Family-Based Care

Keeping Families Together During the Pandemic

Tags: Community Strengthening COVID-19 brought increased strain on poor families around the world as they struggled with the secondary impacts of closed schools, shut down businesses, and more. Families who were already vulnerable have plunged into desperation. Fortunately, there are organizations who are responding to the growing need and sharing hope in the process.Som is from a very poor tribe in Northern Thailand. When she was a young girl, only 13 years old, her parents sent her to the city to make money to support the family. But Som was tricked by her new employer, as [...]

Keeping Families Together During the Pandemic2024-01-10T13:01:21-05:00

From Abandoned to Transformed: New Case Study on Residential Care vs. Family Care Outcomes

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care It was the dogs that alerted him, their barking incessant and irritating, drawing him toward the small bundle they encircled. What had gotten into them? He shooed them away, bending low to see why they were agitated. Shocked, he saw a newborn, tiny chest heaving with every breath, his body listless. The hospital said the baby suffered from sepsis, a severe infection, treatable with antibiotics. After a brief hospital stay, the infant was brought to a crisis nursery run by Alliance for Children Everywhere (ACE) Zambia, where nurses, social [...]

From Abandoned to Transformed: New Case Study on Residential Care vs. Family Care Outcomes2024-01-10T13:06:41-05:00

How Faith and Perseverance Led to Foster Care in Mexico

Tags: Foster Care | Transitioning Lola* was just five months old when she first came to the orphanage in Chihuahua City, Mexico. At a time when most babies are cooing and giggling from affectionate games of peek-a-boo, Lola was already emotionally and psychologically scarred, struggling from the effects of extreme neglect. Over the next three years, there was little change for Lola, as the stable relationships she needed for healthy development were not met in an institutional setting. Simply put, Lola was suffering from the lack of a family. At 4 years old, Lola was finally [...]

How Faith and Perseverance Led to Foster Care in Mexico2024-01-10T13:04:35-05:00

4 Keys to Building Up Family Care When it Seems Impossible

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Community Strengthening As the body of Christ, we are called to be advocates for orphans and vulnerable children. But what happens when we find ourselves living or working with those that don’t necessarily value the importance of family-based care? We asked HaTikva Families, a Messianic Jewish nonprofit that is pioneering the movement for family care in Israel, what advice they would give to others trying to engage communities in similarly complex environments. 1. Understand the context “We must have a solid foundation of understanding the current system we want [...]

4 Keys to Building Up Family Care When it Seems Impossible2024-01-10T13:03:55-05:00

How churches can learn from past viral crisis in responding to vulnerable children

This article originally appeared in The Christian Post.  As coronavirus spreads across the world, many are warning of the potential catastrophic consequences in poor countries with little infrastructure and few resources. Recent media reports from India have highlighted the challenges for the nearly 1 billion adults and children living in overcrowded slums and more attention on developing countries are expected to increase in coming weeks. World Vision recently released a report showing, “Secondary impacts will threaten many more children’s lives than COVID-19 itself.” Major funders, such as the World Bank and U.S. government, are now providing billions to help developing countries. Children in [...]

How churches can learn from past viral crisis in responding to vulnerable children2024-01-10T13:11:47-05:00

YWAM Challenges Missions Goers to “Love Wisely”

Tags: Transitioning | Community Strengthening Every year, around 1500 individuals from all over the world descend on Youth With a Mission’s biggest training base located in Kona, Hawaii. Youth With a Mission, or YWAM (pronounced “why wam”) as it is commonly called, is an international volunteer missions movement and one of the biggest short-term missions-sending organizations in the world. In 2017, a small group of YWAM volunteers came across ACCI’s KINNECTED resources regarding best practices in supporting vulnerable children during short-term missions. They learned research shows the majority of children in orphanages are not actually orphans, [...]

