Sponsor a child with ChildFund Australia Blog: Views from the village (All)

Children in Timor-Leste connect with Australia

Mon, 14 May 2012 10:09:18 GMT

By Felisbertino de Jesus Ximenes, ChildFund Connect Project Officer, ChildFund Timor-Leste

This week Raul, Kelly and I visited Memo school in Bobonaro district, where I have been working with Year Six students to develop their communication skills as part of ChildFund Connect. When we arrived, the students raced across the playground to give us a warm welcome...

Positive changes afoot in Vietnam

Fri, 04 May 2012 01:52:37 GMT

By Tom Greenwood, freelance photographer

Flying into a chilly Hanoi last month, I was full of nerves and anticipation. I had lived there for six years – now a long time ago – but I hadn’t set foot in the country since 2005. Hopping into a cab, the first thing I noticed was that everyone was wearing shoes...

My grandson inspires me to help other children

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 23:36:18 GMT

By Terry Phillis, ChildFund supporter and Paris Marathon runner

My grandson Riley is happy and healthy and will have no issues reaching the age of five and older. We are lucky to have him in our lives and to watch him grow, happy and healthy. Riley is the reason I am running the Paris Marathon and fundraising for children in East Timor...

A day of games, activities and health checks

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 03:20:24 GMT

By Manish Joshi, Program Manager, ChildFund PNG

Last week the ChildFund PNG team held a Children’s Day, which saw children from three villages come along to the local primary school for a day of games, activities and health checks. We hold one Children’s Day per year in each community we work with – it just keeps getting bigger and better.

World Water Day: Tippy taps in PNG

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 01:19:04 GMT

By Fiona Fandim, Water and Sanitation Program Officer, ChildFund PNG

Clean and safe water is very difficult to access in rural areas of Papua New Guinea, especially where they don’t have proper water supply systems in place. People depend on the rivers or streams that are flowing through the village, or they use containers to collect rainwater, which is not safe...

Spotlight on Uganda's children

Sun, 11 Mar 2012 22:42:18 GMT

By Virginia Sowers, ChildFund Community Manager, ChildFund International

Uganda is once again in the news, and the focus is on children. Overall, that’s a good thing. There can never be enough attention heaped on this nation’s children, who endured 20 years of civil war from the 1980s to the mid-2000s...

Tweet with ChildFund on International Women's Day

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 01:25:50 GMT

By Lee Steinour, Communications Assistant, ChildFund International

Your tweets can help send a girl to school! Starting today, and continuing through International Women’s Day on 8 March, ChildFund is inviting our Twitter followers to tweet out on critical issues related to girls and women...

By filming ourselves we found out about others

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:16:28 GMT

By Anita Morris, teacher at Warruwi School

Warruwi kids were very excited about the Our Day film project with ChildFund Connect, where we got to work with cameras to film bits of our daily lives. But what was really special was what we learned about the other kids and the connections we made...

Our vision for our village

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:19:41 GMT

By Zoe Hogan, Communications Program Officer, ChildFund Timor-Leste

In a village called Sana-Nain, at the end of a remote dirt road in Manatuto district, ChildFund Timor-Leste recently spent five days listening to children and young people talk about their lives and experiences of poverty. Sana-Nain is nestled high in the mountains, accessible only by a wide riverbed which becomes impassable after heavy rain...

My Big Hairy Audacious Goal

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 02:11:08 GMT

By India Petrucco, 13, Coast to Coast walker

So I’m sitting in Singapore airport with my family waiting for my connecting flight to Kochi, India and I am thinking, how the hell did I get here? How did I go from feeling sorry for the people living in poverty to walking 800km in 6 weeks across India?

Project visit and a day we will never forget

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 23:48:09 GMT

By Nick Petrucco, ChildFund supporter and Coast to Coast walker

Today started as all days with a visit from the monkeys and being chaperoned down to breakfast by the monkey herder with his slingshot. My daughter India received a visit from the Indian Tooth Fairy last night, having lost a tooth, and found a rupee under her pillow this morning...

Every person is a whole person the way they are

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:52:57 GMT

By Maria Attard, Policy & Program Development Coordinator, ChildFund Australia

People with disabilities are a voiceless community – they are seen as a burden on society, particularly in developing countries. In the countries where ChildFund works, it’s very much a charity-based culture, so people with disabilities depend on handouts and don’t know what their rights are...

How important is child's play?

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 01:56:12 GMT

By Nigel Spence, CEO, ChildFund Australia

What did you want to be when you grew up? How does that compare with what your children want to be? Do our kids have the right balance between family responsibilities and play time? These are some of the questions we've been reflecting on this week after releasing the findings of our global children’s survey, Small Voices, Big Dreams...

