Feeling Good About Giving

More than “home” is at stake for refugees

“We have to go. Now.” The decision to leave home and country amid strife is beyond the understanding of the average North American.

And yet one out of every 113 people in the world is forcibly displaced because of climate change and natural disaster, conflict, threats to basic human rights or extreme poverty.

A June 2016 report from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, says that four times more people are forced to migrate today than even just ten years ago. The most vulnerable among them are child refugees. The UNHCR reports that children account for 51 per cent of forcibly displaced peoples in 2015, and all too many of them are alone, unaccompanied by adults.

Child refugees

Life for children in refugee camps is stark: 

separation from family and sometimes from any responsible adults 

language barriers

no access to schooling

illnesses that come from crowded conditions

On top of that, many of them have been traumatized by the conflicts that forced them to flee in the first place.

These children are in need of support, but how can we give that from home? One way is to support the humanitarian organizations and charities that provide valuable resources in refugee camps and in situations of conflict.

Some of them provide access to psychosocial support and schooling, while others offer refugees health care and food. Some charities—like CCFC—take a preventive approach by supporting communities in staying economically resilient and safe for children despite changing circumstances in their regions.

The important thing is to take action, even a small action: make a donation to a refugee organization. Sponsor a child. Help welcome a refugee family to your town.

Tall as the Baobab Tree (drama)

Young American director Jeremy Teicher has put together a feature film that highlights the blurry terrain between economic realities and child marriage. Two sisters from rural Senegal move with their family to the city to attend school. When their family’s fortunes turn, the youngest is promised to an early marriage by her father. Will the eldest be able to find a way to save her sister from her unwanted fate?

The film is available today for download via iTunes, GooglePlay and other digital distribution services.

Geeta (short documentary)

From India’s digital entertainment company Culture Machine, and their video division Blush Originals, comes an eye-opening short documentary about early marriage. Married at age 15, Geeta Tandon was repeatedly beaten and sexually assaulted by her husband; she gathered up the courage to leave at age 20 and went on to become Bollywood’s first professional stuntwoman. The video is nicely edited with an urban feel and offers inspiration for young girls in more ways than one.  

Together: Ending child marriage in Zambia (short documentary)

In this short documentary produced by the NGO Girls Not Brides, we see how the government and girls’ rights activists in Zambia are mobilizing to end early marriage. With a focus on community education and easing social change, groups like Population Council and Girls Not Brides are working to show girls and their parents that there are better options. With 17-year-old Miriam and the voices and images of women working on the ground in Zambia, this film gives hope for a better future for girls wherever forced marriage is still in practice.

Jabilar (short sponsorship documentary)

Ghanian teenager Jabilar is promised to a 60-year-old man who already had two wives. When her father warned her she would have to marry at the age of 13, her headmaster called upon local partners of the development charity CCFC to help her father see the long-term benefits of letting Jabilar stay in school. With its sponsorship-style production values, this video puts a human face and real story to the problem of child marriage and keeping girls from the education they deserve.

Difret (drama)

This feature film was executive-produced by Angelina Jolie Pitt and it has the sheen of the big screen in every way. Based on true events, it tells the story of a rural Ethiopian teen, Hirut, who accidentally harms her intended husband. With the help of a women’s legal-aide lawyer, the girl bravely faces her community and the deeply rooted tradition of child marriage. The film is available for viewing on iTunes.  

Does the idea of sponsoring a child seem inherently unfair, when you think about it? As in, you want to help make a better world for children in developing countries, but how can you pick just one (from a spread of brochures) and leave the others to the conditions that make life hard for them?

Some child sponsoring charitable organizations may indeed select individual children and families to be sponsored in villages far away--your money might be used to buy a specific child’s school materials, for example.

But other non profits take a broader approach. Notable among them is Christian Children’s Fund of Canada.

If you take a look at CCFC’s short child sponsorship video (https://www.ccfcanada.ca/where-the-money-goes-when-you-sponsor-a-child), you see that they use the maxim, “It takes a healthy community to raise a healthy child.”

What does that mean at the end of the day? It means they target development projects that benefit a whole community, in consultation with its members. Then the children of these communities all benefit.

Sponsors are still paired with a child, who they get to know over time. But their sponsorship dollars are combined to give momentum--synergy--to the whole community as they find ways to develop sustainable local economies and viable schools and medical care.

According to CCFC, it doesn’t matter which religion is practiced by a child’s family or in her community; in fact, despite the charity’s name, religion has nothing to with which children and which communities receive support. For a lot of potential sponsors, that’s an important thing to know.

The bonus is the participatory focus of CCFC’s projects. In concert with local CCFC partners, the community decides which resources it needs to improve over the long term in order to provide better living conditions for its children.

https://ccfcanada.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=449&Itemid=222 Jabilar is 14 years old and lives in Ghana. She is an enthusiastic student who is working to become a nurse so that she can help to provide health care to the residents in her village. Recently her father had agreed to have her married to a 60-year-old man with two wives. The Christian Children’s Fund of Canada (CCFC) stepped in to talk to her father and after much discussion Jabilar will remain in school and not have to marry at such a young age. CCFC hopes to help more girls like Jabilar as there are so many others who could suffer the same fate. CCFC depends on child sponsors to help with a monthly contribution, one that could save a young girl from early marriage and allow her to have an education and a bright future.

Have you ever thought of the impact you could have even after you’ve left this earth? Leaving a gift in your Will can provide a legacy of health and hope for children in the developing world for generations to come.

You can contribute to the Clean Water Project and provide access to clean water for children, families and communities. This can mean a water station in a classroom or digging a community well; or you could provide re-usable water containers to children for the long walk home. It’s the gift that keeps giving as these children will have clean water for years to come.

Sponsor a child, save a life! 

Sponsor a child this holiday season and give a child hope for a better tomorrow.

https://ccfcanada.ca/sponsor-a-child

Make a donation and the Canadian government will double it!

When you make a Christmas donation to the Christian Children’s Fund of Canada for school supplies for a child living in a developing country, this is an example of what your donation provides.

Get into the spirit of giving by making a donation of a unique gift that could feed a family, provide an education, supply a community with clean water or give essential healthcare this Christmas :)

It takes a village to raise a child so the expression goes, it also takes a lot of caring people coming together to raise the funds to build a school for those less fortunate. Join other donors and help children get an education.