YWAM Challenges Missions Goers to “Love Wisely”2024-01-10T13:12:11-05:00

A Kenyan’s First Thanksgiving: Reflections on His Domestic Adoption

Tags: Adoption For the first time, I’m going to be in the United States during Thanksgiving. In my country Kenya, the only holiday that attracts the kind of excitement I have witnessed would be Christmas and to a lesser extent Easter holiday. In the midst of all the excitement, I have found myself reflecting about what I am thankful for. What is it that I am thankful to God at this point in my life? This is my first semester at the University of Toledo and of course I am thankful for the opportunity [...]

A Kenyan’s First Thanksgiving: Reflections on His Domestic Adoption2024-01-10T14:11:17-05:00

For One Church, Orphan Ministry Isn’t an Orphanage!

Tags: Community Strengthening A banner hangs on the wall in Christ Our Shepherd Church that reads, “My House will be called a House of Prayer for all Nations” (Mark 11:17). This is a commitment that this 300-person congregation in Southeast Washington, DC takes very seriously. So when members of the congregation came to the church in 2009 and informed us about the needs in Mongolia and work of Light of the World Church, we could not help but pay attention. We began a relationship of support and prayer that has seen the some of [...]

For One Church, Orphan Ministry Isn’t an Orphanage!2024-01-10T14:10:27-05:00

Asking Why: One Important Question for Family Preservation

Tags: Community Strengthening A central question that those who care for vulnerable children must ask is “Why are children separated from their families?” Answering this fundamental question clarifies what interventions could be implemented or accessed to preserve and strengthen families, potentially preventing unnecessary separation of children from their parents in the first place. Children of the Promise’s (COTP) exploration of this question led them to develop unique programs that address the specific challenges facing families in a Northern Haiti community. In 1999, two Americans, Jan and Bud Bonnema, went on a short-term mission trip to [...]

Asking Why: One Important Question for Family Preservation2024-01-10T14:04:27-05:00

Advocacy Efforts Propel Family-Based Care in Kenya

Tags: Foster Care | Transitioning | Community Strengthening | Economic Empowerment Child in Family Focus has been advocating for family-based care in Kenya since its inception in 2012. Cofounder and director Peter Muthui grew up in an orphanage in Nairobi and later worked as a social worker at the same home for ten years. His experiences both as a child living in an orphanage and as a social worker uniquely qualify him to champion the importance of family care for children. With a team of passionate and qualified Kenyans, Child in Family Focus is working [...]

Advocacy Efforts Propel Family-Based Care in Kenya2024-01-10T13:58:59-05:00

Partnering to Find a Family for Every Orphan

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Economic Empowerment A Family for Every Orphan (AFFEO) envisions a world where every child knows the love and stability of a family. To see this vision come to fruition, they partner with and provide support to Christ-centered local organizations around the globe that have developed foster care and adoption programs. Their international partners are strongly vetted to ensure organizational integrity and adherence to best practices. One of AFFEO’s international partners is a locally led faith-based organization (FBO)[i] in Southeast Asia composed of trained social workers, pastors, and a large network [...]

Partnering to Find a Family for Every Orphan2024-01-10T13:57:27-05:00

Students Connecting Theory to Practice in Costa Rica

Tags: Community Strengthening In April 2017, eight students accompanied Dr. Greg Burch, a professor at Multnomah University, to Costa Rica for a unique 12-day course. Students met with child welfare practitioners from a variety of local organizations, including Casa Viva and Roblealto Child Care Association, who represent best practice models along the continuum of care for children. Each day combined lectures, visits to organizations, and cultural activities. Dr. Burch describes the class as an “opportunity to connect theory to practice.” This year marked the third cohort of students from the undergraduate Global Studies program and [...]

Students Connecting Theory to Practice in Costa Rica2024-01-10T13:56:14-05:00

The Bond That Forms: Empowering Women with Lifesaving Maternal Care

Tags: Community Strengthening A weekly visit, a nutritious meal and the deepening of relationships. Over nine months, trust builds and a bond forms—a bond with the women who stand by her side, who hold her hand, who breathe with her, and help her bring her baby into this world safely. After the calamity and torrent of giving birth, then there is the peace—the peace of time, the peace of space, the peace of bonding and nurturing this new life. These are all luxuries afforded pregnant women and new mothers in many parts of the world, but [...]

