Hopes and Homes is a global charity that gives hope to the poorest children in the world - those who are orphaned, abandoned due to conflict or vulnerable children living in institutions or alone due to AIDS pandemic. The charity enables children to grow up within the love of a family and the security of a home, so that they can fulfill their potential.
Hope and Homes helps children living in institutions to be given new lives
Today, home for more than a million children in Eastern Europe is a bleak state-run institution. These children, abandoned at birth or sometimes removed from their families because of a mental or physical disability, are hidden away in facilities that rarely meet even their most basic needs. Institutionalisation can have a severe effect on a child’s life from causing developmental delays to bringing out autistic tendencies through to self-harming behaviour and physical disability
At Hope and Homes for Children they believe that every child has the right to grow up with the love and care of a family. This is why they are working with governments to not only close state institutions, by moving each individual child into a caring family environment, but also to change outdated attitudes to childcare policy and practice. Closing institutions is just the beginning, not the end and they are helping governments put in place the alternative care systems that prevent children from entering institutions in the first place. They have been closing institutions in Eastern Europe since 1998. To date they have closed eleven institutions in Romania alone.
As part of their pioneering work they have developed a unique model for closing institutions, which has been recognised by international experts, UNICEF and the World Health Organisation as best practice in the field. This model has recently been published in a ‘how to’ guide for closing institutions and is influencing the reform of childcare services across Europe. However, there are still around 36,000 children in over 200 institutions in Romania but by 2009 they aim to have influenced the closure of half of these.
Children alone due to AIDS pandemic are being given hope
live in sub-Saharan Africa.
Hopes and Homes are supporting people with HIV and families who have lost parents through AIDS. Their work keeps families together, and in the case of a parent with HIV they help to make plans and provision for their children.
Help with basic needs - many Aids orphans are living in abject poverty without a roof over their heads or even the basic resources that they need to survive. The charity provides them with food and household items such as mattresses, cooking utensils and basins. They also ensure that they have a roof over their heads by building new homes or repairing existing ones.
Children orphaned or abandoned due to conflict are given families and a future.
In Sierra Leone, Eritrea, Rwanda and Sudan alone, there are estimated to be more than two million children orphaned by conflict.
Hope and Homes are caring for children in parts of Eastern Europe and Africa who have been affected by conflict, war or genocide - and the social disruption and poverty that result from the hostilities. These children may be living on the streets, in government camps, in local institutions or in impoverished circumstances in the community.
The charities' work involves improving the immediate quality of care that these children are receiving and then finding a family or family environment in which they can grow up.
Family tracing and reunification services - wherever possible they aim to reunite children with their parents or members of their extended families. They also provide practical and financial assistance for those families who need additional support so that they are able to provide a child with a loving, stable home.
Interim Care Centres - Their Interim Care Centres provide short-term care for orphaned and abandoned children while a long-term solution - a family, is found. The Centres provide welfare services such as education, health care and counselling as well as social activities.
Their Mother and Baby Units give vulnerable mothers and their newly born babies the chance to stay in a secure and safe place for the first few months after birth. This allows them to form a strong bond, preventing the child from being abandoned and gives us time to plan their future. The Mother and Baby Units also provide education, advice, training, medical assistance and counselling.
Foster Care Programmes – They have successfully implemented and developed a Foster Care Programme in many of the countries in which they work for children who have no locatable family. Their programmes include a thorough selection process, training, monitoring and a support system for all carers. Small Family Homes - they have created small family homes as an alternative to institutional care, where Foster Care Programmes are not appropriate. These homes generally care for up to 10 children and provide a loving, stable environment, enabling each child to reach their full potential.
Improving childcare services - They work with governments and other organisations to provide training, resources, staff and volunteers to improve child welfare across each of the 14 countries. These simple measures are greatly improving the lives of hundreds of children.
Mercy Corps exists to alleviate suffering, poverty and oppression by helping people build secure, productive and just communities.
Mercy Corps works amid disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability to unleash the potential of people who can win against nearly impossible odds.
Since 1979, Mercy Corps has provided $1.3 billion in assistance to people in 100 nations. Supported
by headquarters offices in North America, Europe and Asia, the agency's unified global programs employ 3,400 staff worldwide and reach nearly 14.4 million people in more than 35 countries.
Mercy Corps has learned that communities recovering from war or social upheaval must be the agents of their own transformation for change to endure. It's only when communities set their own agendas, raise their own resources and implement programs themselves, that their first successes result in the renewed hope, confidence and skills to continue development.
Mercy Corp’s Beliefs….
They believe in the intrinsic value and dignity of human life.
They are awed by human resilience, and believe in the ability of all people to thrive, not just exist.
Their spiritual and humanitarian values compel them to act.
They believe that all people have the right to live in peaceful communities and participate fully in the decisions that affect their lives.
They believe that human imagination and energy can inspire innovative solutions to any problem, no matter how intractable.
They believe that it is their duty to be effective stewards of the financial resources entrusted to them.
What they do
Emergency relief services that assist people afflicted by conflict or disaster.
Sustainable economic development that integrates agriculture, health, housing and infrastructure, economic development, education and environment, and local management.
Civil society initiatives that promote citizen participation, accountability, conflict management and the rule of law.
