila-based project Food for the Hungry, which is just one of 25 local projects that began Viva’s training course back in March. The group are now on the second of six modules, all of which are designed to help them care for the children they work with in the most relevant, loving and professional way. Although project staff are compassionate and committed, their willingness to respond to the needs around them is often unaccompanied by formal training and experience. Viva Equip aims to give them the skills and support they
P Completing a Viva Equip training course enables those working with children to give them the helping hand they need
Q Dinner time at Food for the Hungry
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As well as prompting a new plan for the proper care of their staff, Viva Equip Projects has helped Food for the Hungry improve their safety measures. The number of children coming daily to the project means that proper Health and Safety compliance is vital, and yet before Viva’s training the project did not have a proper policy in place. “They helped us to write a formal safety procedure, and we now have also two of our staff trained in First Aid” Talitha beams. “Now I feel
so sure that we can keep the children safe when they have a meal with us and we can help them if they are hurt.” Talitha and Food for the Hungry represent just one of the many projects that are successfully raising the quality of the care they offer children at risk. Not only are many of her peers in the Philippines becoming better equipped, but so are her counterparts on two other continents, as our city-wide networks are currently running Viva Equip Projects in ten locations including Guatemala, India and South Africa. As well as standing alongside projects, Viva is working to develop and support individual workers through Viva Equip People. Courses are currently underway in Uganda, Zimbabwe, Thailand and Nepal, and a new round of training will begin in Kenya in January. Q David enjoys a music lesson with his students S Betty answers questions on the day’s homework
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Viva’s training lifts up my head… I can make sure the future is a good one for my students
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Betty Lulugo, a teacher in Uganda who will be finishing the Viva Equip People course this month, is very positive about how much the training has taught her about good child care: “We had a girl in my project with HIV and she had really developed many sores. The other children’s parents worried they would catch something from her at nap-time as they all sleep on mattresses together. They wanted her to leave. Before this Viva course maybe she would have just left, because we would not know what to do. But now we know we must find a way around the problem that makes everybody happy. So we have planned it that she will sleep on her own mattress beside the other children, so that they won’t come into contact with her sores but she will not feel isolated. It may seem a small thing but it is just one of so many incidences, and now I am happy to know what to do.” Every part of the Viva Equip training is focused on exactly that: helping people know what to do with their children, at their project, in their context. We bring in both international and local trainers so that project staff can be helped to develop ways of working that not only meet global standards of quality, but are also relevant to their local community. This helps make sure that every child is treated as an individual, and is given the personal care they need to grow up happy, healthy and safe. David Muhabusi, the head of a large residential school in Uganda’s capital city, illustrates the value of the training well: “These children have many difficulties, many needs. When you are working with them your head is down and you are focused, there is much to do. Viva’s training lifts up my head. I can look around me and make a good plan for my school, and I can look to the future and make sure it is a good one for my students.”
Get involved Could your family, school, church or business help ensure that children are looked after in the best possible way? It costs £30 per month to support a carer or teacher through Viva Equip People and £150 per month to take a local church or organisation through Viva Equip Projects. Abi Stacey, caseworker for children with special educational needs, says: “I can’t imagine having to pour my energy into developing children without proper training and support, yet people are doing it every day. I support Viva Equip because it’s a way of giving to others what has been given to me: the tools to do the job and to do it well, so that children can grab hold of a positive future with both hands.” Go to www.viva.org/equip for more information, or contact us at equip@viva.org or on 01865 811669 for a direct debit form.
Viva Equip Viva Equip Every day millions of children around the world go without food, without an education, without a family, without a home. local people are respondin g, but they often lack the skills and support they need to give these children a better future. Viva is helping them get to the top of their game, so that more children can professional, loving and receive care that is truly beneficial.
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• we are developing local leaders, guiding them as they volunteers
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strong foundations and they seek to care for children set clear goals as both now and long into the future in cities across the world Viva Equip is enabling people to respond to the right on their doorsteps needs of the children , empowering them to work together to change lives, transform entire communit shape futures and ies for children.
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viva is an operating name of viva network.viva network registered charity no.1053389, is a company limited by and registered in england guarantee no. 3162776, at unit 8, the gallery, 54 marston street, oxford, oX4 1lF, uk
need to offer children the best possible care, both now and in the future.
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Street studios
CEO on the go
Earlier this year our friends from Community Albums went out to Uganda to give Kampala’s children the power to talk and the opportunity to be heard.
A few weeks back I was in a small Oxford pub and I got chatting to the owner about Viva. He knew well the stresses of running an organisation and managing staff, and he really loved our dedication to connecting local child care projects and equipping their staff and leaders to be the best they can be.
Children from five different projects in our city-wide network spent a week learning how to use computers and cameras, sing into professional microphones, synthesise instruments and edit the final product. Then they went back to the streets and communities where they live to film songs, dances and dramas, and record their everyday lives. The equipment was left with Viva’s Kampala office for the network to continue using, and the children have now uploaded more than 40 of their own videos and photographs!
