ChildFund International

Children are in crisis after a catastrophic 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar Friday, causing widespread devastation all the way to parts of Thailand. Thousands of children have lost homes, family members and everything they know. Our teams are rallying now to assess children's most urgent needs, but we can't do this alone. Join us to send critical emergency relief supplies in emergencies like these and help us build safe spaces for children amid the chaos: https://lnkd.in/e_ASDN6W #Emergency #MyanmarEarthquake #DisasterRelief

In any crisis, children are often the last to receive support. 💔 Donate now to support children in Myanmar, Thailand and elsewhere who have lost everything to disaster. https://lnkd.in/eKAmvscH

Oh, hey there! Happy Friday! 👋 7-month-old Onakshi and her mom are enjoying a shared meal at a community kitchen set up through ChildFund Sri Lanka's early childhood education program. Here, a group of moms from the community, called "Lead Mothers," serve as volunteers to teach a cooking demo on how to prepare nutritious food for young children. Then everyone eats together. That's just one way communities and local partners are helping nourish young bodies and minds! Learn more about our work in children's health: https://lnkd.in/e6PpnSd4 📍Monaragala District, Sri Lanka

#ThrowbackThursday: Where were you in March 2020? It's hard to believe, but this month marks 5 years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid staggering levels of global chaos, ChildFund supporters and partners came together to help mitigate the spread of disease, get food to children and families, keep kids safe from violence and help them continue learning. The result? In the first year alone, we reached more than 6.8 million children and family members in underserved communities with these services, directing more than $100 million dollars to COVID-19 relief efforts. It might have been tough, but we made it through. Because we need each other. #WeNeedEachOther #COVID19 #EmergencyResponse #Relief Read more: https://lnkd.in/e-QjccDX

“I still remember when I could see my days coming to an end. ChildFund’s intervention to provide proper medication … helped me to bounce back.” Dilip was a normal dad working hard to provide for his family when he got sick with TB. Read how support from ChildFund India's MUKTI program, an innovative pay-for-performance program to fight TB, helped save his life: https://lnkd.in/eYfy_ciR #WorldTBDay

Celebrating #WorldWaterDay today with 11-year-old Nilza in Mozambique! Every morning before the sun rose, Nilza used to embark on a nearly 2-hour journey to the river to collect her family’s water for the day. She was often late to school, or missed it completely -- and contaminants from the water frequently made her sick. Not so anymore. Read how a new well built by ChildFund Mozambique and our local partner EHALE changed everything 👉 https://lnkd.in/etAd47_t

ChildFund International is going to be hard to miss at next week's CIES - Comparative & International Education Society in Chicago. Our ECD team will be there presenting on parental engagement and digital technologies in Early Childhood Development. Details below! 👇 💡Mon, March 24, 9:45 to 11:00am, Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, The Logan Room Damaris Wambua, ChildFund Kenya "Transforming learning through harnessing technology for increased access to equitable digital literacy opportunities in three counties in Kenya." 💡March 24, 4:30 to 5:45pm Palmer House, Floor: 3rd Floor, The Madison Room Natan Tilahun, ChildFund Ethiopia “Reducing women’s care burden and improving their economic wellbeing through establishment of community-based childcare centers” AND-- Sandra Sandoval, ChildFund International “Come Play with Me: a playful parenting project´s evolution from traditional means to digital resources.”

Is there a connection between branding and social behavior change? Surprisingly, yes! The whole of last month, our SAFE CLICS project team conducted monitoring visits across our implemting areas including schools. I remember having a conversation with our team lead Beatrice Muema and our consortium partners from Lifeskills Promoters (LISP) led by Beverly komen on something identifiable that will make the peer educators who are leading dialogue discussions in school stand out. We scratched our heads. Selestine Okubo then suggested we come up with badges. And I thought, how simple? The thing about being in communication is visibility must be outstanding. It has to set you apart. Visibility has to be memorable and easily identifiable. So we tried badges! With the help of team members from LifeSkills, we designed a material that months later would have significant impact. Something so simple, yet impactful? How strange. Back to the monitoring visit. One teacher in a school in Mombasa shared how the badges made students behave well. Most of the time, the role of oversight in the classrooms are left for the prefects but with peer educators in different classes - vigilance increased. This time, not vigilance that would report but vigilance that would appropriately guide other students on the importance of Lifeskills. Students were confiding more in the peer educators and cases that needed guidance were escalated. They trusted the peer educators who wore the badges everyday as emblems of hope. That branding can lead to significant social behavior change? Tell me more! How beautiful! ChildFund Kenya David Mariba Eunice Kilundo Awino Nyamolo,MPRSK Maureen Siele #Branding101

Disruption is not always a negative. Five years ago, the world shut down. There was a devastating loss of life, crushing economic repercussions, and social and educational setbacks young people are still experiencing. But there were positives. There was an incredible advancement in vaccine technology, People spent their lockdowns learning new hobbies, caring – distantly - for their neighbors, spending more time at home with their children, and we learned how to transform workplace culture to hybrid and virtual. With all of the negatives, there was also a little bit of good that came out of the tragedy of the pandemic. At ChildFund, we do attempt to thrive despite disruptions. We continuously assess and strengthen our organizational resilience to absorb, recover, and adapt to new contexts resulting from disruptions.  A significant part of this resiliency is due to our divine focus on children’s wellbeing, a global mindset, diverse funding sources, connections, and our strong relationships with local partners. We also seized an opportunity to scale some of our programming by pivoting how we approached implementation – like our Come Play with Me parenting modules which went from in-person implementation to radio delivery, reaching exponentially more parents and children, especially in hard-to-reach locations. This approach may never have been conceived without the challenges the pandemic presented. Thankfully COVID is in the past. But now with funding and implementation disruptions rippling through the entire global aid industry, we must face these uncertain times with a hopeful and long-term perspective. It makes me think of the proverb, “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls, and others build windmills.” We must find ways of innovating, stretching ourselves, evolving our approaches, and integrating more or consolidating with others. The essence of resiliency is working with disruption, rather than thinking of it as a problem to overcome or endure.   In short - we must build windmills. What opportunities will you look for? What challenges will you face head on to make disruption work for your program or organization? #Disruption #Resiliency #LocalPartners #Localization