Transitioning children from orphanages into loving families
It has been a difficult time for Haiti, and a difficult week for our staff on the ground as many have gotten word of relatives’ homes in ruin after the massive earthquake. One of our families reunited in the south lost their home completely, but they are safe, as are the rest of our children, families, and staff. The 7.2-magnitude …
We are excited to announce a new partnership with 1MillionHome (1MH)! The mission of 1MH is to fuel the eradication of practices that separate children from permanent family and to help one million kids get home. The most effective and expedient way to fulfill that mission is to transform orphanages/children’s homes by placing an emphasis on reunification services within these …
Last year was unreliable, unpredictable and unfamiliar to say the least. God met us in the chaos of the season and your STEADFAST support helped children and families be RESILIENT. Because of God’s provision through you, we had so much to be thankful for in 2020. We witnessed the miracles of finding family, restoring relationships, healing trauma and giving hope …
This year Child Hope launched a new program – Transition Support Services (TSS). The TSS program works with orphanages in Haiti to help them transition to family-based care. Child Hope will provide coaching, mentoring, and technical know-how to organizations aligned with our belief that children have better outcomes when raised in families instead of orphanages. Our goal for 2021 is …
In December we transitioned 8 children from the orphanage back into the care of their families! We coupled the farewell party with our Christmas party, which was a fabulous way to send off the children. Here are a few highlights from recent reunifications: Child Hope helped Rosaline, a mom, find housing over the summer. Our social worker commented, “you can …
In early November Spencer traveled back to Haiti to meet with staff and get an update on operations. While he was there, he had an amazing encounter with one of the kids living at Maison de Lumiere. He retells it below. I arrived at Maison de Lumiere ready to meet with our new hire office administrator. I was grabbing some …
Our social workers traveled to Jeremie (6.5 hours from Port au Prince) with two objectives: to visit another orphanage that is interested in learning more about family-based care, and to find extended family members for siblings living at Maison de Lumiere. The orphanage in Jeremie recently learned that many of the children in their care have families and are not …
This week Spencer sat down with the hosts of the Think Orphan podcast to share his personal journey of caring for orphaned and vulnerable children at Child Hope. He also discussed our organization’s transition from institutional care to family-based care. Please give it a listen! https://thinkorphan.com/2020/10/13/spencer-reeves-episode-155-transitioning-from-orphanages-to-families/
This year five of our boys turned 18 and graduated out of the orphanage. Before we said goodbye, we had a huge party to celebrate them, complete with speeches, laughter, food, and dancing. These young men have really blossomed and it was so much fun to throw a party in their honor. They deserved it! Many of the younger children …
This month, five of our older boys will be graduating from the orphanage and we are excited to share that all of them will be living with family. So much work goes into preparing them for this transition – family tracing, assessments, parenting classes, mental health evaluations, and more. It is great to see that work pay off with families …