By Mischa Rychener | Fundraising Officer
More than 30 of children in Greenland live in a home where alcohol harm plays a daily role. Nearly a third of young girls in Greenland are sexually abused before they turn 18. Meanwhile, the suicide rate among the 10-14 year olds alarmingly high. There are many wonderful things to say about Greenland, but the problems, particularly among youth, are ever present.
Meet Nive Heilmann, the leader of the project called “Open your eyes - talk about it,” which was launched in partnership with Blue Cross Denmark and Blue Cross Greenland. Nive is a native of Greenland, a trained primary school teacher and has many years of experience in relief work in her country including volunteer training about children’s rights and how we can identify warning signs of abuse and harm to children.
Nive Heilmann will spend the next year traveling around Greenland to strengthen our efforts to help children in families with alcohol abuse, initially based in Blue Cross Greenland's 30 local branches and run by 400 volunteers.
Experience shows that adult care and attention can give these children a significantly better chance to do well during childhood – they need good role models in their lives. "There is only one good person to change another person's life. If you grow up in an environment of abuse or other problems, you need someone to show a different way of living. That's what these kids need. They need to see that there is another way to go," says Nive.
More Support for Greenland!
As the project is developing, we are so pleased to announce that Blue Cross received a grant from Ole Kirk's Fund, which will support the development of several shelters in Greenland and training of adult volunteers to work with the children! We are also excited to report that another Blue Cross member is planning to adopt the project in Greenland to help with the expansion of the children’s services and provide technical expertise in the counselling services.
Be sure to stay tuned and follow us on Facebook for exciting developments.
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