June 2012
16 posts
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Every Child Deserves a 5th Birthday →
In ChildFund’s work in 31 countries around the world, we know the first five years of life are so critical for a child’s healthy development. This video explains it visually. Take a look.
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“When you are a child, you depend on an adult. When you don’t have an adult, you...”
– Shannon Tweed Simmons, commenting on her recent trip to Zambia with husband, Gene Simmons, ChildFund sponsor and star of Gene Simmons Family Jewels
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Two Mothers' Stories
The two Bolivian mothers cried, but for very different reasons.
Maclovia’s tears were ones of sadness as she relayed her life’s story. After her first husband died, leaving her with one son, Maclovia soon remarried and had four more children. But her second marriage was unhappy. Her new husband cared nothing for her first son – and often demanded that she not feed him. He also cared little for...
franxter asked: how can i contact your organization, i could not find any "contact us" section
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When Life Is Hard, Children and Families Embrace...
As we set off to visit children and families in our ChildFund Bolivia programs, we travel through very poor neighborhoods on the outskirts of La Paz. About one hour from the city’s downtown, small adobe brick houses seem to hang from the cliffs of these extremely dry and eroded mountains and hills. This makes transportation as well as access to clean water and health services difficult for these...
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Committed Communities Are Changing the World
My week in Bolivia is delivering inspiration, once again affirming the reasons why ChildFund works with children of all ages and involves community members.
We visited the Lucerito Integrated Development Center near Santa Cruz, where our local partners work hand in hand with communities, achieving extraordinary involvement by mothers, fathers, youth and volunteers who help deliver services and...
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Building Strong Families in Bolivia
I’m on the road this week, visiting ChildFund programs in Bolivia, where we’ve worked with local partners since 1980.
Yesterday, we visited children and families who live in the impoverished urban areas of Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s second largest city. The rainy season is just starting, and the roads to get to the neighborhoods where we serve thousands of families were just terrible. Even in...
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We Must End Preventable Child Deaths
Did you know that more than 7 million children will die this year before they reach their fifth birthday? And, sadly, they’re dying from diseases that are preventable.
Yes, we’ve made substantive international progress during the last 50 years, with child mortality rates being reduced 70 percent. But when 7 million children are still dying around the world, we have so much more work to do.
This...
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The (Wild) Frontiers of Development
This week I am attending USAID’s Frontiers in Development Forum at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. A (very) diverse group of participants and presenters are discussing the challenges and opportunities in trying to end the severe poverty that still plagues far too many people on our planet.
Monday, we started with a panel of five current and former women presidents/prime ministers....
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Boring?
I’m in meetings this week with senior staff at ChildFund. Each year we plan the major things we have to accomplish to fulfill our mission of helping children living in poverty. Every three months we meet to review the progress we have made in our priorities – the successes and the challenges.
ChildFund has more than 1,200 staff working in 31 countries. It’s a real challenge to get...
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“If I were president I would do much work on food security in order to stop...”
– a 12-year-old in ChildFund’s programs in Ethiopia
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Childhood: A One-Time Opportunity
I went to my 35th college reunion this weekend and had a blast. It was great catching up with old friends and learning how people’s lives have turned out. Although all of us looked older, by and large we hadn’t changed that much. The shy ones and the life-of-the party types were still playing their roles. The conservatives and liberals still held their same beliefs. The most fashionable and...
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Real Elections that Matter
Egypt is going through an historic election, the first in its 5,000-year history. When I worked in Egypt several years ago, there were “presidential elections.” Parliament (more than 50 percent of whom were appointed by the president) put forward one candidate, and people voted either yay or nay on that one candidate. Needless to say, no one stayed up late on election night to find out the...
