“If the children are not enrolled in school and if your living conditions don’t improve, we have no other option but to put all children in a local placement centre,” said the representative from the Child Protection Department (CPD) upon meeting the Mihaescu family.

These are the words that rocked Ion* and Cristina’s* life. Loving parents of five children, they found out they were at risk of having each of their children taken away from them and placed in an orphanage.

Like millions of parents around the world – parents who are struggling, parents who need support – Ion and Cristina were faced with an unthinkable situation. Losing their children. Until people like you helped bring them bring strength back to family. This is their story.

How we help keep families together

Our team in Romania discovered the Mihaescu’s situation back in 2021.

Andreea, our social worker, remembers what it was like hearing the announcement from the authorities that the children would be taken away.

“It was a clear warning. I was there, I heard it first-hand. It made my heart skip a beat. Almost reflex-like, I covered Federica’s* ears when he said it. I knew the family’s situation needed rapid improvement.”

At the time, all five children and both parents were living in just one nine-square-meter room. Somehow, two tattered beds and a small table managed to fit in.

Ion used to work in construction as a day labourer, but, after lockdown and with construction sites being on and off, he couldn’t find work.

Cristina was taking care of the children. She used to work for a dry cleaner, but was now at home nursing baby Gabriela*, with minimum pay. Her low salary and the children’s social benefits – that’s all there was. And that was supposed to be enough for baby food, diapers, meds, food for the entire family, and clothes. It simply wasn’t.

The Mihăescus were living without electricity or access to any other utilities: no heat, no gas. They got water from a nearby well.

Stepping in to help

Thanks to your donations, Andreea was able to make a plan. She knew Ion and Cristina were great parents. They just needed help.

“I had to propose a plan to the Child Protection Department,” Andrea explains. “We’ll help with improving the living conditions and with enrolling the kids in school. ‘Will that work as a rapid intervention?’, I asked. Luckily, they were on board.”

The CPD and the local City Hall helped with enrolling all the children in school. Only Federica had ever gone to school, but she had dropped out. She wanted to go back. “What would I wear? I don’t have any shoes,” she said.

Our team started by getting the family basic staples: food, clothing, and hygiene items. With no electricity there was no fridge, so we focused on canned items, flour, oil, and cornflower. And then shoes and clothing for the kids.

We then focused on bringing electricity in. It took two months, but the family has electricity now. We bought a fridge, a washing machine, and a wood-burning stove. For the first time, there was heat inside the home.

“Ion did everything. He was a brick mason, a carpenter, a roofer, a concrete finisher, depending on what was needed,” says Andreea. He kept repeating, “Ma’am, I’ll do whatever it takes, just don’t let them take our kids away.”

“Ma’am, I’ll do whatever it takes, just don’t let them take our kids away.”

Ion

Together, at last

Thanks to your donations and the tireless work of our team, everything’s different for the Mihaescu’s now.

Their house is warm, safe and comfortable. Ion’s out working every day. Gabriel*, the oldest son, works alongside Ion on weekends, helping his dad support the family. Cristina will return to her job when Gina* turns two. But for now, she’s enjoying being together, at home, with her babies.

“We wouldn’t have made it without you. God bless you. I would never let go of my children.”

Cristina

Looking to the future, we want to ensure the children stay in school. They still need our support, especially around those moments when any family spends a bit more than usual. When schools started, for example, we helped with supplies, notebooks, pens, and backpacks. But no matter what, we want to stay by their side to make sure this family stays united.

As they deserve to.

If you’d like to hear more inspiring stories about families being helped to stay together, as well as more heartwarming examples of the impact of your donations, sign up to our Mailing List. We’ll keep you up-to-date as we bring strength and stability #BackToFamily.

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* Names changed to protect identity.

The post “I’ll do whatever it takes – just don’t let them take our kids away.” appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.

For years, Galina was desperate to escape her abusive marriage. But she knew that if she left with nowhere to go, her son Ivan* would be at risk of being sent to an orphanage.

But thanks to the pioneering family support services we’ve developed in Ukraine, Galina and Ivan were given the temporary safe haven they needed to make a fresh start and specialist support to rebuild their life together.

Galina’s story

For years, Galina was trapped in an abusive marriage.

“I had violence in my home,” she told us, “I didn’t feel like a person. So, I wanted to save our family but we fought all the time, and I didn’t know what to do. I thought about taking my life”. She knew that if she left with nowhere to live, Ivan and her older son, Roman*, might both be taken from her and sent to live in an orphanage with no one to love or protect them.

“I had violence in my home. I didn’t feel like a person.”

