Children in urgent need of protection from gangs or abusers will benefit from a new shelter developed by our partners in Guatemala, supported by legacy funding from Global Care.
Our partners in Guatemala run a ground-breaking mentoring programme which helps children on the streets, without the expense and severing of relational ties caused by running a traditional children’s home.
The mentoring programme is seeing some amazing results, helping children and young people make better choices, reducing risky behaviours, and improving access to education. However, in the course of their work, our partners at Street Kids Direct still come across a handful of children living in extreme danger or experiencing criminal abuse.
They have identified the need for a short-term Protection Home, offering temporary shelter for children and families in crisis, while longer term solutions, or prosecutions, are sought.
They have been busy transforming a three-story building in Guatemala City into a welfare centre, incorporating the Protection Home. Earlier this summer they ran out of funds, facing a shortfall of £83,000 before the work could be completed.
A legacy gift to Global Care has enabled us to step forward and support them, to see their vision completed. We sent £41,500 to be used as match-funding, encouraging gifts from other donor groups supporting our partners. We hope work will be completed soon, so the shelter can open this summer.
Legacies offer new life
Vulnerable children across the world have benefitted from legacy giving through Global Care in recent months. Two legacies totalling £172,856 have been generously gifted to us in the last 12 months.
As well as £41,500 for the Protection Home in Guatemala City, legacy funds totalling £23,000 bought a new minibus for transporting children with disabilities to and from The Ark in Soroti.
Remedial work costing £15,000 was also carried out at the Grace Children’s Home in Yangon, after structural damage was caused by a termite attack.
We have also put aside further funds to support our partners’ efforts to find a new location for the Heavena shelter, in Sri Lanka, which was recently served an eviction notice after more than ten years in the same property.
John White, CEO, said: “We would not have been able to meet all of these needs from existing funds, yet they were all urgent matters affecting the operations of our international partners, and, therefore, the welfare of children in their care. It has been a privilege to serve them in this way, and to see their needs provided for, and we are so grateful to those generous donors who made this work possible. A legacy can have a powerful impact, lasting beyond a lifetime.”
Find out more about legacies with Global Care
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