Cristina and Karen- Child Abuse & Child Protection Policy

This week was a really good week for me. We did a lot of hands on activities. The first day we played jeopardy with the categories being different types of child abuse-physical, sexual,spiritual, neglect and emotional. Another activity that i enjoyed and got a lot out of was when we had to act out a skit consisting of an abused child and how to react/handle when the child tells you about the abuse that they have suffered. She also taught us how to take legal actions and who to call in a situation like this (PANI), which was very helpful and necessary. The thing that was most impacting to me was when we had to write a fake journal of a Haitian child that went through the earthquake. This helped me realize what some of the children might be going through/thinking and put myself in their shoes. Our outreach went really well, besides the fact that i was completely exhausted after wards, but of course it was worth it. We picked up four adopted siblings and took them back to the orphanage from where they used to live and hung out with them we did arts and crafts and lots of soccer. I did not have too much conversation with the kids which made me realize that i need to work on my spanish but this will come in time.

HelptheChildren.org

This is a non profit christian humanitarian relief organization. They work in the U.S. and around the world there goal is to meet peoples emotional, spiritual and physical needs. They have provided 165 million pounds of food, 100 containers of medical equiptment, medicines and personal hygiene, 3 million textbooks around the world and 50 free medical and dental outreaches to third world countries.

SavetheChildren.org

There vision is to ensure every child the right to survival, protection, development and participation. Their programs include: Training new mothers with prenatal care, supplying immunizations for young children, building schools in developing countries and improving literacy and nutrition for children living in rural poverty in the U.S.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/01/22/haiti-orphans-unicef-1001222.html

In this article it is talking about all the kids that have lost their parents or have been abandoned by them. The rates of orphans have gone up rapidly since the earthquake and the children are left with decisions to make where to go for shelter how to eat and most of all how to survive and in this kind of situation the children are very vulnerable and can be easily persuaded. Along with that they are being taken advantage of and being trafficked which one of the pastors in the article who is running an orphanage found out first hand he was offered to take a child in exchange for fifty dollars. Luckily he refused. But who knows if the next person will refuse and take the child. Or what the intentions of the person receiving the child are and the sad thing is this isn't the only child put in a situation like this.

Prayer Points

*Pray for orphans and abandoned to find their family
*Pray for survival
*Pray for orphanages to be just in the decision of taking in children
*Pray for protection from trafficking of the children