Freedom for our Girls

What would you be willing to do to offer 260 women a second chance? We have a unique opportunity to host 260 women from the streets of Thailand at a special freedom night. This annual event lays the groundwork for all that we do here.  And, because of events like this we have several girls who came to our safe home in Bangkok. Tuk worked in the bars until one day she was invited to attend our Freedom night … a night that changed her life forever. Now she has graduated with a degree in Human Resources and is studying to receive her masters in Business. All because of one night. 260 women. That’s individual lives that could be forever changed. Our goal is to raise $26,000  by October 31st.  This amount will allow us to rent a space large enough to host these women, provide meals and gifts for them, a Bible of their very own, and most importantly offer them a second chance. For just $100 you can help make it possible for 1 woman to attend this pivotal night.  Together, we can do something incredible. We can give 260 women the opportunity to say hello to freedom. OFFER A WOMAN FREEDOM

Crisis Response

As Irma continues along its path of destruction, hundreds of thousands of people in the Caribbean are now homeless, and at least 18 are dead.

But the devastation isn’t over yet — Irma is projected to hit Cuba today. 

We have to act now!

Here at World Help, we have food supplies ready to send to Cuba and Haiti. However, with a population of 11 million citizens in Cuba alone, those supplies won’t last long.

That’s where you come in! You can help provide lifesaving supplies to people in Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic who are in desperate need.

All it takes is $50 to supply emergency aid such as food, clean water, hygiene supplies, and generators to those affected by Irma. Every dollar you donate could be the difference between life and death.

If we don’t act now, millions more will continue to suffer, especially with Hurricane Jose rapidly approaching on Irma’s coattails. 

Please give today as generously as you can!

Vernon Brewer
Founder and President

World Crisis and our Children

  

Dear  Friends,

When the phrase humanitarian emergency is used, most people think of a conflict, famine or refugee crisis. But in the first half of 2017, natural disasters, including floods and cyclones, displaced 4.5 million people from their homes. That’s nearly as many as the 4.6 million displaced within their own countries by conflicts and violence.

Between January and June, disasters uprooted people in 76 countries. They disrupted education and left children traumatised and at risk of dropping out of school and into child labour, early marriage and exploitation.

This week, the horrific impact of weather events on lives and education has been seen across South Asia and in Sierra Leone.Thousands of schools in India, Bangladesh and Nepal have been destroyed, damaged or used as shelters by flooding that has affected 24 million people. Efforts are underway to get children back into school as quickly as possible.

In Sierra Leone, a mudslide killed nearly 500 and left hundreds more missing. A school for disadvantaged children in Freetown has taken a terrible toll - the building was destroyed and 50 students and two teachers are feared to be among the dead.

Amid the gloom, we continue to highlight the ordinary people doing extraordinary things. One of them is Indian schoolboy Naveen, who has gone from child labourer to schoolboy and prize-winning inventor. Read his remarkable story.

There are millions of other unsung heroes around the world - the parents and families raising children in difficult circumstances. This week - as part of our #5for5 campaign for early childhood development - we have been featuring the everyday lives of The Caregivers. They talk to us in our Voices channel about the challenges and rewards of raising young children.

 

Thanks for your support! Do share our newsletter with anyone else you think would be interested in learning about the state of global child rights - either by forwarding this email, or by Twitter or Facebook:

  

OUR CHILDREN CAMPAIGN

  
Dear Friends,

Poverty and conflict leave millions of children left behind. Out of school and at risk of child labour, early marriage, exploitation and other dangers. But every year huge numbers of children also have their education disrupted by natural disasters, such as earthquakes, typhoons, floods and landslides.
In Nepal this week, the worst rain in 15 years left a trail of devastation and saw schools closed and turned into shelters for thousands made homeless. It’s a bitter blow for a country and an education system still trying to rebuild after the deadly earthquakes of 2015.


Helping the victims of disasters and conflicts is the job of Christos Stylianides, the EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management. In an in-depth interview with Theirworld, he talks about the importance of education in emergency response, Europe’s aid for refugee children and why the under-fives and girls need particular help during prolonged crises.
The interview is part of a series we’re running this week in the lead-up to World Humanitarian Day. We’re also spotlighting some of the amazing humanitarian work being done by our Global Youth Ambassadors in Botswana, Egypt and Yemen. In Nigeria, fingerpainting is helping to teach skills to children living in slum conditions. You can read these inspiring blogs in our Voices channel.



Norway has become a global education leader in the past four years - helping to launch the Education Commission and Education Cannot Wait fund, while supporting the education of more than 3.1 million children each year. And that's pretty awesome!
.. And that deserves a big A-OK.



India has been celebrating 70 years of independence this week. But tackling education in general and girls’ literacy in particular were high on a list of topics the public said it wants the government to tackle.



