Street Children

The Least of These: Lessons Learned from Kids On the Street by Ron Ruthruff (New Hope Publishers, 2010).

Working with the Street Children: An Approach Explored by Andrew Williams (Russell House Publishing, 2011).

Orphans

Love Has a Face: Mascara, a Machete and One Woman’s Miraculous Journey with Jesus in Sudan by Michele Perry (Chosen, 2009).

Children of War

My Father, the Maker of Trees: How I Survived the Rwandan Genocide by Eric Irivuzumgabe and Tracey D. Lawrence (Baker Books, 2010).

9. Encourage children to take their fears and concerns to a loving heavenly father. Share Bible verses with your children that speak of God’s invitation to come to Him whenever we feel afraid. Here are a few to get you started:  Deuteronomy 31:8; Psalm 27:1; Psalm 56:3-4; Isaiah 41:10, 13; Lamentations 3:57, and Matthew 10:29-31.

10. Assist children to memorize Psalm 56:3 – “When I am afraid, I will trust in You.”

11. Pray for children affected by the disaster, including their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. Help children personalize their prayers. For example, pray for boys and girls who are the same age they are. Pray for families who have the same number of children as their family. Here’s a prayer for suffering children from Tony Kummer’s Ministry-to-Children website.

Ever-watching Father:
we pray for the suffering children whom we do not see.

We know that your eyes see their tears,
that your heart knows their sorrow,
that your hands can reach them now.

We remember that Jesus was once a child,
that poverty stole his bread,
that tyrants sought his life,
that his mother tasted tears.

We ask you to send friends for the lonely,
food for the hungry,
medicine for the sick,
saviors for the enslaved,
rescue for the perishing.

Give us the wisdom to do our part,
share our possessions,
leave our comforts,
lend them our voice,
send them our food,
love them with more than prayers.

We call on you in the name of your child Jesus.
Amen.

Water Mark Activity

1. Put an empty Styrofoam cup in each room in your home. Put a marker or pen in each cup. Every time family members use water, have them place a tally mark on the outside of the nearest cup. Make sure to include these areas: take bath/shower, wash hair, wash hands, brush teeth, flush toilet, wash dishes, cook, make coffee/tea, drink tap water, do laundry, clean, iron clothes with steam, care for pets, wash car, and water grass/plants.

2. At the end of the day, count the tally marks on the cups. Add the estimated number of times family members used water at school, work, and activities outside the home. Divide the total by the number of people in your family to find out the average number of times each person uses water in one day.

3. Take the total number of times your family uses water in one day and multiply by two. Donate that number of dollars to an organization involved in water projects, sanitation, and hygiene education.

Suggested Organizations
Blood: Water Mission

Lifewater International

Living Water International

I attended a training course in 2006, titled “Working with Street Children”. The course was taught by Andy Sexton, who had many years experience in working with street children in Nairobi Kenya.

I just received an email from Andy announcing the launch of an exciting interactive website for anyone working with street children, or anyone who wants to become more educated on issues surrounding street children. The site is created by the 180 Degree Alliance.

Rather than being a one-way source of information, the focus of this website is about connection.

There are three main sections:

LEARN: Access the 180° ‘How To’ - one page documents written by a street children’s experts on issues such as ’Fundraising’ and ’How Not to Become Disheartened’ as well as recommended books and an expansive library of free, online/ downloadable resources.

SHARE: Here you have the opportunity to share and find out news and events, such as upcoming trainings to support you in your work.

DISCUSS: This third section is the most exciting part – here you can actually connect and interact with 180° members all over the world. So, if you’re struggling to know what to do about the kids you work with being addicted to drugs log in and find out what others are saying on the issue, if you know of something that might help, then jump in and suggest it. If you have a new problem not being discussed, start a new discussion and see what others have to say. It’s through ’discuss’ that we can really help each other with the problems you’re facing now.

So please log on and join up so that you can begin to learn, share and discuss with street children’s workers around the world.

How To Participate In Red Hand Day:
1. Use red paint to make a hand print on a sheet of paper, and add a personal message about your desire to end the use of child soldiers. Organize others at your school or in your community to do the same.

2. Deliver your red hands to your local government representatives and ask them to work on behalf of child soldiers or send your red hands to the United Nations missions in New York of the countries that have not yet ratified the optional protocol that sets age 18 as the minimum age for serving in armed conflicts. Include a message urging them to do so as soon as possible. For a sample message and list of addresses, click here.

3. Upload photos or videos of your event here.

4. Pray for children who are living through the horrors of war. (See Day 29)

I’m 7 years old and I work on a coffee plantation in Kenya. I have to reach up high to pick the ripe, red beans off of the coffee plants. To keep away bugs, the farmer sprayed the coffee plants with poisonous pesticides. About four million Kenyan children just like me are forced to work in hard, dangerous jobs.

I’m 10 years old and I live in Texas. I work on a farm to help my family earn money. One of my jobs is picking onions. I don’t go to school very much during planting or fall harvest. About 500,000 kids in the United States work on farms for little pay. Many of us miss months of school each year.

Workers on Fair Trade farms enjoy safe working conditions. Forced child labor is strictly prohibited. Because workers are paid a fair, above-market price for their goods, they earn a living that enables them to take care of their family. This diminishes the need for their children to work. Fair trade eliminates the middleman so more of each dollar spent on products goes back into the pockets of the farmers and workers who actually produced the goods. Some of this money is reinvested in community development projects like schools. Education helps prevent the cycle of poverty that is closely connected with child labor. To find Fair Trade Certified™ products in the stores you frequent, click here.

Ways to get involved:
•    Wear blue jeans or blue clothing on World Pneumonia Day. (Children often turn blue when they have pneumonia.) Show that you care about the children who will die from pneumonia this year.

•    Send a PneumoniaGram to your public officials, asking them to make the fight against pneumonia a priority. The Global Coalition will compile and deliver these to world leaders with a unified message that the fight against pneumonia is one we must win.

•    Learn all that you can about pneumonia through the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia. Spread the word through your networks.

•    Give to help vaccinate children, provide needed antibiotics, or train health workers to treat children after they get pneumonia.