It also wasn’t that long ago that I was in Washington DC talking with one of the directors of UNICEF, hearing him get passionate about our city-wide networks. He was so enthusiastic about Viva’s ability to unite and maximise the work for children at risk that he was trying to put us on the payroll right then. I find that no matter where I go in the world, people seem to resonate with this simple fact: when people work together well, good things happen. And it’s exciting to me that this small but striking truth, a truth that characterised the start of Viva all those years ago, still excites and inspires people today. They’re donning brightly coloured wigs at Christmas parties, feeding hungry children in the slums of Manila and lugging brand new technology across two continents to let children tell the world their story, all because they see that they have a vital part to play in this united effort to give children a better future.
Check out www.communityalbums.com/ communities/children-risk-action-network to see what Kampala’s kids have produced…
Oxford calling If you’re a student with spare time, a mum missing work, a professional pursuing a change, or a recent retiree, there is space for you at Viva! Our international office in Oxford is looking for helping hands as we mobilise support for our work around the world. Volunteering with Viva will offer you a new challenge and a chance to sharpen your skills in areas such as Communications, Fundraising, IT and Web Development.
So if you’re looking to get stuck in to some interesting and meaningful work and boost your CV at the same time, feel free to get in touch with us on hr@viva.org or check out www.viva.org/volunteer for more information on current vacancies and internships.
R Patrick meets some boys earning a living as shoe shiners on their city streets
In fact I’ve just come back from the Lausanne Congress in South Africa, where I’ve seen that truth
working on a large scale. 4,000 of the world’s most influential Christian leaders met together to make sure that the global church has a strategic and united response to the various issues facing us over the next decade. I had a chance to speak about the role the Church must play in reaching out to children at risk, and while I was there we were able to give each of the delegates a personal ‘handprint prayer’ from a child - children from our networks on 3 continents had drawn around their own hands and written a prayer for the leaders on the picture. It was so humbling to be discussing the Church’s response to issues like poverty, war and HIV and AIDS, knowing that kids who live with the reality of those problems every day were actually praying for us. We’re not just working together for children, but with them! And now I’m jumping on another plane, this time heading for Connecticut, USA, where I’m going to be speaking about Viva’s work with children at risk in the Dominican Republic. I’d love you to pray with me that this will prove to be yet another corner of the world where people are willing to stand up and play their part, as together we work to change the lives of many vulnerable but valuable children. Have a great Christmas folks,
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purchase
Prayer that hits the target The United Nations Millennium Development Goals are ambitious targets, but meeting them would see extreme poverty halved, inequalities challenged, diseases drastically reduced and people working together to do it. Most importantly for us, the lives of millions of children would change for the better. However, the global community is significantly behind in meeting these goals, and we need to pray that God would intervene and make good
our efforts to help children all over the world live the life that He has planned for them. Viva’s new child-friendly prayer resource uses the eight goals to pray through key areas of vulnerability and risk for children, and each section offers an activity, a story, seven days of prayer points and a related task for the week. You can use it on your own or with your family, or take it into your church, small group, or school. It’s a great way to guide the prayers of adults and children alike as together we call on our powerful God to restore His hurting world.
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Eat... an incredibly delicious brownie and you’ll give a child at risk something good too. Prosperity Brownies give 10% of their profits to Viva, so every brownie you buy will help provide children with things like health checks, school books, nutritious meals and safe housing, as we bring people together to see that children are well looked after. Order online at www.prosperitybrownies.com
Listen... to 13 new children’s praise songs, designed to communicate God’s love to children of all ages in a fun and simple way. Order a CD through www.viva.org/morethananything and 25% of the sale will go to Viva. Also keep an eye on our website for details of the More Than Anything tour next year, as Viva and Simon Parry will be bringing family-friendly praise and prayer days to a church near you.
For more details or to order a copy see www.viva.org/mdgprayer or call 01865 811660.
Going to Spring Harvest 2011?
Wear...
At next year’s Spring Harvest, Viva will be working in the PRAYERHOUSE creating an engaging and informative space to encourage people to pray for children at risk.
a stylish t-shirt from the Love Never Dies range and help to keep girls in Cambodia safe from trafficking and sexual abuse. For every shirt you buy £1 goes to our city-wide network in Phnom Penh, where we’re making sure girls can be given the emotional, educational and financial support they need to stay out of the way of harmful traffickers.
If you are planning to attend any of the weeks, and might be interested in giving some of your time to help us facilitate that prayer space, please get in touch at events@viva.org
Order today at www.sbg3.com or call 07816 002189
Children are suffering. We all know that. Thousands of people are working to help them. We all know that too. Yet the problems persist. Children are still suffering. In cities all over the world there are projects doing great work, but a lack of money, people and time means there is a limit to what they can achieve alone. We need to work together. Imagine what would happen if the people caring for children joined forces. If childcare workers, local churches, governments and international charities came together to tackle the issues faced by children. Whole cities would be transformed. Together we would have the power to bring about real change for children, not just chipping away at the surface of the problems but fighting them right at the root. At Viva we are doing just that. Through our 44 city-wide networks we are increasing the unity, quality and impact of work for children at risk, our joint action changing the lives of over 1 million children around the world.
Viva, Unit 8, The Gallery, 54 Marston Street, Oxford, United Kingdom, OX4 1LF t: 01865 811660 e: enquiries@viva.org w: www.viva.org
Viva is an operating name of Viva Network. Viva Network is a company limited by guarantee no. 3162776, registered charity no.1053389, and registered in England at Unit 8, The Gallery, 54 Marston Street, Oxford OX4 1LF, UK