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A chance to learn, a chance in life

REPORTS

It’s not too late to donate

to the Our Words Library appeal.

Turn to pages 4 & 5 to learn more.

OWLs bringing reading materials to Liberian children

A gift in a Will for Children in Crisis

A new home for children with disabiliti es in Sierra Leone

A round-up of the latest news in brief

Meet our local partner staff

In this edition:4-5

6-7

8-9

10-11

Back cover

Thokola (front right), will be a resident at a home for children with disabiliti es that we are building in Sierra Leone. Read more on pages 8 & 9.

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Welcome

No child should be denied an educati on. No-one should grow up unable to read, write and communicate as you and I are doing right now. The generous support that you give to Children in Crisis’ work shows that you believe this. What you will read within the pages of this newslett er shows just how much we can achieve together for forgott en and isolated children. Giving them educati on and hope, litt le else could be more important.

There are children who need our help today. On pages 4 & 5 you will read about our Christmas appeal, and the innovati ve project equipping isolated and unsupported primary schools in Liberia with libraries of locally produced

stories. If you were planning on giving some extra support to a good cause, then please remember this appeal and help give children the gift of words this Christmas.

I wish you a merry and restf ul end to the year and look forward to sharing our successes together in the New Year.

Thank you

Koy ThomsonChief Executi ve, Children in Crisis

Where your money goes:

Programmes 77%

Fundraising 21%

Governance 2%

Our promise:Children in Crisis respects our supporters’ right to privacy and choice. We never sell or swap our supporters’ personal details.

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The children of Rivercess County are growing up unable to read or write. Books are in very short supply in this region – one of Liberia’s poorest and most inaccessible. Even where reading material is available, it is usually alien and inappropriate for young Liberian minds. Imagine trying to learn to read from a book featuring weather, animals or names that you have never seen or heard before...

£30.32 could provide 12 children with reading materials to help them learn to readThe Our Words Library (OWL) Project is solving this problem by equipping primary schools with libraries of durable reading materials. These stories have been gathered and transcribed from within Rivercess communiti es, oft en spoken by grandparents and village elders. The illustrated stories, with their familiar characters and places, are much easier for the children to understand and are used during reading lessons in school or at home.

We want to help an additi onal 15 primary schools with this project. Our Christmas appeal is raising support to ensure that vital work such as this can conti nue. It’s not too late to contribute. Please see the next page for how you can help today.

Please support our Christmas appeal

The schools that we help in Liberia are remote in the true sense of the word. Few are accessible by paved road and many must be reached by canoe. Because of this, litt le government or other outside help reaches them.

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Before, the only books we had were the ones that our teacher could bring to class. We love the Our Words Library

stories and I think I am getti ng bett er at reading! My teacher helps me when I am in school and I am also allowed to take

the OWL stories home to practi ce my reading there.

Eleanor, Grade 3, Siahn School

The legacy of EbolaChildren in Crisis was so grateful to our supporters during Rivercess’ recent Ebola outbreak. Unfortunately, our resources have been left badly stretched and we are now in need of extra support if we are to conti nue vital work such as the Our Words Libraries.

How you can help todayYour additi onal support today would make a real diff erence to our work. Even a donati on of £30.32 can help, being enough for 12 primary school children to receive Our Words Library reading materials.

If you have not received a donati on form with this newslett er then form with this newslett er then please remember that you can please remember that you can also donate online at also donate online at www.childrenincrisis.org/donate or www.childrenincrisis.org/donate or by calling our offi ce on 020 7627 1040.by calling our offi ce on 020 7627 1040.

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Would you consider leaving a gift to Children in Crisis in your Will?By remembering Children in Crisis in your Will, no matter how large or small your gift, you will bring help and improvements to young lives which last far beyond the here and now.

Your legacy will be to give care, protection and education to the world’s forgotten children. Literacy and knowledge which cannot be taken away, and which will be passed on to future generations. A legacy that will grow.

How your gift could helpChildren in Crisis was most fortunate to recently receive £33,439 as a gift in a supporter’s Will. This generous legacy represented the residuary of the Will, meaning that Children in Crisis received support only after family and loves ones had been cared for.

This gift made an incredible difference to the lives of the children that we work with. In fact £32,800 is the cost of all the building materials required for us to build a

primary school in DR Congo.

These bright, durable schools are desperately needed in South Kivu, a remote and conflict-scarred region, and give generations of children a safe and dry space in which to learn.

Sylvie is a pupil at Tubangwa school. She and her classmates are so happy that there are now desks and toilets in their new school.

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We will always respect your privacyHowever, if you do wish for more informati on on Children in Crisis’ work or wanted any help in changing your Will then we would be delighted to hear from you.

