ChildWorld SUMMER 2017

2821 Emerywood Parkway • Richmond, Virginia 23294 • 1-800-776-6767 • www.ChildFund.org

DEVASTATING FOOD CRISIS IN EAST AFRICA

A severe drought in Kenya and Ethiopia has caused food and water shortages

and triggered large-scale livestock deaths, crop failure and school closures.

Children are suffering, severely malnourished. Families have lost everything. And the crisis is expected to worsen before it improves.

Stephen O’Brien, Emergency Relief Coordinator and Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs at the United Nations, describes the situation starkly: “Time lost means lives lost. … Millions of people’s lives, livelihoods and well-being depend on continued donor support.”

Your support helps provide for children and families in

times of great need!

Kenya has declared a national emergency. The governments of both countries, as well as the international community, are doing what they can to help, and their response

has been effective. But the scope of the disaster is too great. Government resources have been stretched beyond their reach.

According to a situation report from the United Nations, “Each day without food assistance exponentially increases human suffering, lengthens the recovery period of affected people, puts increasing pressure on humanitarian and development systems, and the interventions become that much more expensive. Food assistance with supplementary feeding for the moderately malnourished is three times cheaper than responding to severe acute malnutrition.”

Fortunately for children in the impacted areas, support from caring donors is already making a difference.

In Ethiopia, your gifts are helping to rehabilitate and build water sources.

You are supporting health centers and treatment for severe cases of malnutrition. Food rations and cooking oil are being distributed. And Child-Friendly Spaces are springing up to support children affected by the emergency.

In Kenya, your generous support is also flowing to families who need it, including food and cooking oil. Children’s growth and nutrition are being monitored. Safe drinking water and water treatment chemicals are being delivered to Early Childhood Development centers, and more.

Every minute counts. And the cost of a delayed response is greater risk for

children, with potentially lifelong consequences. Will you help today?

THE POWER OF YOUNG VOICES: ChildFund’s 2nd Annual Advocacy Day

On March 24, ChildFund’s second annual Advocacy Day, ChildFund

once again took to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to advocate to the U.S. government about issues affecting children’s well-being: education, international aid and ending violence against children.

The most powerful voices among us were likely the youngest: eight U.S. high-school students from Jackson, Mississippi — Youth Ambassadors who participate in ChildFund’s new Youth Civic Engagement and Leadership Program through our local

partner organization there, Operation Shoestring.

The Ambassadors spoke with their elected representatives about both education and the international affairs budget, as did the adult teams. But the young people’s third area of focus was especially tied to their experience: a request to protect federal funding for after-school programs like the one that had brought them to this moment — their program at Operation Shoestring.

After all the meetings, participants gathered for a reception to celebrate the

day. Speakers included Anne Goddard, Allison Tummon Kamphuis from P&G, and Liz Schrayer, of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition. Once again, one of the youngest voices was among the most powerful.

“We’re being taught how to matter,” LaToya Washington of Operation Shoestring said, “how to embody the fact that we matter in society, and to prove our point.”

Watch a video of their visit

at bit.ly/cfadvocacy

TOMS + CHILDFUND = BENEFITS BEYOND SHOES

ChildFund and TOMS are partnering to deliver shoes to children in several of Zambia’s most impoverished

districts. And it’s not just about protecting tender feet.

In these rural and semi-urban communities, children have difficulty staying in school and staying healthy, and the rate of child marriage in some areas soars as high as 60 percent. But ChildFund and TOMS are getting creative about turning shoe distribution events into opportunities for our team to connect with more children and families and to raise awareness around the importance of education, healthy living, hygiene and the dangers of early marriage.

In fact, we’re aware of at least one case where a TOMS distribution tied to a back-to-school event directly led to the rescue of a 15-year-old girl from an early marriage.

We can’t wait to see (and tell you about) all the ways this innovative partnership will change the lives of the children who happily receive TOMS shoes.

2821 Emerywood Parkway • Richmond, Virginia 23294 • 1-800-776-6767 • www.ChildFund.org

SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT Allen Ashouri, CEO of EMRG

It’s important to be a profitable company, but it’s also important to have a giving-back approach,” says Allen

Ashouri, CEO of Los Angeles-based EMRG, which “gets good companies to five stars on Yelp and other review sites” through reputation management services and web design. The firm recently became one of ChildFund’s newest corporate partners.

Ashouri first learned about ChildFund through his brother-in-law, who is a sponsor. “I fell in love with [ChildFund] because it has to do with kids, and who better than kids to help, right?” So, in 2014, through his first company, he started sponsoring a young boy from Guinea named Macka. Ashouri appreciates the personal connection that sponsorship fosters through letter writing; Macka writes about his favorite sport (soccer), his favorite food (peanuts) and how, thanks to Ashouri’s donations, his family can now afford mosquito nets. “I saw the money actually going toward something and progress being made,” he says, “and for me, that was really satisfying and rewarding.”

Inspired by ChildFund’s work and always looking for more opportunities to give, Ashouri worked with ChildFund’s Corporate Partnership team to design a new philanthropic initiative: “With each new reputation management account that we are launching, we are sponsoring a new child.”