Mud, adventure and a new preschool

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:33:23 GMT

By Gill Elliott, Vietnam Trek for Toddlers participant

I've just arrived back from 12 days of fun, food and adventure in Vietnam, where a group of us participated in the Vietnam Trek for Toddlers. We’d been fundraising and training over the past few months and after feeling like the trip would never come, it was suddenly time to get on the plane...

Turning the tide for teens in a Jakarta slum

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 03:34:48 GMT

By Jacqui Ooi, Senior Communications Officer, ChildFund Australia

Earlier this month, I met a really lovely guy in a really grim Jakarta slum. Ahmad is 20 years old and lives in one of Jakarta’s toughest neighbourhoods. Located near the airport with planes flying low and loud overhead, the area is a mess of garbage, cramped alleyways and broken makeshift houses...

We are all in this together

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:39:32 GMT

By Paul Brown, CEO, ChildFund New Zealand

It’s just under a month since I returned from drought-stricken Kenya. Many people were intrigued about exactly where I visited. Turkana, in the very north of Kenya, doesn’t appear in our papers regularly. It is stunningly beautiful, harsh and sparse, and the Turkana people are striking and warm. But it’s well off the tourist trail...

Last stop for the Our Day Project: Vietnam and Laos

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 23:23:23 GMT

By Raul Caceres, ChildFund Connect Project Manager, ChildFund Australia

Kelly and I have just arrived home from our trip to Vietnam, Laos, Timor Leste and outback Australia, where kids involved in ChildFund Connect have been making videos of their lives for the Our Day Project...

Does aid work?

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:28:41 GMT

By Nigel Spence, CEO, ChildFund Australia

In our sector, we’re often asked: Is aid effective? Does the money get to where it is really needed? Why is there still so much poverty in developing countries?

The short answer to these important questions is that most aid makes a positive difference most of the time.

Memories of another East African drought

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 10:16:23 GMT

By Anne Lynam Goddard, CEO and President of ChildFund International

Anne Lynam Goddard has personal experience of drought in Africa. In the mid 1980s, she was a young aid worker based in Kenya. She was also a first-time mother of a three month-old baby.

Meeting Iria and his family in Kenya

Thu, 22 Sep 2011 05:14:23 GMT

By Anne Lynam Goddard, ChildFund President and CEO, ChildFund International

In a visit to a sponsored child’s home in Kenya, ChildFund International president Anne Lynam Goddard learns from Iria’s family how they have benefited from their son’s enrolment in ChildFund’s sponsorship program. Iria attends school, sleeps under a donated mosquito net and has access to clean water...

The importance of sport and play for children

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 23:33:53 GMT

By Chris Mastaglio, Country Manager, ChildFund Laos

VIDEO: When we talk about poverty it often makes us think about issues such as poor education, inadequate water and toilets, substandard healthcare or risks to children such as violence or war. While these are very real issues, for me it's been important to broaden my ideas of what poverty is, to include issues around sport and play...

'They eat kidney beans like us': kids learning from kids

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 06:06:34 GMT

By Kelly Royds, ChildFund Connect Coordinator, ChildFund Australia

Last week, Raul and I were back in Timor Leste to continue working with local primary school students who are participating in the Our Day Project and also linking with a school in Australia...

Why child poverty exists - and how we can overcome it

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:53:52 GMT

By Mark McPeak, International Program Director, ChildFund Australia

Recently I wrote about the training we did in Papua New Guinea to build children’s participation in projects supported by ChildFund. So why is child participation important? To answer this question, we first need to look at why child poverty exists...

In Kenya: a green oasis in the midst of the drought

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:37:06 GMT

By Anne Lynam Goddard, CEO and President, ChildFund International

After spending all of yesterday seeing barren earth and tasting dust, it’s amazing to see how smart farming practices have transformed this community. You wouldn’t realise you were in an arid area with all the plants that are growing. It’s green everywhere...

Meeting families at the heart of the drought in Kenya

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:41:16 GMT

By Anne Lynam Goddard, CEO and President, ChildFund International

It’s a dusty and bumpy drive to Lokitaung in northern Kenya. You can taste the dust in the air. It’s early in the morning and already the heat is unbearable. Without water, nothing grows in this hostile environment...

Working with kids on the Our Day Project

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:15:11 GMT

By Raul Caceres, ChildFund Connect Project Manager, ChildFund Australia

Right now Kelly and I are back in Timor Leste after an amazing week working with a primary school in the Northern Territory. The kids at the school are taking part in the Our Day Project, a film that documents a day in the life of children in different parts of the world...

Providing emergency food relief in Ethiopia

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 23:42:57 GMT

Getachew Tesfaye, Program Director, ChildFund Ethiopia

I would like to convey our sincere gratitude to all who are standing by our side at this trying moment, and by the side of tens of thousands of children and families who are going through the effects of drought in my country, Ethiopia...