Please contact: Joe Spikes on 020 7627 6746 / joes@childrenincrisis.org

Tubangwa school, DR Congo, was opened by Children in Crisis in 2015. We worked in partnership with the children’s parents to build the school, replacing the old mud-wall building you can see on the left of this photo.

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We are delighted to be able to bring you photos from Kambia, Sierra Leone, where constructi on of a Centre for abandoned disabled children is fl ying along. The children should be moving in to their new home at the beginning of January! None of this would have been possible without support like yours. Thank you.

A new home for children with disabilities

A durable, metal-constructi on roof will provide excellent shelter from heavy rain during the wet season.

Furniture for the Centre is being made by local members of WESOFOD, most of whom have disabiliti es themselves.

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Constructi on is being led by WESOFOD, our local partner NGO. Here. Joseph Kamara, WESOFOD’s inspirati onal head, inspects work on a wheelchair-friendly doorway.

Foday cannot wait to move into his new home. The Centre is located near to a school that he can att end. Children in Crisis & WESOFOD are working to make more schools accessible to children with disabiliti es. Simple steps such as installing ramps and widening doorways are giving wheelchair users their fi rst access to a classroom.

Many people with disabiliti es suff er terrible, chronic pain. As well as giving children with disabiliti es a safe, secure and accessible home, the Centre’s treatment rooms will provide desperately needed physiotherapy services for both children and adults with disabiliti es.

Many people with disabiliti es suff er terrible, chronic pain. As well as giving children with disabiliti es a safe, secure and accessible home, the Centre’s treatment rooms

and adults with disabiliti es.

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Charity day raises support for Children in CrisisOn Friday 11th September, Children in Crisis Ambassadors, HRH Princess Beatrice of York, HRH Princess Eugenie of York and Sarah, Duchess of York took to the trading floor at BGC Partners in New York for the annual Charity Trading Day.

Every year, BGC Partners and Cantor Fitzgerald commemorate those tragically

lost in the events of September 11 2001, by donating 100% of their global revenues from their Charity Day to the Cantor Fitzgerald Relief Fund and dozens of charities around the world. Children in Crisis and our ambassadors were delighted to be part of the day, which raised an incredible total of $12 million this year.

Emergency help for Burundian refugeesThousands of Burundian refugees have crossed into DR Congo, fleeing increasing levels of political and ethnic violence in their country. Out of concern for the welfare of the many child refugees now living in camps, we are currently working to launch an emergency response. Our focus will be on ensuring that until these children are able to return home, they receive a quality education. The situation is changing rapidly, but we will provide you with further detail in the New Year.

News in brief

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Playground opens in KabulAbove is a photo of the new playground which we recently opened at the Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre that we support in Kabul. Many of the young people within the Centre have been forced into brutal and exploitative lives on the streets. The playground will provide space for some much-needed relaxation and normality in these vulnerable children’s lives.

Polio vaccination drive Afghanistan is one of only two countries in which Polio remains endemic. Young children are particularly vulnerable to the virus, which can cause irreversible paralysis within a matter of hours. In line with our commitment to securing the well-being of the vulnerable children that

we work with, a polio vaccination drive was recently carried out at our Community Based Education Centres in Kabul. Parents were provided with essential child health advice, whilst children were given polio immunisations which provide life-long immunity.

Congratulations to our Liberian students!194 students of our Vocational Training Programme have just graduated in Liberia. This ‘outreach programme’ travels to extremely remote areas of the country and provides mothers with a means of earning money and supporting their families. The literacy and numeracy lessons which are also provided at the Vocational Training Centre have a big impact on the women’s lives, as well as enabling them to support their children’s learning.

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Working in close partnership with local organisati ons is at the heart of what Children in Crisis does. Together we are stronger. But our partnerships are formed out of more than mere logisti cal necessity. We work alongside teams of passionate and capable individuals who share our belief in the transformati ve power of educati on. Our recent conversati on with Anne exemplifi es this. She is head of FAWE Sierra Leone, one of our longest-standing partners:

My mother brought me up, she is a teacher and so knows the importance of educati on. The salary of a primary school teacher was not enough to send me to school and so the church helped.

I see it as my role to educate girls. Many women are being trampled upon by men as they don’t know their rights. If a girl is educated, she has a bett er chance of getti ng a job and a bett er chance of taking care of her children. She will know her rights.

Prin

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206 - 208 Stewart’s Road, London, SW8 4UB

T: 020 7627 1040 E: info@childrenincrisis.orgwww.childrenincrisis.org

Founder and Life President: Sarah, Duchess of York Registered offi ce as above Registered charity No. 1020488. Company No. 2815817

Children in Crisis protects and educates children facing the toughest hardships in countries aff ected by confl ict or politi cal instability.

Meet our partners

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Anne