Daya gets a new home

In a culture that places great importance on family and tradition, bringing a child from the streets into your own home is not something people do lightly. Yet when Udita Kapoor met seven-year-old Daya in one of the poorest parts of Biratnagar, Nepal, she knew that was exactly what she wanted to do. Why? Because what she had learned through Viva Equip People had engaged her heart as well as her head.

The Viva Equip People training is currently running in Biratnagar, Butwal and Kathmandu, and Udita is one of 20 church and project staff taking the course in her area. Learning how to help children in the context of their culture, family and background, and understanding how to value and listen to them, were quite new concepts to Udita, and she found that it transformed the way she interacted with children.

My Viva Equip trip to India

There’s nothing quite like your first experience of India. The combination of muggy heat, exotic spices and petrol fumes hit me almost as soon as I stepped off the plane a few weeks ago. It was my first trip to India, and I didn’t quite know what to expect.

I had travelled out to Delhi to teach the co-ordinators of three of our city-wide networks (in Delhi, Dehradun and Hyderabad) how to run Viva Equip Projects in their respective cities, using Viva’s Quality Improvement System.

I was a little intimidated before we began, as I was training five men, but they were such a lovely group that after about five minutes I felt completely at home with them. Our time flew by, and their enthusiasm was so encouraging - there seems such a hunger and thirst for quality care in India.

Uganda’s children have their say on Viva Equip Projects

We often hear great stories of how Viva Equip Projects is helping organisations become stronger and more competent, and we know that will ultimately be beneficial to the children in that project’s care. But why take our word for it? Let’s make a trip to the classrooms of House of Joy in Kampala, and hear what their children think of the training their project has received…

Charity Nnabayego, aged 8

Over the last year, what have you seen changing here?

Teachers treat me well, and never shout or hurt us. And I go to my studies in a good chair and a good desk, so I am learning much better. I am more clever now than before.

Do you feel safe? If so, why?

Yes, so very safe, as I know now I can talk to my teachers and they will help me.

What are you thankful for?
I am close to safe and clean water now. I am very happy here.

Viva Equip People journeys to Somalia’s frontline

Oketch Mukhwana, a soldier in the Ugandan Army, took part in Viva Equip People when he began working in the children’s department of a military hospital. “We are working with the children of soldiers” Oketch explains, “and there are so many special things about their lives we must understand if we want to help them properly. But before I did not have any experience of working with children, and there was so much I did not know. When I started on this Viva programme it was amazing how my eyes were opened.” Oketch was particularly struck by the module about understanding each child in his or her context, learning what exact risks children face and how to help them thrive despite the problems.

Is Viva Equip making projects too good?

From staff management and financial accountability to child protection and wellbeing, Viva Equip Projects has built a great reputation for addressing issues of effective child care. But in La Paz, Bolivia, it seems a new issue has emerged, for which Viva Equip Projects is not the solution but in fact the cause: the projects are getting too popular!

Local projects which have undergone the training have seen such a noticeable improvement in the quality of care they offer, that they have now reached capacity and are struggling to take in any more children. “Projects here used to have problems where children would run away and go back to the streets, they were so used to their old way of life” says local Viva Equip co-ordinator Henry Pers Lopez. “But now the care in the projects is so good that the children are no longer running away, and it actually means that the organisations are getting so full!”

December December the month to remember... in El Salvador

How many of us wish that we could send a message directly to the government? That we could tell them the things we think are important, and highlight what needs to change? Well in a community playground in the heart of El Salvador’s capital city, 400 children let the leaders of their country know exactly what was on their minds.

For this particular Christmas Party our local network partnered with the Ministry of Social Inclusion, and together they developed the idea of allowing the children to send messages back to the wider government. So amid the chaos of games, clowns, face painting and presents, a giant mural was created with hundreds of messages for the country of El Salvador. Every child at the Party was encouraged to write or draw on the mural, which was delivered to the local government offices in the week following the party.

December December the month to remember... in Kenya

In the Manyatta slum, opportunities for children to stand up and be heard by crowds of over 800 people are pretty rare. Yet that’s exactly what 12-year old Gaya got to do at the Viva Christmas Party in his community just a few weeks ago.

Gaya’s church is part of our city-wide network in Kisumu, Kenya, and so when the network decided to hold a Christmas Party he was one of more than 700 children to attend the festivities. The meal they ate together provided a welcome change from the daily fare of maize and beans, the presents they received were, for many, the first toys they had ever owned and the games were enjoyed by attendees of all ages.

December December the month to remember... in India

When our city-wide network in Delhi, India, held a Viva Christmas Party a few weeks ago they gave every project attending the chance to perform. Songs, dances and dramas were played out by more than 100 children for the entertainment of their peers, including 13 children from a project that helps young people with autism and other disabilities.

“For these children it was a totally new experience” says Viva India staff member Gary Kamaal. “Not just that they were invited to perform in front of so many people, but to perform alongside other children and be given equal status - that was so amazing and wonderful to them. You could see in their faces they felt so special, and they really loved doing their act.”

And so the student becomes the teacher

When Grace Nyiringabo took the Viva Equip People training two years ago she had no idea that she would one day end up actually teaching it!

In 2009, alongside 40 other project staff working with children at risk in Mbale, Uganda, Grace spent eight months gaining the key skills needed for effective and compassionate child care. “This course helped me so much” says Grace. “I feel that spiritually I have grown and my heart has been changed. I didn’t know how to handle children at my work place, and I was not doing my work from the bottom of my heart but really just to earn a living. Now I can confidently say that I am committed to seeing the lives of children changed and helping them become better people- all that God intended them to be.”

Simon says ... keep children safe!

Throughout the years of my childhood I played the game ‘Simon says’ hundreds of times. You know – Simon says wave your arms in the air, Simon says stick out your tongue... But never once did I play it as part of a lesson on sexual and physical abuse.

Just before Christmas I visited a school in Manchay (a district in the desert-like hills above Lima, Peru) that is using all kinds of games, songs and stories to teach children about the value of their bodies. On the day that I was there I arrived just as a class of 10-year olds were finishing off a fairly chaotic and laughter-filled game of 'Simon says' (Simón dice in Spanish) and then watched as the teacher proceeded to relate the game to real life. 

Helping Churches Respond to War

As Viva’s International Prayer Co-ordinator, I get to travel around to conferences and events worldwide, as well as helping local children get involved in prayer right here in Oxford and throughout England. I’ve recently come back from Sri Lanka, where I was a keynote speaker for a conference on intercessory prayer for Asia. Needless to say it was exciting!


Viva doesn’t have an official network in Sri Lanka, but we’re building relationships with projects and churches around this beautiful island that want to work together to address the enormous needs facing Sri Lankan children in the aftermath of decades of war and ever-present poverty. After my speaking engagement in Colombo I did two days of workshops with children’s workers (and children!) to help the adults learn to involve children in prayer, teaching them to hear God for themselves from a young age.