StrongFamily4EveryChild

About the Campaign

For years, we’ve been hearing about the global orphan crisis. We know that approximately 150 million children in the world are classified as orphans. Of those, more than 5 million live in an orphanage. There have always been orphans. And for centuries, Christians have stepped up to answer the call to care for these children because of the Biblical mandate to care for orphans and widows. Most often, this has taken the form of building orphanages to house them.

“A Strong Family for Every Child” advocates for a different solution; one that will increase the number of orphans and vulnerable children who can be reached, dramatically improve outcomes for these children, and inspire congregations to engage in the real work of the church. In a season marked by divisiveness, we can focus our attention on what God is calling each of us to do to care for the most vulnerable of His children.

“A Strong Family for Every Child" is a grassroots campaign spearheaded by a small group within the UMC, in order to promote ministry with orphaned children and vulnerable youth among United Methodists. This campaign (1) promotes family care models as the right response for orphaned children; including safe, permanent families of all shapes and sizes, and (2) provides guidance for people who want to engage in ministry with orphaned children and vulnerable youth. We want to ensure “A Strong Family for Every Child.”

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Helping Children Worldwide

The mission at Helping Children Worldwide is helping children by strengthening and empowering families and communities. Committed to the belief that every child deserves to grow up in a safe, loving family, HCW partners with several child protection agencies in Sierra Leone, and networks to bring best practices to child welfare providers in Africa. In Sierra Leone, the Child Reintegration Centre works to help children on the streets go back to their families, and supports and strengthens families as they move toward independence. Having undergone their own transition from residential care to family-based care, the CRC is at the forefront of the international movement to move children out of institutional care by providing coaching and mentorship to other orphanages all across Africa seeking to transition their model. Child and Family Permanency Services is a child protection agency that provides interim care services and family tracing and reintegraiton to children in the capital city area of Freetown. CFPS provides family strengthening and case management services to caregivers, and partners with the Sierra Leone government and other private welfare agencies to serve children rescued from trafficking and exploitation. Two more agencies, Princess Promise, and World Hope International.has joined the effort to serve exploited children, and obtain governmental policy changes through the Ministry of Children and Gender Affairs for strengthening families and ending child separations. Meanwhile, the CRC TCM department has been working in 3 other countries with the UMC Faith community there.

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Zoe Empowers

Zoe Empowers equips vulnerable youth-dependent families with solutions to overcome extreme poverty and achieve self-sufficiency.

For decades, the global response to the orphan crisis has been largely relief-based, yielding recipient dependency, donor frustration, and little transformation. By creating opportunities for vulnerable youth to become skilled, healthy and connected community members, Zoe Empowers not only solves the core issue of extreme poverty, but eliminates the need for endless aid. Zoe has 187,000+ success stories in nine countries where they are operating Zoe Empowerment groups.. As a direct result of the strong family initiative, Foundation4Orphans and Zoe partnered to bring Zoe to the Youth they serve in Mozambique, and now HCW and Zoe Empowers are embarking on a new venture in Sierra Leone to bring this family-based solution to the 76,000 street connected youth there as part of a continuum of sustainable local solutions for vulnerable and orphaned children..

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