CHILD – 10 AMAZING YEARS!
CHILD’s past 10 years is something to celebrate! Really celebrate!
There are so, so many things that CHILD has been able to accomplish in the span of a decade, that even telling you about just some of them turns this summary into a mini-novel, and for that… we can be immensely thankful!
However, not one of these things would ever have happened without YOU!
CHILD has only been able to do these many things because of supporters like YOU!
In 2011, when CHILD was formed, no one could have ever imagined the many, many ways in which we would be able to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and especially children, over the course of a decade!
CHILD – Community Health International Learning & Development – started as a very small charity in 2011. Shortly thereafter, CHILD had the opportunity to start working with Metropolitan Home and School, in Vijayawada, India. It is a school for children who come from very impoverished backgrounds who would otherwise not have a chance to go to school. Then, we were able to start working with a school of over 1,000 students in a large slum in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. A bit later, CHILD became involved in a life-giving nutrition program in Mirebalais, Haiti. Then, in 2020, we were given the opportunity to work with an alcohol, smoking, and drug rehabilitation program in George, South Africa.
CHILD, because of the generous donations of our supporters, like many of you, has been able to grow in 10 years, from a small charity to a charity that works on three continents! This is truly amazing!
We have had in-person fundraisers at an Italian restaurant, an Indian restaurant for several years, a golf club house, and, for the past two years, online fundraisers. Also, to raise funds, CHILD board members and volunteers have walked and ridden their bicycles for thousands of combined kilometers, as we participated in the Ride for Refuge for seven years. We raised tens of thousands of dollars!
There are so, so many things that CHILD has been able to accomplish in the span of a decade, that even telling you about just some of them turns this summary into a mini-novel, and for that… we can be immensely thankful!
However, not one of these things would ever have happened without YOU!
CHILD has only been able to do these many things because of supporters like YOU!
In 2011, when CHILD was formed, no one could have ever imagined the many, many ways in which we would be able to improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of men, women and especially children, over the course of a decade!
CHILD – Community Health International Learning & Development – started as a very small charity in 2011. Shortly thereafter, CHILD had the opportunity to start working with Metropolitan Home and School, in Vijayawada, India. It is a school for children who come from very impoverished backgrounds who would otherwise not have a chance to go to school. Then, we were able to start working with a school of over 1,000 students in a large slum in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. A bit later, CHILD became involved in a life-giving nutrition program in Mirebalais, Haiti. Then, in 2020, we were given the opportunity to work with an alcohol, smoking, and drug rehabilitation program in George, South Africa.
CHILD, because of the generous donations of our supporters, like many of you, has been able to grow in 10 years, from a small charity to a charity that works on three continents! This is truly amazing!
We have had in-person fundraisers at an Italian restaurant, an Indian restaurant for several years, a golf club house, and, for the past two years, online fundraisers. Also, to raise funds, CHILD board members and volunteers have walked and ridden their bicycles for thousands of combined kilometers, as we participated in the Ride for Refuge for seven years. We raised tens of thousands of dollars!
CHILD has had a number of Pi Day Fundraisers, on March 14th each year.
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Funds are raised to buy life-saving high-calorie Medika Mumba bars and manna packs for Haitian children who are near death due to malnutrition. Hundreds of homemade pies have been baked in many different kitchens in the weeks beforehand, and then sold on Pi Day. Thousands of dollars have been raised, and thousands of life-saving nutritional treatments have been given. Many children's lives have been saved because of CHILD supporting this life-giving program in Haiti.
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CHILD AND… METROPOLITAN HOME AND SCHOOL IN
VIJAYAWADA, INDIA
Over the past 10 years, CHILD has bought, for Metropolitan Home and School (MHS), over 7,000 bags of rice, each weighing 70 lbs; this translates into more than 200 TONS of rice! Each year CHILD has provided all of the rice needed for the entire year, by the 150-200 children at MHS! CHILD also provided vitally important additional protein into the children’s diet in the form of chicken, nuts, eggs, and milk, etc.
CHILD has funded a vast array of COVID aid– everything from buying oxygen concentrators, vaccines, masks, and sanitizers to providing the basic necessities of life to the handicapped, migrant workers, 300 lepers in a leper colony, and many others.
Please see our Facebook posts for many more stories about the COVID aid that CHILD has been able to support through the enormous efforts of MHS. |
A few years ago, CHILD bought a school bus for MHS. It has transported children from very impoverished regions, who otherwise would never have access to an education, to MHS. Each day, this school bus makes a number of trips and carries over a hundred children to and from school. It should be called, “The Bus of Hope,” as education is the biggest single factor that will bring hope and promise into the darkness of desperate poverty.
