Children and Youth
Big organizations with big titles make big news. The World Bank, the United Nations and the Red Cross, just to name a few, are household names, but they’re not the only ones enacting change around the world. Hannington Segiriniya directs the New Dawn Africa Foundation (NDAF), a small nonprofit in the Entebbe region of Uganda that exemplifies how local change is making a difference, too. He reached out to us through Twitter, inspiring us to profile him here on the ONE Blog.
Now in its second year, the New Dawn Africa Foundation (NDAF) collaborates with local communities to ensure that children diagnosed with HIV/AIDS receive proper medical care and nutrition. The Foundation’s center opens its doors to parents and kids alike in an effort to engage the entire family in a child’s development. Workshops and trainings help parents acquire skills that will help them enter the workforce — and with a paycheck in hand, they can better feed their children.
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ONE blogger C.C. Chapman is on a trip to Ghana with ONE. Read more of updates on his personal blog.
Group of students we spoke with
Last night I had the honor of having dinner with a group of students from Ashesi University here in Ghana. They are just like any other group of college students — full of energy, engaged in social media and dreaming of their futures. They are also each extremely proud of their country, continent and want to be part of the future success of both.
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Jeffrey Boyd is the Executive Director of the Hovde Foundation, which builds homes for children in Africa and Latin America. In this personal essay, he describes finding his passion for protecting vulnerable children.
Growing up, I often imagined running a home for orphans and helping kids in need, but little did I know that I would someday come face-to-face with children who are victims of slavery and targets for sexual predators.
My quiet Christian upbringing in rural Pennsylvania sheltered me from the reality of modern day sex trafficking — even uttering the word “sex” seemed too racy! But that upbringing also imbued in me a deep conviction to help my neighbors near and far. At the time, I didn’t know that slavery still existed, let alone an entire industry thriving on the sale of children for sex. You can imagine my shock and outrage when, as a 28-year-old living and working in the Dominican Republic, I befriended a 13-year-old boy who was regularly victimized by visiting pedophiles.
In 2004, that boy courageously helped with an undercover investigation by International Justice Mission (IJM) that led to the country’s first arrest and conviction of a child trafficker. I was so proud of my friend and our success with that case. That year, I spent a lot of time with him and several other former street kids in a home that offered them a safe and loving environment. During that time I befriended two young sisters, Susana and Francesca, whose single, prostitute mother left them alone on the streets when she went to work. And my heart broke when a couple of years later, she demanded they return with her to the streets.
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Former ONE intern Veronica Weis reports from India:
Can you guess which country in the world has the highest rate of malnutrition and underfed children?
You might be inclined to pick a sub-Saharan nation, but the surprising answer is India. Over the past few years, despite robust economic growth, the world’s largest democracy has stubbornly maintained a malnutrition rate of over 40 percent. That’s nearly one in every two children!
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It might come as a surprise, but the images of compelling landscapes from our recent Amazing Africa photo series are as foreign to many Africans as they are to us. Consider this: Today, more than 3.5 billion people live in cities — and that number is only set to grow. By 2050, 70 percent of the world’s population will live in urban areas, and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs predicts that Asia and Africa will experience the greatest urban boom. (Check out this interactive infographic to see for yourself.)
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With International Women’s Day just around the corner, we’ve asked our ONE Moms and partners to write about ordinary women and girls who have inspired them to be better activists. In this post, our friends from the World Food Programme write about Molly, an adolescent girl from a slum in Nairobi, Kenya, who dreams of helping other children when she grows up.
What do you see when you look into the eyes of the girls in your life you are proud of? We’re talking your daughters and students and nieces and neighbors. Charisma? Smarts? Courage?
At the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), we are blown away by the enormous potential we see. We see the next generation of women embarking on changing the world. We see the future of a hunger-free world.
This International Women’s Day, we want you to meet one 13-year-old girl we are proud of. Her name is Molly and she is a big-hearted student who loves dancing and dreams of helping children when she grows up. She also lives in the Mathare slum of Nairobi, Kenya where she receives a daily meal at school through WFP’s School Meal’s Programme. It is often the only daily meal she can count on. Her teacher says she is one of the brightest students in her class.
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Joshua Korn is the spiritual director and community liaison for the CURE International hospital in Niamey, Niger. In this personal essay, he describes his work with CURE and explains how he is contributing to the fight against global poverty. Stay in touch with Joshua on his blog, Josh and Julie.
I grew up in West Africa. I lived in Togo and la Côte D’Ivoire until I was 14 years old. Ever since then, I always wanted to come back. Africa gets in your blood, and stays forever like malaria. That is cliché, but true. I heard about CURE and the great work they do through a friend, so when the opportunity to come to Niger came up, I jumped at it. We jumped at it, I should say. My wife, who works here with me, is actually much more jumpy than I am.
Josh and Julie with one of the children from the CURE hospital
The CURE hospital is primarily a children’s hospital, and we specialize in treating burn victims and children with cleft lip or cleft palate and clubfoot. As spiritual director, I provide spiritual and emotional support to the patients and staff at the hospital. In practice, this can mean many different things. My job description is pretty vague, and purposely so, I think, because it is hard to define what I do. I work very closely with the hospital’s social worker in trying to determine what the needs of our patients are and what we can do to help. Giving a child a life-changing, life-saving surgery is a big deal, but I am realizing more and more that often, it is just scratching the surface.
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