Refusing to be separated from her boys, she stayed put.

Over time, Galina witnessed the impact the violence was having on her children.

“The boys were beginning to imitate their father’s behaviour. They treated me as if I wasn’t human.”

That was the final straw. Galina knew she needed out. But she had nowhere to go.

Reaching out

Eventually, Galina called social services and asked for help. Thankfully, they referred her to one of our Family Support Centres.

Our Family Support Centres were developed in partnership with the local authorities in Ukraine. They’re designed to be a net for families at risk of falling through the cracks – protecting any children from being sent to an orphanage.

Twenty-four hours after arriving at our centre, we brought Galina, Ivan and Roman to stay in the Centre’s Mother and Baby Unit. This was the lifeline Galina had been praying for. Now, she had somewhere safe to stay with her children while she worked out what to do next.

Healing

As well as a comfortable room of their own and access to a shared kitchen, bathroom and living facilities, Galina and the boys received counselling to help them overcome the trauma they’d experienced and improve their relationships with one another.

“Now they hug and kiss me. We can talk together and discuss problems. We have started to learn English together”

Galina says she was scared when her husband discovered where she was and tried to see her. But staff at the Centre reassured her that she was safe and helped her find the courage to stick by her decision. Now, she says she feels much stronger. She has divorced her husband, and he must pay maintenance for the boys.

Looking to the future

Now, Galina works long hours in a factory that makes train wheels. She wishes she had more time to spend with her sons, but her job means she has been able to take a loan to buy a small flat. Staff at the Family Centre have helped to raise funds to pay for the property to be refurbished. With that added support, Galina was able to build a new beginning for her boys.

“I feel more positive now,” Galina says with a big smile, adding “I will be grateful all my life for the help I’ve been given. Here help is not just words. It’s real”.

Want to hear more incredible stories about the impact of your donations? Sign up to our Mailing List and receive more heartwarming and inspiring examples of children finding their way #BackToFamily.

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* Names changed to protect identities.

The post “Here, help is not just words. It’s real” – Galina’s story appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.

All too often, interconnecting factors like poverty, access to healthcare and education, and a misrepresentation of the orphanage system mean parents are unnecessarily separated from the children they love. Today, and every day, we support parents and fight to keep families together. Because children deserve families, never harmful orphanages.

Here are 3 incredible stories of love from parents worldwide, and the work we have done to support them.  

Fighting to keep their family together

Vasilica* was only four months old and his sister, Ecaterina*, was just one when they were sent to live in the orphanage. Vasilica was born prematurely with cerebral palsy. Poverty and discrimination made it very hard for his mum, Ana*, to care for him alone, without adequate support. 

The authorities thought both her children would be better off in an institution. But orphanages don’t protect children, they harm them. 

Ana battled for two years to bring her children home again. Through our local partners, CCF Moldova, we made sure she had the practical and emotional support that she needed to succeed. “I saw that Ana loved her children and she fought for them,” says Natalia, the experienced social worker who stood by her, every step of the way. 

In the orphanage, Vasilica spent long hours alone in a cot with no one to play with him, encourage him or love him. Today, reunited with his family, he’s a very active, much-loved little boy who likes building tall towers with his wooden blocks and playing chase with his sister.  

Read their story in full 

Creating a new family for Uwera*

One evening, Atete heard cries from the trees near her yard. There, she found Uwera, a newborn baby girl, abandoned on the ground. Atete scooped Uwera up, took her home and cared for her for three weeks while the community tried to find Uwera’s parents. Once it was clear that no trace could be found, the authorities insisted that Uwera must be taken to an orphanage. Atete was heartbroken. She knew that the last thing an orphanage would provide was the first thing that Uwera needed: someone to love her. 

For two years, Uwera struggled in terrible conditions in two different orphanages. She slept on the floor with insects crawling over her and she was fed just once every 24 hours. Shouted at if she made the slightest noise, Uwera stayed silent and struggled simply to survive. 

Luckily, following a new commitment by the Rwandan Government to end the use of orphanages, our specialist child protection team in Rwanda was able to work with their local authority partners to close the orphanage and give Uwera back her childhood, reuniting her with Atete. 

Uwera has been with her new family for 3 years now. Today, she’s walking and talking, running and jumping.  Atete’s older children love to play in their little home. Soon Uwera will begin nursery alongside the other children in her community, and Atete has applied to officially adopt her so that they’ll never be separated again. 

Read their story in full 

Rebuilding their family with love

One morning in 2013, Devi was travelling with her mother when their train stopped at a busy railway junction. Without telling her mum, Devi jumped down to fill up her water bottle. While her back was turned, the signal changed and their train pulled out, leaving Devi behind. 

