Early Encounter means 2 children saved from the streets EVERY DAY!

“I’m a numbers man, and these numbers are really something - 712 children are no longer on the streets of Latin America as a result of Viva and the networks this year. That’s nearly two kids every day!” Brian Wilkinson, our Chief Operating Officer and main numbers man, has just recently returned from an Early Encounter programme visit in Peru. He particularly recalls one centre in Lima…

When we arrived, the hall was filled with young girls and boys, cradled babies, mothers, fathers and even grandparents. Many parents were still arriving even after the event had already started, some sweaty and tired from having to hurry from their jobs out on the streets. However, their faces were lit up with smiles, despite the fatigue, knowing that in just a few minutes they would all take part in the celebration of something very special: their child was going to be given the opportunity to go to school for the first time in their lives!

Churches Rebuilding a Slum

I am a bishop with the Assemblies of God church in the slum area of Kisumu, Kenya’s third-largest city. A year ago I attended one of Viva’s Vision Conferences, designed to get pastors involved in mobilising their churches to serve children in their neighbourhoods. In the local language we have a word, mabadkilio, that perfectly describes what’s happened to my ministry: it’s been completely transformed since this conference.

The slum I work in has 250,000 people, two-thirds of whom are under 18. The local government doesn’t provide any services in this slum: people have to leave the city to get health care, and water has to be carried in and sold because there aren’t reliable water pipes. As a result, the poorest often can’t afford to buy water. All the schools are on the outer edge of the slum, because of the high building density in its core. Most families in the slum have four to six people, and the majority of these families are in one-room houses. My church is one of ten operating in the slum.

The first thing my church did after this conference was to join with Viva and the city-wide network in Kisumu, called Arise for Children, and get involved in that community of Christians working on behalf of vulnerable children. I can’t explain how happy I am to be part of the network. All sorts of new opportunities have arisen because of my church’s membership; our church has grown markedly; and the neighbourhood is undergoing changes that are both deep and wide…

Kids Caring for Kolkata

With more than 15 million people crammed into its metropolitan area, Kolkata is India’s third-largest city. It’s also one of the fastest-growing, with new migrants arriving to look for work every day. ‘Informal labour’ makes up nearly half of Kolkata’s economy – roadside hawkers, rag pickers, and other people who don’t have a guaranteed income each day. A third of Kolkata’s residents live in slums. No wonder Mother Teresa picked Kolkata to live in and serve the poor.

Recently 45 children from Christian projects working in these slums came together for a one-day workshop called “Why should we have rights?” In areas like Kolkata’s overpopulated slums, the needs of children often get overlooked or pushed aside for more pressing matters like feeding the family or finding a proper latrine (normally impossible). But that doesn’t mean these children’s rights aren’t just as important of those of kids in the developed world, or in the richer parts of Kolkata. And that’s just what they learned.