BY VICTORIA PRICE Right now it feels particularly easy to be overwhelmed and stunned by the pain and darkness that the world – and too often children – seem to face in new forms every day. News headlines such as those reporting children ripped from their parents at borders, and girls exploited by those sent […]
Category: Latin America
An incredible force for good
BY BRIAN WILKINSON The 38 networks that partner with Viva connect 2,324 churches and 1,152 organisations – but these numbers do not tell us the real story. What has motivated and inspired me over the years has been meeting the heroes and heroines who sacrificially give their lives to serve children at risk. Over the last […]
Venezuela: a road to remember
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 […]
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 […]
Double Impact of Global Christmas Parties
BY ANNA COX & VICTORIA PRICE More than twice the number of children attended a Christmas Party supported by Viva in December last year than in 2016. The total number of children reached was over 9,500, and incredibly, a third of these children had never encountered a Viva partner network in any way before. These […]
App Calls Out Abuse
BY JAIME TERCERO A brand new mobile app has been launched by our partner network Red Viva Nicaragua allowing users to report instances of abuse or bullying to local authorities anonymously, writes Jaime Tercero. Six out of ten children in Nicaragua have experienced domestic violence at home and 75 per cent reported witnessing violence at […]
One global family
Anna Cox writes about one of Viva’s added values: how our family approach enables cross-cultural learning and increases expertise – and ultimately change children’s situations for the better. We’re really excited about how children’s lives are being changed by the work of our partner networks in local communities around the world – these stories are evidence that […]
Strategy, support and sharing
BY ANNA COX “Something was missing in our work, but we found it with Viva.” I have recently returned from Viva’s annual Latin America network meetings held in Mexico – and what a privilege it was to be there. This was my first international visit since I started working for Viva one and a half […]
Changing times in Purral
BY MOLLY BEEGOO Over the last decade, crime rates have plummeted in Purral, an area of Costa Rica’s capital city, San José. As Molly Beegoo writes, one key reason for this change has been an increase in churches collaborating together and reaching out to those in need. South America is infamous for its high crime rates, […]
Paraguay’s fresh approach to foster care
BY ANDREW DUBOCK “Who knows what level of influence our children might have in the future? When a child grows up in a safe and loving family this not only impacts that one child but also a whole generation.” As we talk in her backyard, Veronica tells me with great conviction about her role as […]