A day of excitement, joy and reading!

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 07:06:09 GMT

By Michelle Salemka, English teacher, Laos

As part of my recent visit to the ChildFund office in Laos’ Nonghet district, I had the opportunity to attend a reading day being hosted at a school in Nonghet Taii village. The school is one of several that ChildFund has helped to renovate with new roofs, new paint and new materials...

Facing the floodwaters in Laos

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:15:27 GMT

By Michelle Salemka, English teacher, Laos

I recently visited the ChildFund office in Laos’ Nonghet district to provide English-language instruction and support for the staff. As a new consultant with ChildFund and a new resident of Laos, I wasn't really sure what to expect. So far, it has been a beautiful and enlightening experience – but nothing, I feel, has been as eye-opening as the floodwater crossing...

Fine job, Charlie: how an 11-year-old got Australia's attention

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 23:41:23 GMT

By Nigel Spence, CEO, ChildFund Australia

One of the most tweeted articles this week wasn’t by the Prime Minister or an award-winning journalist – it was an opinion piece written by an 11-year-old boy.

On Monday, Charlie Fine put forward his view on why ethics classes in schools should not be abolished. It was an articulate call to action directed to NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell, asking him not to bow to pressure from Fred Nile to have the classes removed.

Whether or not one agrees with Charlie’s point of view, it is refreshing to hear the voice of a child in a debate about an issue that directly affects children...

Building child and youth participation in PNG

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 01:10:56 GMT

By Mark McPeak, International Program Director, ChildFund Australia

Three of us travelled to Port Moresby last week to work with our team there, building up our capacity to involve children and youth as active participants in activities that ChildFund supports. This effort is part of our commitment to working on the causes of child poverty – why it exists, how it is perpetuated from generation to generation...

Schools closing due to drought in Kenya

Thu, 28 Jul 2011 00:34:44 GMT

By David Kang’ethe, Sponsor Relations and Communications Director, ChildFund Kenya

This morning we visited Natukobenyo Boarding Primary School, one of the two girls’ boarding primary schools in the district. The school has an enrolment of 375 girls but was forced to close today because they ran out of food...

Horn of Africa: why children under 5 are most at risk

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 05:04:42 GMT

By Victor Koyi, National Director, ChildFund Kenya

As our team in Kenya grapples with the worsening drought affecting more than 550,000 people in ChildFund program areas and more than 2.5 million across the population, our constant concern is the well-being of children, especially those five and younger...

Connecting children in Timor Leste and Australia

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 00:02:54 GMT

By Kelly Royds, ChildFund Connect Coordinator, ChildFund Australia

What’s it like to be a young person in different parts of the world? And what do kids actually want to learn about life in other countries?

These are some of the questions being answered through ChildFund Connect, a new educational program that links children in Australia with children in developing countries...

Why is the Horn of Africa facing another food crisis?

Tue, 12 Jul 2011 23:21:39 GMT

By Mark McPeak, International Program Director, ChildFund Australia

We’ve been hearing about food crises in countries like Ethiopia since the 1980s – why is it still happening? That’s the perfect question to be asking right now, especially in light of the Australian Government releasing the details of its carbon tax over the weekend...

Laos: Clearing bombs to make way for schools

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 02:33:01 GMT

By Chris Mastaglio, Country Manager, ChildFund Laos

As the Country Manager here in Laos, I get to see a whole range of development issues in play from the national level down to the village level. One of the most striking issues for me from my time here has been the ongoing impact of unexploded ordnance (UXO)...

What is ChildFund doing on MasterChef?

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:04:05 GMT

By Nigel Spence, CEO, ChildFund Australia

When I got the call asking whether I wanted to appear on MasterChef, I must admit I wasn’t quite as excited as my wife. My first thought was that I’m not much of a foodie so I wasn’t sure how much I would have to contribute – but I have watched the show a few times and was curious to see how it all worked.

I was contacted about a month prior to the filming...

How children are chosen for child sponsorship

Sat, 25 Jun 2011 23:00:07 GMT

By Lynne Joseph, Sponsor Relations Director, ChildFund Australia

I have worked for ChildFund Australia for more than 15 years – the past 12 of those managing our Sponsor Relations department – and probably the most common question I have been asked over the years is, how do we select children for child sponsorship?

Out of the waste dump into the classroom

Tue, 17 May 2011 01:20:22 GMT

By Cindy Bryson, freelance photojournalist

As a photojournalist, you always hope that your images can reach out and help those most in need. I’ve been lucky enough to have this opportunity on a number of assignments for ChildFund Australia.

Most recently, on a trip to PNG, I was asked to capture stories and images...