The Bond That Forms: Empowering Women with Lifesaving Maternal Care2024-01-10T13:55:03-05:00

Thank You for Supporting Faith to Action!

We know children grow best in the love and care of families. This basic truth has driven Faith to Action for over 10 years to serve as a resource for those seeking how to best respond to the needs of orphans and vulnerable children. It’s during this season of thankfulness that we wanted to share how much we appreciate you! It is only because of your support this year that... Inspiring stories showing the importance of family care, like that of Pastor Charles and his daughter Andaiye in Uganda, were shared with thousands on social media. Christian university and seminary [...]

Thank You for Supporting Faith to Action!2024-03-11T11:37:40-04:00

Where We Belong: The Importance of Family Tracing

Tags: Community Strengthening Every Saturday, 18 impoverished communities in and around the capital city of Uganda welcome staff and volunteers from Kids Club Kampala for games, music, Bible study, and other exciting activities. Olivia Barker White, Corrie Fraser, and Samuel Wambayo started these weekly Kids Club meetings in 2009. With an initial presence in only two communities, Kids Club Kampala spread as other neighborhoods invited the ministry to hold weekly gatherings with their children. The staff of Kids Club Kampala recruit volunteers from local churches to reach out to these communities, and both the staff [...]

Where We Belong: The Importance of Family Tracing2024-01-10T13:51:33-05:00

A Father to Tie Her Shoes: A Ugandan Pastor’s Adoption Story

Tags: Adoption | Foster Care | Community Strengthening In 2014, then just a baby, Andaiye* was found abandoned in a drainage ditch in Uganda’s capital city, Kampala. After she received medical treatment, it was determined she was HIV positive. She was referred to Child’s i Foundation’s Malaika Family Centre, a short-term transitional shelter for children, while social workers began searching for Andaiye’s family. Through local radio and newspaper ads, social workers with Child’s i Foundation are often successful in finding a child’s birth family, as reunification, when safe and appropriate, is the preferred option along the [...]

A Father to Tie Her Shoes: A Ugandan Pastor’s Adoption Story2024-01-10T13:52:17-05:00

5 Essential Steps for Transitioning to Family-Based Care

It has been a few months since we gathered with more than 2,000 global child welfare advocates and faith-based leaders in Nashville, Tennessee at the Christian Alliance for Orphans Summit (CAFO2017). Attendees heard from renowned speakers, shared ideas, and asked themselves, as CAFO President Jedd Medefind put it, “what does the world need most from me?” For the Faith to Action Initiative, CAFO2017 was an opportunity to build relationships, share our and host family care experts in our Effective Strategies for Transitioning to Family-Based Care workshop. The workshop was facilitated by Faith to Action’s Executive Director Sarah Gesiriech, [...]

5 Essential Steps for Transitioning to Family-Based Care2024-01-10T13:48:47-05:00

Better Together for Children and Families in Uganda

Tags: Transitioning | Community Strengthening The crested crane is a symbol of pride in Uganda. It is both the national bird and the name of Uganda’s most popular sports team—the Uganda Cranes. There is, however, another organization with a national reach utilizing this symbol. CRANE, also known as the Children at Risk Action Network, is an organization based in Kampala, Uganda that utilizes the strength of networks to catalyze best practices in working with vulnerable children and families. CRANE consists of 134 churches, schools, and faith-based organizations (FBOs) that span the entire country. Members of CRANE [...]

Better Together for Children and Families in Uganda2024-01-10T13:35:18-05:00

The Pathway Home

Tags: Transitioning | Community Strengthening Each child living on the street in Jinja, Uganda has a unique story, but many of their stories have similar themes. Broken homes, poverty, abuse, neglect, and addiction are common threads. And many of these children have something else in common—a family who loves them—and if provided with the appropriate supports, these families could welcome their children home. The passionate and well-trained staff at Jinja Connection run a day program open to children and youth who live on the street. Their goal is to walk with each child, at his [...]

The Pathway Home2024-01-10T14:31:30-05:00

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 Children2024-01-10T14:26:57-05:00
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