Aid Children's Health & Education in 5 Countries

We are so grateful to each person who contributes through this project page to our "Impact Fund". Your help reaches our partner organisations at crucial times, often when they find themselves with urgent or unexpected needs. Your support has a great impact for the children and young people at these organisations.

On #GivingTuesday, we took part in GlobalGiving's campaign and we want to thank everyone who donated and who shared the project page. The funds raised that day went to support Casa Mea in Romania. The most fortunate children are born into families that can take care of their day-to-day needs, as well as their mental and emotional development. Casa Mea provides this level of support for children and teenagers who, for various reasons, are unable to live with their families. Over the years, CHW has sponsored a part time member of staff and also small projects, such as paintwork for the house and maths tuition for one of the teenagers. In September though, Casa Mea needed further help with the running costs, Most of their funding came from the US and, affected by a change in tax law, this had dried up. This was a much bigger project than we usually take on, but, with your help, including the donations on #GivingTuesday, we were able to assist Casa Mea. With are so thankful to our supporters, and to our Patrons, Ottilia and Robert, for all they have done for the children and teenagers at Casa Mea.

The assistance you gave, through CHW, allowed those running Casa Mea to have some more time, to make further plans. We were so pleased to hear from Jan and Felicia, at Casa Mea, that things are looking much better now, at the start of 2019! Felicia held a Christmas Ball in the nearby city of Brasov and raised a lot of funds. This also raised awareness of Casa Mea. There is growing local support, which is great for the sustainability of Casa Mea. Jan also has a fundraising event planned for Casa Mea.

The children have been growing up together, like a family. They had a nice Christmas with each other. Felicia gave a lovely update on the activities the children took part in just before Christmas. Three of the children, Cristina, Raul and Robert were part of class performances in the local town hall. The others took part in Secret Santa with their classmates. Livia and Raul are their school representatives for table tennis and they won contests against other schools. Stelian was the best at reading poems in his class. A football club in Brasov arranged a match for the children and clothes and food were donated by all who came to the match. Felicia also arranged for the children to take part in a horse-assisted therapy project, which they very much enjoyed and which has been very beneficial for them.

We are grateful to those who thought of the children and teenagers at Casa Mea over Christmas. Katherine, a lady who found out about CHW through GlobalGiving, likes to give an extra gift at Christmas, for the children at one of our partner projects. This year, Katherine and her family chose Casa Mea, and so the children were able to have an extra treat! Felicia took them to a shopping centre and this donation went towards winter shoes and also a pair of headphones! Sarah, who heard of CHW during her time volunteering in Romania, designed Christmas tokens to support the children at Casa Mea.

Whilst Casa Mea is now doing a lot better, thanks to your help, we would always welcome any further support in the future, as taking care of children and teenagers, and providing a warm, caring environment to enable them to grow into successful, independent adults, needs a lot of resources. We are so thankful that you care about the children and teenagers at Casa Mea! We cannot thank you enough for the help you have given over the past few months and during #GivingTuesday!

Links:

• CHW's Trustees and Volunteers talk about Casa Mea's work

A big thank you for supporting this project, our "Impact Fund". Your contributions are used to help our partner organisations when they have urgent or unexpected needs, or when we are struggling to reach the total needed for a project. In this report, you will find details about the latest projects you have helped, as well a project we are hoping to support through the Impact Fund.

Our newest partner organisation is Challenging Heights in Ghana. Challenging Heights is concerned with advocating for, and rescuing, children who have been trafficked into forced labour in the fishing industry. The rescued children spend a period of time at their shelter and they receive special care, to help with their rehabilitation and recovery. This includes educational support too. Jonathan from Challenging Heights said that they need internet access and a networking system to improve the education the children receive and also to allow the staff to effectively manage their database system. We were able to use a small amount from the Impact Fund to help us reach the total for this project. Thank you for your support! We also want to thank Claire from Move The World, for helping to form this partnership. 

Contributions from the Impact Fund have also gone towards teaching materials for children at Stepping Stones' educational programmes in China. The programmes are mostly run for migrant children in Shanghai. However, Stepping Stones is growing and is reaching more and more "left behind" children too. These are children who remain in rural areas of China while their parents leave to work in cities. Cui at Stepping Stones said that the teaching materials were used in programmes in  Zhejiang province, Hunan province, Henan province, Sichuan province, Jiangxi province and Anhui province, as well as in Shanghai. Thank you for helping disadvantaged children across China with their education!

Eva at Stepping Stones wrote, "[We] express our sincere gratitude on behalf of the thousands of migrant children and Stepping Stones staff. We are impressed by the great work you are doing at Children’s Helpers Worldwide – helping children all over the world! Wish you and everyone at Children’s Helpers Worldwide bring children a brighter future!"

Finally, the Impact Fund made it possible to sponsor the salary of a part time social worker, Claudia, at Casa Mea, a children's home in Romania. Felicia at Casa Mea explained that this work is so important at Casa Mea because, among other things, Claudia:

- Keeps in touch with Child Protection and other relevant institutions.

- Monitors activity at Casa Mea.

- Prepares paperwork for each child, concerning plans for their education, their socialisation, their families, their independent life and free time activities.

- Takes care of the children's files.

- Knows the procedures for family contact (for the children who have family members who want to stay in touch).

- Provides courses for the children, including healthy eating, personal hygiene and good behaviour.

- The children can talk to her about their problems. 

After being able to fund Claudia's salary, thanks to your help, we were contacted again by Felicia. More help is needed for Casa Mea. Whilst CHW has funded smaller things at Casa Mea, such as the salary for a social worker or educator each year, and extra tuition for one of the children, most of their funding came from the US and this has now dried up. We started the Impact Fund to help with unexpected needs at our partner organisations. However, this need is greater than any we have previously funded for just one project. 5000 USD (which is about £3798) is needed each month to keep the home going. Felicia spoke of raising the funds for six months. We would be happy to connect any larger charities or companies with Casa Mea, as they may be in a better position to help. We, at CHW, will do all that we can to help during this time, until a sustainable solution can hopefully be found. So far, CHW raised the funds needed for September and October. Another £648 must still be raised to reach the total needed for November. 

In an ideal world, all children would be born into a loving family that could take care of all their needs - both emotional and physical. However, this is sadly not the case for so many children. Casa Mea offers a warm, caring home to a group of children and teenagers, who are growing up together like a family. Felicia has made sure that each child can follow his or her interests, from drumming to dancing to sport, just as a child's parent would want to do. Casa Mea was also planning to offer support once the children have reached 18 to make sure they can live independently in society. It is so important for Casa Mea to continue. 

We are grateful to our Patron, Ottilia, for all her dedication and support for Casa Mea. We also want to thank our other Patron, Robert, as well as Anna, Carol, Marie-Lise, Sarah F, Sarah M and other supporters, who have remained anonymous, for their help. We hope the Impact Fund can also help towards the needs at Casa Mea. We will be joining GlobalGiving's fundraising challenge on GivingTuesday (27 November) so please look out for us then! Donations will be partially matched by GlobalGiving that day.

A massive thank you for supporting the Impact Fund. The work carried out by CHW and its partner organisations is not easy and it is thanks to people like you that it is possible to go on. Thank you for caring about the children we work with and thank you for making an impact in their lives. Your kindness is so greatly appreciated. 

Links:

• Video about Casa Mea - with CHW's Trustees and volunteers