Empowering the weak; enriching the poor

BY MIKE MACLENNAN Viva’s partner network CarNet Nepal is responding to the needs of vulnerable children, by improving their wellbeing and providing protection against exploitation. Empowering the weak. Seeking justice. Nepal is experiencing a rising frequency of child abuse and trafficking. Around 7,000 Nepalese girls are trafficked to India every year with an estimated 200,000 […]

Floating Churches & Firm Foundations

BY JUSTINE DEMMER Justine Demmer, Viva’s Network Consultant for Asia, gives us a glimpse into a recent trip to Cambodia where she visited a floating church, and the children who call it home. I step outside of our accommodation in Siem Riep, North-Western Cambodia to find an open wagon drawn by a motorcycle. Our child […]

Challenging a Culture of Online Abuse

The scourge of online sexual exploitation continues to attack children in nefarious ways. Philippine Children’s Ministries Network (PCMN), Viva’s partner network in the Philippines, is about to embark on a programme to combat digital abuse in Dasmariñas City, near Manila – focusing on the potential of youth advocates. Dasmariñas City has the highest number of […]

Mentoring provides a turning point for Cambodian children

BY ANDREW DUBOCK One hundred children in north west Cambodia, who face neglect and abuse in their lives, are being given the opportunity to turn their lives around through a new mentoring programme. The Child Protection Mentorship initiative is being run by Viva’s partner network, PEACE Team Cambodia (PTC) in ten communities in Siem Reap, […]

Building safer, stronger communities in Nepal

Justine Demmer, Viva’s Network Consultant for Asia, writes about the people she met during a recent visit to see our partner network CarNet Nepal in action. “Last year one of the members of our Child Vigilant Group (CVG) saw with his own eyes a man raping a young girl. We as the CVG group took […]

Out of danger

Justine Demmer describes how grassroots networks are best placed to tackle society’s biggest issues and shares a story from Nepal of one girl saved from the risk of exploitation. Eleven years old: the age when girls in many cultures begin to become more independent and transition from primary to secondary school. The younger years of […]