BY ANNAH MARY TUSIIME COVID-19 has been a huge challenge for many people in Uganda, creating fear and anxiety amongst the young and old alike. Children have been out of school since March and social distancing has left them feeling isolated and even bored. They are looking for something to do – just like Mark […]
Tag: family
Prayers of peace for Venezuela
At a time of increased crisis for Venezuela, the leader of Viva’s partner network in the country has asked for continued prayers for peace at a national level and within families. Life is really tough for people in Venezuela. Having suffered hyperinflation, food and medical shortages, rising crime and unemployment in recent years – leading […]
Making mooncakes for a cause
BY RACHAEL MA Last month, we held a fundraising mooncake-making workshop in Hong Kong in celebration of the Mid-Autumn Festival. Mooncakes are a rich delicacy in the Chinese culture in which a salted egg yolk is wrapped in a thick lotus seed paste to emulate the full moon. In the Chinese culture, you will find that […]
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 […]
Lent 2018: ‘Our father in heaven’
BY HANNAH BARR We begin Lent with Ash Wednesday, the day we remember that from dust we came ‘and to dust we shall return.’ It’s a time to remember that the world is in a broken state; that its citizens are daily subjected to appalling horrors and terrors. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, says […]
Families reformed
BY CLARA HODGE Clara Hodge reports on the impact of the family reintegration programme in Uganda during the last two years and shares the story of a boy helped out of rubbish bins to get back home again. No child should have to grow up alone. Together Viva and our partner network CRANE are working […]
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 […]
Four questions to ask before reaching out to families
Resource cuts in the UK mean there are fewer statutory support services for families going through difficulties. Teachers struggle to know where to signpost families for help, when, for example, they see children turning up to school not having had breakfast. In response, our Oxford-based network, Doorsteps, is piloting H2O (Here to Help Oxford), a […]
A fresh start after fighting
BY JUSTINE DEMMER Following economic struggle and violent conflict, families in Myanmar are strained to breaking point. Justine Demmer visited the country to see how our new partner network cares for children and reunites families. To a visitor like me, Myanmar has an untouched feel to it; there are no indications of international trends found […]
Creating a thriving family culture
OPINION: MARK AND LISA SCANDRETTE “You know it’s bad,” a friend said, “when I reach for my phone before I kiss my wife good morning – or when I’m staring at the device in my hand while my kids munch their cereal at the breakfast table.” So many of us live lives of hurry, worry […]