For the next seven years, Devi was moved from institution to institution, but no effort was ever made to trace her relatives and reunite her with her family.  

In 2015, Devi was sent to live in a shelter for girls in the heart of Ranchi City, the capital of Jharkhand state. This is where she first met Neepa, a social worker with the development NGO, CINI. With support from Hope and Homes for Children, Neepa and her colleagues worked with Devi to recall details about her childhood, contacting local authorities and visiting station after station and asking local people if they knew of a child going missing seven years ago. Until, finally, they found her family again. 

When Devi’s father saw her again after seven long years, tears of joy rolled down his face. Sadly, Devi’s mother had never returned but her father now had a new partner and a son. Devi’s oldest sister lived with them too.  

The day that Devi officially rejoined her family was very moving for everyone. “Devi cried with emotion as she struggled to find the confidence she needed for the next stage of her extraordinary journey,” Neepa said. “Then she hugged her parents and smiled back at us as she stepped back into a life of love, affection and family care again at last,” she remembers. 

Read their story in full 

How we support families 

We keep families together, we reunite families, and we create new families. Family, children and parents are at the heart of everything we do. The three stories shared above show how our global teams work tirelessly to keep families together.  

We believe that a child is always better off as part of a strong, supported family. That’s why we’re working to close the doors of orphanages forever so that no child has to be separated from their parents and face the long-lasting harm orphanages cause.   

If you would like to donate to our work supporting loving parents and keeping families together, you can do so here. Thank you.

Donate now

The post 3 incredible stories of love from parents worldwide  appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.

“Our world turned upside down. I had no idea how to support my family without my husband. There aren’t any nursery or childcare services available in my village. And on top of this, the schools were closed due to Covid, so Sonia was sent home from school.”

Radha, Sonia’s mum

Since schools closed, Sonia‘s education was suddenly cut short. With her mother out looking for work, Sonia spent long periods alone, at risk of being trafficked for child marriage, child labour or prostitution, never to see her family again. All while coming to terms with the traumatic loss of her father.

Unable to find work, in desperation, Radha considered making the heartbreaking decision to send Sonia to an orphanage, so she would at least get three meals a day. But decades of research show that orphanages don’t protect children, they harm them. To feel safe and happy, to learn, develop and really thrive, all children need to know that they are loved, and they belong; they need families.

But decades of research show that orphanages don’t protect children, they harm them.

Determined to prevent Sonia from ending up in an orphanage, our expert local partners, Child In Need Institute (CINI), stepped in and provided Radha with the support she needed to keep her family together. Thanks to funding and technical support from Hope and Homes for Children, CINI have trained community health volunteers in the area to identify vulnerable children at risk of ending up in loveless institutions. They have also developed a new mobile app called KoboCollect which rapidly speeds up the process of getting the right support to these families before it’s too late.

Preethi, a local community volunteer trained by CINI, soon identified Sonia as being vulnerable. “During one of our home visits,” Preethi says, “we found out that Sonia’s father had died of Covid, and that the whole family had come to a standstill. The family was facing financial crisis.” Thanks to CINI’s app, Preethi was able to support Sonia’s family quickly and efficiently. “We submitted all the family’s details and highlighted their case as a red flag, so the district administration was notified,” Preethi explains. “Then we presented the case to the district administration and successfully got support for Sonia’s education and got her mother onto the Widow’s Pension and Food Security schemes.”

Preethi also helped enrol Sonia in a free government residential school nearby. Here, Sonia will be well looked after while her mum is looking for work and can still see her family on the weekends and go home for the holidays.

Crucially, Preethi also provided emotional support, empathy, and hope. Sonia remembers, “The CINI team visited us and helped us believe that we could overcome our situation.”

Without the app developed by CINI, children like Sonia are falling through the cracks at an alarming rate. Your money is helping us use innovative digital technology to protect Covid orphans like Sonia from loveless institutions.
With Sonia back in a classroom and the family’s basic needs covered, Sonia is no longer at risk of being trafficked or sent to an orphanage and can stay with her family—where she belongs.

Sonia is loving being back at school. She feels positive about the future now and is able to enjoy playing with her friends again, and her three-year-old brother, Ajeet. She says, “I am very happy that now I can continue my education and live a happy life.”

The post Covid stole Sonia’s father. Then it nearly stole her childhood too. appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.

“I was forced to go. I had no choice”, Esmeralda says simply, remembering the night she left her husband, taking her six children and absolutely nothing else with her.

