Moving people towards life

Situated in two Internally Displaced Peoples (IDP) Camps, Olive Branch's centers offer a space of reprieve for women dealing with prolonged or complex trauma. Together, a group of women work alongside a trained staff to discuss and progress through a multi-faceted curriculum addressing trauma and resiliency.

Additionally, women are given the opportunity to engage in tactile skills development in the course; starting or honing tangible take-home aptitudes which can provide a needed income source for families.

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At the end of 2018, some 41.3 million people were internally displaced due to armed conflict, generalized violence or human rights violations.

Food distribution is focused on settlements outside the scope of major humanitarian aid agencies. This provides a means to practically show love, meet needs and ultimately share the Gospel with those within these settlement.

Villageworks believes in the training and development of skills to empower women, people with disabilities and marginalized communities to be able to work in order to find and maintain stable employment. Partnership with this Project helps to support the enterprise through staff support, which allows for investment in Villageworks employees, provide training for them, and improvement and expansion of the organization and its mission. Staff support assists with staff salaries, improvement of facilities and working conditions, and increasing marketing of Villageworks products which contributes to increased employment and earning.

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Organization support of Villageworks Cambodia assists with the operational overhead that exists for the organization, and the costs associated with their projects. Rent is a significant expense, and contribution to this project helps with minimizing the impact of that, allowing more of the profits to be re-invested in Villageworks ongoing operations and their employees.

Manna4life has been providing education since 2014 to 120 and 160 students per year. Initially, it was with the Mango Tree School (which our partners operated), but it was beyond their means to continue in this fashion. Manna4life partnered with another private Christian school a few kilometers away and transferred all the students to the new school. Initially, the transition went well as the school hired all the teachers from the Mango Tree School.

When the global pandemic hit, many challenges began to arise. The schools were closed and then reopened about 6 times in 2020 with many of the graduates not being able to complete last year's grade levels until the end of December. Each time the schools closed there was a drop in attendance due to a couple of reasons. Some students needed to work for their families as many parents lost their income due to cutbacks at garment factories. Also, some families moved away looking for work, and some students of working-age also dropped out. Mann4life tried to counter this in many ways as they met with families individually and as a group to determine what needs had to be met in order to keep their children in school. This led to a few changes in the way the ministry provided support; they included providing food, offering additional subsidies for children's tuition, and tutoring students who were falling behind because of the school closures.

Funds go towards students' tuition, transportation, food program, and teacher support.

Staff at DOVE lead around 20 young adults each year to participate in weekly training programs called Onyx 1 and Onyx 2. Through these Christian leadership development programs, the participants get to know themselves and to know God more deeply.

Another way that the staff of Dove foster emotionally whole and humble leaders is through a drop-in center for unchurched neighborhood kids. They offer English, art, and computer classes to over 150 students. These young people are invited to join growth groups led by the staff: leadership club, men’s group, women’s group, and others.

Staff support for DOVE helps these programs to continue, and the impact of Christian leadership development to be multiplied through the local community that DOVE works in.

Life for Internally Displaced People (IDP's) and Refugees poses many challenges. Families are forced to leave their homes, their possessions and communities often under the threat of death or persecution. Required to settle in temporary shelters, often made of tarps, these extended families live in common spaces the size of a small living room. Temperatures in the winter months often dip below freezing in the region, and these shelter provide little, if any, reprieve from the elements.

Hungry For Life partners have established relationships within these settlements. During the cold winter months, they have been meeting the physical needs of these families with kerosene heaters, additional kerosene, blankets, tarps and winter clothing.

Each time they spend intentional time with the families, sharing the Gospel and the love of Christ with them, in hope that they too might know the Lord.

In partnership with our Dominican partner, Carlos Pimentel, and his ministry Proinfancia, we support the Days for Girls (DFG) program in the Dominican Republic. Proinfancia focuses on menstrual health education and the production and distribution of menstrual kits containing supplies that allow girls to manage their menstruation.

Since almost 100% of vulnerable girls between 10 and 18 years old, living in poverty in the rural batey villages, have no access to feminine hygiene, it soon became clear that these girls are in great need of Days For Girls education and kits. These girls are at risk of sexual abuse, in danger of child trafficking, exposed to a "teen pregnancy epidemic," and isolated due to cultural taboos related to menstruation.

Proinfancia's goal is to provide menstrual health education and DFG kits to girls in the Dominican Republic through schools and female groups. One Days For Girls kit can be used for 3 years, enabling the girls to attend school and live their lives during their menstruation period.

Proinfancia produces the feminine hygiene kits in-country in their sewing centers, facilitating jobs for women who help produce the kits. With the support of many Canadian partners and the incredible work of Dominican Days For Girls ambassadors, Proinfancia produced and distributed over 13,000 feminine hygiene kits to women in the Dominican Republic in 2022.

Come alongside Proinfancia and support their goal to provide every girl in the Dominican Republic with a Days For Girls feminine hygiene kit.

Fudesa ministry focuses on outreach projects in Juan Tomas and surrounding communities. The IBJT church community, together with many short-term mission teams from North America, reach out to people in the community. They conduct house improvement projects, provide food hampers, offer prayer ministry, organize Bible school Programs, and provide new housing for families in need. The church members come alongside in serving their neighbours and also reach out to other villages in the Dominican Republic.