Ashouri’s goal is to reach 100 new accounts — and 100 new sponsorships through ChildFund. Clients will have the opportunity to be as involved as they want to be in the sponsorship, so they can choose to handle the correspondence or they can leave that to the staff at EMRG, and it’s all at no extra cost to the client.

“Each new client will be doing some good, and not only helping us reach our goal, but also helping children. We want to create strong relationships [between] our clients and these children, in case they decide to sponsor more children, and to spread more awareness about ChildFund and the good work that they’re doing.”

And Ashouri is quick to point out that 100 sponsorships is just the first goal. “Even if we hit 1,000, then we’ll make it 5,000, then 10,000 — this will never end, as long as there are still people in need or kids in need.”

Ashouri sees a personal payoff in giving, and it’s something he wants for others: “The more people you can help, the better you feel,” he says. And by that logic, EMRG’s initiative is bound to make Ashouri, his employees, his clients and 100 children (and counting) feel pretty darn good.

If Allen’s story inspires you, please consider sponsoring another child today.

“The more people you can help, the better you feel.”

“

The drought is here. The animals have become weak. Today we just ate some plain rice.

Since my daughter Roba was born, she has continued to lose weight.

We have a few goats and sheep. Many have died. The animals were important because we sold them from time to time.

We got our food and milk from them. Roba has not had milk to drink since the drought began. We’ve only had rice to feed her. We eat it once a day.

Whatever assistance we receive will be of help to us. We need food. We need money to buy food.

Roba and Dibo, March 2017

LIVING POSITIVELY WITH HIV IN ZAMBIA

In March of 2017, representatives from ChildFund traveling in Zambia got

the chance to meet a special young man named Arthur.

Arthur was happy as a young child growing up in Chongwe, Zambia. But as he got older, he was constantly sick and began to miss a lot of school. One day, his sister took him with her to a meeting of the Kafue children’s committee, which is organized by one of ChildFund’s local partners.

Through the committee, Arthur learned about HIV and AIDS prevention and treatment. “This helped me to understand what was going on in my life,” he says, “and I immediately asked my mother to take me to voluntary counseling and testing.” That’s how Arthur learned that he was positive for HIV.

“I had to immediately start treatment,” Arthur says. “When I felt better, I stopped taking the medicines, but within a few months, I was sick again. I realized

it was the meds making me feel better, and I decided to continue taking them.”

Because of this experience, and after working as a counselor at a local hospital and seeing the great need there, Arthur decided he wanted to continue helping people who were sick.

“I was moved with compassion, and was able to relate to them in their struggles. This moved me to start a support group for young people living with HIV — to encourage them to take

their medications constantly, help them set goals and help them get rid of self-stigma.”

Arthur started the group in January 2017, and it now has 37 members. They meet every Saturday to talk about their health and about raising awareness of HIV transmission, prevention, care and support. Within the group, peers also support one another, visiting members when they are sick, talking about personal problems or helping each other with their studies.

And Arthur is passing on his knowledge to others in his community, too. “To the nursing mothers whose children are HIV-positive, I show them that [HIV] is not the end of their children’s lives.” Arthur says. “And to those who discriminate and stigmatize people living with HIV, I help them understand how life is when you are HIV-positive — that you can still live your life to the fullest if there are people around you who care and support you.”

Thanks for being there for young people like Arthur!

Arthur’s own experiences are helping him help others.

CRISIS THROUGH A MOTHER’S EYES

ChildFund staff recently interviewed families in Marsabit County, Kenya. Here is what we heard from Dibo, the mother of 2-year-old Roba, who is suffering from

severe acute malnutrition. Dibo spoke of how the crisis is impacting their lives.

Contributing photographer: Jake Lyell

Hello!

Once again, I’m pleased to report that great things are being accomplished for children around the world — thanks to caring friends like you!

You are bringing help and relief to families in East Africa, where a devastating food crisis is threatening millions of lives. There is still much work to be done. But your gifts are already making a difference.

In Zambia, shoe distributions are taking place on a remarkable scale. Children’s feet will be protected, and the positive impact will travel even further. (See how in the article inside.)

And young people are becoming leaders of lasting change in their communities at home and abroad.

We hope you enjoy reading these stories and more in this issue. After all, you are the reason this important work is possible!

Warmly,

Anne Lynam Goddard President & CEO

P.S. For more information and additional ways to help, please visit ChildFund.org, or call Supporter Care at 1-800-776-6767. Thank you!

FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK

HIGHLIGHTS

SYSTEMS UPGRADE Over the coming months, ChildFund will be

completing a series of system upgrades designed to better serve you and the children, families and communities in our circle of care.

We’re doing everything we can to prevent any inconvenience to you along the way, and we thank you in advance for your patience in the event that we experience temporary delays in processing or correspondence.

LASTING IMPACT Change is an important part of every sponsor-

child relationship. And children leave ChildFund’s sponsorship programs for a variety of reasons. Most often they grow to an age of independence and marry or graduate from the program. 

We know that saying good-bye can be sad. But remember, you’ll be able to carry your sponsored child in your heart and know that this child will have a better chance for a bright future because of you. That’s good reason to be glad. 

WEBSITE CHANGESIf you’ve been on ChildFund’s website lately,

you’ve probably noticed changes, especially if you’re accessing the site through your cell phone. Keep an eye on our social media channels and our website for bigger and better things to come!