Thanks for your support! Do share our newsletter with anyone else you think would be interested in learning about the state of global child rights - either by forwarding this email, or by Twitter or Facebook:
 

The African Child

Help a child survive the hunger crisis

Feed a starving child Extreme hunger. The images coming out of sub-Saharan Africa are heartbreaking — photos of children crying in pain and photos of parents, desperate to feed their toddlers, teaching them how to suck the marrow from the bones of animal carcasses. The African hunger crisis is unprecedented. More than 20 million people will starve to death unless we, as a global community, do something. Governments and aid organizations are in critical need for help. The U.N. has been able to reach only a fraction of people in urgent need. That means men, women — and especially vulnerable children — are dying every day.  One in nine children living in sub-Saharan Africa will die before his or her fifth birthday … most from hunger. And with this famine, the threat of childhood malnutrition grows even more overwhelming. Globally, children under the age of three are the most vulnerable to death as a result of famine, drought, and malnutrition. But there is something you can do. You can provide enough food for a child to survive his first 1,000 days of life. These first few years of a child’s life are when he is most likely to die from malnutrition. But your gift will make sure he has plenty of food every day during this critical time. All it takes is $120 to provide a child with food for his first 1,000 days. That means for just 12 cents a day, you can save a life.  Your generous gift will help ship emergency food to a child who won’t survive without it. Just think: Your gift today can end a child’s pain. Your generosity will ease a mother’s desperation and keep her from having to make unthinkable decisions — such as which child she will feed when she finds a scrap of food. Please act now! Each day, more families run out of food … and more children starve. But for as little as $120, you can save a child’s life, providing aid when it matters most.    Feed a starving child

Meet Sylvia

There are thousands of South Sudanese refugees in a camp in northern Uganda.
The South Sudan refugee crisis is unique because more than 80 percent of those who have fled their homes are women and children. Most of the men have been killed by tribal warfare.
There is a high number of children living alone, taking on responsibilities that no child should have to bear.


Sylvia.

At just 12 years old, Sylvia is responsible for making sure her siblings have enough food and clean water each day.
She takes her job very seriously and does everything she can to keep her family together and safe in a camp filled with 42,000 refugees. Sylvia has experienced much trauma in her young life. Both her father and mother were victims of war and religious persecution … losing one of her siblings would be simply devastating.
But that’s a very real threat that Sylvia faces every day.
Supplies at the camp are running dangerously low. Each month, Sylvia’s family receives a ration of just seven pounds of flour — not nearly enough food to live on.
It’s the same in refugee camps across northern Uganda
Many more CHILDREN like Sylvia  are waiting for a helping hand!

As Christians, we’re called to spread the light of God’s love in the darkest places on earth. And after seeing firsthand the situation in these refugee camps, there are few places as dark as northern Uganda — a place that is rarely in the news and is easily forgotten.

Please don’t forget these refugees. Please don’t forget children like Sylvia.
All it takes is $20 for you to provide one refugee with a month’s supply of essentials such as healthy food, clean water, blankets, and hygiene items.

A generous gift of $100 will provide one month of emergency aid for an entire family!
Your gift represents more than just a meal for a hungry refugee; it’s a demonstration of Christ’s love. And because local pastors will distribute the aid you provide, you are opening doors for the Gospel to spread.
Jesus commanded us to help widows and orphans … just like Sylvia. Will you give what you can today? The lives of these vulnerable children are at stake.

#ourchildrenourtomorrow!

Help a refugee

TheirWorld Campaign

Dearest Friends,
We all use apps and send messages on our phones. Fire off emails and use that cute deer filter on Snapchat. But how many of us know what actually goes on behind the screen?

How to build technology and write the lines of code that make everything work are becoming vital skills for the next generation - especially girls, who are in danger of being left behind in many parts of the world. That’s why the work of Code Clubs is so crucial.
 
In Tanzania, Theirworld supports the charity BRAC to teach girls and young women from marginalised communities how to code in a safe environment. Find out more about how coding is the 21st-century skill that girls need to learn.
Vulnerable girls and women had a real champion in Babatunde Osotimehin. As head of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), he campaigned tirelessly for young people and women to lead healthy and productive lives.

Sadly, he died this week at the age of 68. Theirworld President Sarah Brown said Dr Osotimehin was "a towering figure in the world of maternal, newborn and child health". Read more tributes to this visionary leader.
 Another UN chief this week warned that education’s share of aid has been falling for years and is not being targeted at the countries that need it most. UNESCO’s Irina Bokova said aid will have to be multiplied by six if every child is going to be in school by 2030.
Transport now gets a bigger share of development aid than education! And sub-Saharan Africa is home to more than half of the world’s out-of-school children - but gets only 26% of the total aid to basic education. That’s why the future of education funding has to be high on the agenda at the G20 summit in July.
 
It was Volunteers Weeks in the UK - so we asked some of our amazing network of Global Youth Ambassadors to tell us about some of their projects.

In our Voices channel, you can read about a plan for pre-schoolers in Botswana, a mobile school under a bridge in India and how sweet potato leaves are helping children into school in Uganda.
Thank you for continuing to support the fight for children’s rights!