Her mother died when Esmeralda was very young and she spent part of her childhood living in an orphanage to escape her alcoholic father. She married as soon as she was old enough, hoping to find security. Her husband was kind to her at first, she says, but after their twin daughters were born, the beatings began. He refused to believe that the babies were his. Over the next six years, Esmeralda gave birth to three more daughters and a son, and the violence just got worse.

“I will never let my children go to an institution. I would rather die”

Eventually, fearing for her life, Esmeralda, took her children and fled to a refuge. With no family to support her, no income and no permanent place to live, she knew her children were in danger of being taken from her and left in an orphanage. But Esmeralda was absolutely determined not to let that happen. “I will never let my children go to an institution. I would rather die,” she told us then. “Even if the staff are kind, even if everything is clean and the children are fed, you are on our own and there is no love there.”

“When Esmeralda fled from her husband, all she had with her were the clothes she was wearing”

Our team in Bosnia & Herzegovina worked with Esmeralda and her children to rebuild their lives and keep their family together. Social worker Adnan Vrbanjac helped Esmeralda to find and furnish a small flat, register with a food bank and cover the cost of heat and electricity until she found her feet.

When Esmeralda fled from her husband, all she had with her were the clothes she was wearing and so, crucially, Adnan also supported her through the complicated process of obtaining new identity documents. Once she had these, Esmeralda was able to access social support for her children, register them for health care and make sure they could go to school.

“She had no money for public transport, no childcare, how could she do this with six small children to look after?”

“Officials sit behind desks and tell women in Esmeralda’s situation what they need to do: ‘go to this office, collect this form, fill it in, take it to this other office.’ But she had no money for public transport, no childcare. How could she do this with six small children to look after?” Adnan asks.

As well as practical support, our team also provided counselling for Esmeralda and her children, so they could begin to deal with the trauma they’d experienced.

“My children are my whole life. I will do whatever I have to, to keep them safe”

Today, the home that Esmeralda shares with her children is a happy, noisy place, despite the restrictions imposed by the pandemic. Adnan is still a regular visitor. He has helped provide a laptop so the older girls can continue their education while the schools are closed. And with five big sisters to play with, baby Haris is a cheerful, confident little boy who is growing up fast.

“My children are my whole life. I will do whatever I have to, to keep them safe so that they don’t have to go through what I did,” Esmeralda says now. “It is hard to find the money for the rent, for food and electricity but no one can put a price on feeling safe,” she confirms with quiet conviction.

The need to protect children from orphanages has never been more pressing. Our Director of Global Programmes, Stefan Darabus, says,

“In over 25 years I have never known it so bad. Child protection systems run by local authorities are beyond capacity. Families struggling due to Covid are facing breakdown and family separation. Hidden problems like domestic abuse are being ignored.”

The post Esmeralda’s story appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.

But when coronavirus hit, strict lockdown measures meant Valerie could no longer go to work. The Community Hub closed too so Therese and her brothers could no longer rely on the meals they used to receive there.

“I was in despair”, Valerie says. “My kids spent a night without eating and my firstborn was sick. I was without any money to bring her to hospital.”

That was when Monique, a Community Volunteer from the Hub, made contact to check on Therese and her family. When she discovered they had no money left to buy food or even clean water, she immediately alerted our team in Rwanda who co-ordinated emergency support for the family.

“Hope and Homes for Children called and asked me if I had mobile money on my phone (technology that allows people without a bank account, to receive, store and spend money via a mobile phone number)”, explains Valerie. I thought, ‘Am I dreaming?’ Because in a few hours I received a message to say they had sent me some money.” This was the lifeline Valerie needed to be able to take her oldest daughter to the hospital and buy essential supplies for her family. Since then, Monique and her colleagues have followed up with further deliveries of essential food and hygiene supplies.

“I thought, ‘Am I dreaming?’ Because in a few hours I received a message to say they had sent me some money.” This was the lifeline Valerie needed to be able to take her oldest daughter to the hospital and buy essential supplies for her family.

It is crises like these that force families to make the heartbreaking decision to relinquish their children to orphanages, seeing no other way to keep them safe and cared-for. But orphanages do not protect children, they harm them. Consigning children to large, one-size-fits-all institutions, puts them at high risk of neglect and abuse and threatens their fundamental development. To feel happy and safe, to grow and really thrive, every child needs to know that they are loved and they belong; every child needs a family.

Without the right, tailored support at the time their family needed it most, Therese and her brothers and sister were at risk of being separated from their mum and sent to an institution.

