BY KAREN MORÁN Going back to beautiful Venezuela was an exciting opportunity for me that included a work and personal agenda, although in the very first day of planning everything changed. Locally, prices were rising every day (annual inflation is now more than 700 per cent), and plans forced to change, yet the hearts of […]
Month: May 2018
God goes before us
BY BRIAN WILKINSON Brian Wilkinson describes why a network in Bolivia proved to be an answer to prayer for an authority leader. Visiting the smallest network that partners with Viva, high up in Llallagua, Bolivia last month, I was so impressed that they had excellent relationships with the authorities. I attended the launch of the […]
Confessions of a fundraiser… part 2
BY LIZ CROSS Before Christmas, I came clean in my blog ‘Confessions of a fundraiser’ and admitted that I hadn’t fulfilled my promise of personally fundraising for Viva’s work in 2017. I also pledged to do better the coming year by taking up running… Here’s an update. In February, my mystery friend who was responsible […]
Training changes perspectives
Hong Kong is an international city with well-developed law and education systems. However, behind the prosperity, children are not as happy as the city’s success portrays. Children are placed under tremendous pressure to succeed and have little control over their lives. As a result, many parents who genuinely believe the choices they make are the […]
Making mental health more visible
BY HANNAH BARR This is Mental Health Awareness Week (14-20 May), with the NSPCC revealing that schools in England made almost 125,000 referrals for specialist help since 2014, with more than half of these coming from primary schools. Across the age spectrum, the stats on mental health struggles look bleak. Last week, British universities said they […]
Robust measures are required to keep children safe
OPINION: MARYAM EHSANI All children have a right to protection from abuse and violence. Yet children are abused in every country in the world and shockingly a child dies every five minutes as a result of violence. The world’s most vulnerable children are the most at risk, such as those fleeing conflict or natural disasters, […]
Safety nets and skills training
Victoria Price looks back on a year full of child protection projects by our partner network CRANE in Uganda, highlighting three exciting ways in which children’s lives have been transformed. Many children in the city of Kampala do not receive the level of protection they should have. Due to widespread poverty and inequality, children are […]
Champions!
BY KEZIA M’CLELLAND The impact of equipping childcare leaders with the skills and resources to train others is hugely valuable. Kezia M’Clelland writes about how this approach is working effectively in the Middle East, in spite of ongoing instability. The risks for children living in the Middle East were starkly spelt out in February when […]
Safeguarding tips for parents
BY HANNAH WOODS I feel passionately about parents having confidence in the choices they make around keeping their children safe, and parents and young people being able to make informed choices they make to keep their children safe. I’m sharing here tips I’ve trialled both as a parent and a youth worker. I’ve also gathered […]
Time to talk
BY SANTA SYLVIA Viva is actively promoting child protection training in schools in six cities across India. Teachers, counsellors and administrative staff learn how to recognise and respond to child abuse, and attain recognised standards. Children are taught how to protect themselves by taking part in ‘Good Touch, Bad Touch’ workshops. Santa Sylvia (pictured below), […]