An Intact Family Is Always the Answer
Our priority for any child in crisis is simple — to provide them with all they need to give them the best shot of a future in which they can thrive. For a child with a family in crisis — whether through poverty, economic instability, extreme weather, conflict, or other reasons — that means keeping their family together, what we call Family Preservation.
We’re well qualified to practice this: It’s our area of expertise.
For the last 50 years, we’ve worked with some of the most vulnerable children in the world. When we first met them, some of these children were orphans who had no living family. But another large percentage of these children did have a family, and could have remained with their family — if only they had received the help they needed before they succumbed to a confluence of crises that made life untenable. In our experience, it is when life becomes unmanageable for a family that actually creates most of the orphans we’ve met over the last five decades.
Keeping a Family Intact
Intervene Early
Our work takes us to parts of the world where people live on the edge. These people aren’t just dealing with one crisis at a time. They live each day with a number of crises — extreme poverty, famine, civil unrest and disease, to name a few. Theirs is a daily struggle to survive. So when another crisis lands on them, it can tip the scales and bring them to a terrifying realization that they cannot survive as a family.
That’s when orphans are created — when a family is tipped over the edge.
We know that, by intervening before that point, we can help a family stay together. We can help a family survive, stabilize, and thrive.
With Personalized, Multi-Layered Help
Our Family Preservation work uses a holistic approach that examines multiple stress points in a family’s daily life, and tries to address all of those points, together. This is necessary to ensure that a child at risk can avoid becoming an orphan in the first place.
We also emphasize that a one-size-fits-all approach isn’t nearly as effective at transforming a child’s life. We have found that each case must be personalized to each child and family, as each situation is unique.
The services and training we provide a family might include: child sponsorship, income generation for parents, family life skills, training and education, medical services, feeding programs, and emergency relief.