But access to daycare and nutrition support at the Community Hub made it possible for Valerie to train and begin to earn a living as a tailor. Regular visits from our social workers gave her courage and hope she needed to keep going when life as a single mum was really tough. And During the Coronavirus crisis, emergency support from Hope and Homes for Children has helped her to keep her children safe and well under lockdown.

“You have given to me birth five times”, says Valerie, summing up the life-saving difference she believes this ongoing support has made. And today, Therese is still safely where she belongs; at home with her mum and her brothers and sister to love her.

The post A COVID-19 Emergency: Valerie’s Story appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.

At 16 years old, Munni is carrying a heavy weight on her young shoulders, but her younger brother, Dilip, can still make her laugh. Their father died a year ago and poverty forced their mother to remarry. Since then, Munni has been struggling to look after Dilip by herself. Until recently, she had dropped out of school and was taking whatever work she could find to make ends meet, but it wasn’t enough.

Soon Dilip dropped out of school, too. He was embarrassed to go without a proper uniform and they couldn’t afford to buy one. Munni was desperately worried about her brother. At just eleven years old, he was spending his days, roaming the village with nothing to do and she knew he was at risk of being sent to grow up at an orphanage with no one to love or protect him.

“We have worked with the local child protection committee to link Dilip to a sponsorship scheme that will provide him and Munni with a small income.”

But today, thanks to your support for our work, Munni and Dilip are still together and their future looks a little brighter. Through our local partners in the rural part of east India, Child in Need Institute (CINI), Hope and Homes for Children is working to help vulnerable children to stay with their families and in their communities. In this way we can stem the flow of children into orphanages that threaten their wellbeing and life chances.

We have persuaded Dilip to go back to school and given him the resources he needs to study. At the same time, we have worked with the local child protection committee to link Dilip to a sponsorship scheme that will provide him and Munni with a small income. Munni too is feeling more positive about the future. Our partners have arranged for a tutor to visit the village and work with her and some of the other teenage girls. This means she can continue her studies without having to risk walking 5km to the nearest secondary school on her own or worry about leaving Dilip by himself. Life is still tough, and their situation remains fragile, but Munni is confident that she can take care of her little brother now.

When we ask Dilip what he’d like to be when he grows up, he says he wants to be a policeman and catch thieves. But like most eleven-year-olds, he’s far more interested in the here and now than answering questions about the future. He doesn’t want to be rude but as soon as we’ve finished our talk, he slings his school bag in through the door and dashes off to play with his friends. Munni rolls her eyes and smiles.

The post Munni and Dilip’s story appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.

“One day, I would like to be an engineer,” she says with a grin.

Yet just a few months ago, this would have been an impossible dream. Jacinta’s life then was about day to day survival, not planning for a bright future.

Jacinta’s mum died when she was born; her father left her with her grandparents and never came back. They did their best to care for her but now they are too old and frail to work. Jacinta was forced to leave school and earn what little she could, cleaning other people’s houses. This was a very dangerous time for her. With no one in her family able to support and protect her, Jacinta was at great risk of being exploited by her employers or trafficked as a domestic slave or sex worker to the Indian capital, Delhi.

Trafficking is so widespread in the rural part of Jharkhand State where Jacinta lives, that many parents feel that the only way to keep their girls safe is to send them to grow-up in orphanages. And this is not the only threat facing families here; extreme poverty, alcohol and drug abuse and the high number of second marriages, tear families apart and drive children through the orphanage gates.

But orphanages do not protect children; they harm them. Behind the high walls of an institution, Jacinta would be just one child among many, denied the love and individual attention she so desperately needs. She would be isolated from her community but still at risk of abuse and neglect from older children and staff; out of sight, out of mind.

Our prevention services: keeping families together

Today though, Jacinta and her grandparents have the support they need to stay together. Our local partners, CINI, helped to increase their household income by linking them with welfare and sponsorship schemes so that Jacinta can grow-up as part of a family and a community, not locked away in an orphanage.

And the Anandshala Child Friendly Space that we’ve helped to develop, close to her home, has given Jacinta the confidence she needs to focus on the future again. As a member of the Adolescent Group there, Jacinta meets and talks with girls her own age who understand her situation. With their support and encouragement, she has enrolled on the centre’s Bridge Course and now she spends her time catching up on her studies instead of scrubbing floors.

When we met Jacinta at the Anandshala, she’d put on her favourite dress to have her picture taken; a happy, confident little girl whose ambition to become an engineer now doesn’t seem such a distant dream at all.

‘There is no alternative to education,” she tells us, adding firmly, “If I am educated, I can do anything I want, I can be independent.’

The post “If I am educated, I can do anything” appeared first on Hope and Homes for Children.