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CONTIUNE READING
CHILD bought MHS an auto rickshaw, (similar to the one in the photo) to transport teachers, who live far away, to and from the school each day. Also, when needed, it functions as an ambulance, taking sick children to the hospital.
CHILD has also supplemented the teachers’ salaries so that now they are earning more than $75/month! 
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Another program which CHILD has provided funds for are 5 sewing programs in which a total of 60 women are able to take a 10-month course in tailoring. At the end of the course, they receive a certificate and sewing machine and will then be able to start their own businesses.
This will then provide income which will greatly benefit the health and wellbeing of the entire family. Once the women have graduated, the sewing program then goes to another village to teach a different group of women.
CHILD has also provided saris to poor widows over the years.
Another program which CHILD has provided funds for are 5 sewing programs in which a total of 60 women are able to take a 10-month course in tailoring. At the end of the course, they receive a certificate and sewing machine and will then be able to start their own businesses.
This will then provide income which will greatly benefit the health and wellbeing of the entire family. Once the women have graduated, the sewing program then goes to another village to teach a different group of women.
CHILD has also provided saris to poor widows over the years.
CHILD has also drilled 50+ wells, and there are more to come!
This translates into about 10,000 families having their lives transformed by having close access to clean drinking water. These wells have saved countless lives, as they are usually drilled in times of severe drought. This clean water greatly reduces child mortality from diarrheal diseases. Each year in India 300,000 children die from this. These wells greatly reduce the morbidity and mortality of countless children. In times of drought, these wells also provide a vital source of water for livestock. Many of these wells have been drilled in honour of someone or in memory of a loved one, and a plaque with the name(s) of the person(s) has been placed on the well.
CHILD and… Slangspruit Primary School in
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
Slangspruit Primary School (SSPS), with over 1,000 students in K-Grade 8, is in a very poor slum in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. CHILD provided protein supplementation to the meals of over 1,000 children several times a week. This was often the only meal of the day for these children who live in desperate poverty. In one year alone, over 120,000 meals were supplemented with extra protein. To increase the protein in their diets, the kindergarten and Grade one children also received a cup of milk every school day for several years.
CHILD provided 6 desktop computers and a laptop for the SSPS teachers to use in aiding them with learning computer skills, lesson planning, and research. A printer was also provided.
CHILD provided 6 desktop computers and a laptop for the SSPS teachers to use in aiding them with learning computer skills, lesson planning, and research. A printer was also provided.
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Five students from SSPS have received scholarships to attend grades 8-12 at Alexandra High School. It is a school with much better teachers and resources, as well as better academic and athletic opportunities. All of the students have done very well. Four have gone on to college and university!
Due to a number of factors, CHILD’s programs with SSPS have ended, but another exciting program in South Africa has been started… read on! |
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CHILD and… SAHARA in George, South AfricaIn 2020, CHILD started a partnership with a program called SAHARA in George. It provides drug, smoking, and alcohol cessation programs with individual and group counselling, as well as the very successful addition of medication to help in the cessation of these addictive substances.
This program not only provides HOPE for the individual person, but also for that person’s immediate family and many others. In 2021, 287 people with substance use disorder have already been treated. Through this program, each one of these people will start a journey of hope, leading towards a much better quality of life. |
CHILD and… the Nutrition Program at Haiti Children’s Home in
Mirebalais, Haiti
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Through Haiti Children’s Home, CHILD helps fund a lifesaving nutrition program for children ages 0-12 who are severely malnourished, a number whom are near death, because of malnutrition. They receive Medika Mumba bars, which are highly nutritious high-calorie bars, for six weeks, followed by a diet supplemented with highly fortified rice for approximately two years. Caregivers also receive teaching in basic hygiene, child development, and nutrition. This program was started in 2017 and has saved countless children’s lives.
This is far from an exhaustive list of the things that CHILD has been able to do in the past 10 years. Everything that CHILD has been able to do has been done because of donations from our supporters. They are the ones who have made all of this possible.
Without the support of our donors, there would be no CHILD.
There would be no wells, no rice, no school bus, no autorickshaw, no scholarships, no life-saving Medika Mumba bars, no medicines to help treat teens and adults struggling with addiction, no COVID relief or flood relief in India. The list goes on and on. You, our supporters, have saved lives, changed lives, transformed lives, and given HOPE to hundreds of thousands of lives.
THANK YOU!
P.S. I can’t wait to see what I will be writing ten years from now as to what CHILD has been able to do…. all because of our supporters!
- Written by Cathy Page, CHILD President
P.S. I can’t wait to see what I will be writing ten years from now as to what CHILD has been able to do…. all because of our supporters!
- Written by Cathy Page, CHILD President
