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Haven of Hope Children’s Home

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Haven of Hope Children’s Home is the boarding section of Haven of Hope Academy. The Home offers students a loving, homelike atmosphere for more than forty children. The Hope Center began in 2002 when ECM reached out to dozens of orphans and vulnerable children near the capital city of Accra, Ghana. As the children grew in age, a need to start a school arose, and eventually the children’s home became part of the Haven of Hope boarding school. (see Haven of Hope Academy). Scholarship assistance is available to children in crisis situations through child sponsorship.

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Haven of Hope Academy

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Haven of Hope Academy offers quality Christian education Nursery through Junior High School (US equivalent of 9th grade). HHA aims to help the next generation in Ghana prepare for the future through academic, skills and character development.

HHA help students break generational cycles of poverty by preparing them for careers of the future in science, technology, engineering and math, among others. Through a partnership in 2013-2014 with Girls for Africa, technology was installed in all the upper-level classrooms and teachers were trained in creative teaching methods.

With a student body of over 350 and a large staff, students are able to get the attention they need.

The school also offers a boarding section for needy students (see Haven of Hope Children’s Home), providing a loving, homelike atmosphere. ECM offers scholarship assistance to children in crisis situations through child sponsorship.

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Gayaza Hope Center

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The Gayaza Hope Center helps many children whose families are in crisis situations for various reasons. The children receive scholarship assistance, and help with vocational training as appropriate. They meet weekly for Bible teaching, fun and exercise, and help with schoolwork. The children have learned a variety of other skills too, including gardening and then cooking the food they raised, cakemaking, beadmaking, choreographed singing, and various art projects. Several children with albinism are also being helped by the project.

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Beautiful Blessings- A Daycare to Combat Poverty

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Beautiful Blessings is a ministry of Sharise Riether in Democratic Republic of Congo. It is a safe place where babies and young children are cared for while their mothers are learning a trade to lift themselves out of poverty. Sharise’s goal is to love and care for children so they know the love of God, combat malnutrition, and have life and joy in their eyes. Sharise explains below how Beautiful Blessings partners with the Tabitha Centers to make a difference in the lives of mothers and children.

“We have heard good reports from the women and children who are coming.  A supervisor for Tabitha Centers said that one woman who was skipping classes because of her child, has started attending them consistently! The Mama told them that it was because she knew her child would be fed and taken care of, so it gave her even more reason to come to her class. Beautiful Blessings is making a difference.

Tabitha was started by a Congolese woman (Mama Claudine) who began teaching a small group of women how to sew. It has now grown to over 200 locations! Tabitha partners with churches in Congo to open a “center.” These centers then get everything donated in order to start well- meaning sewing machines, etc. Then the center charges a small amount of money to teach the women how to sew (they have also added cosmetology and hospitality “degrees”) and that’s how the center continues to flourish. They have graduated a large number of women and many have testimonies as to how they have gotten work and been able to support their families afterward.

Also, in Tabitha, they started a program called Global Fingerprints. This is a sponsorship program for girls ages 15-20 who cannot read or write and are not in school. They are also in poverty-stricken situations. They start by learning to read and write Lingala and then move onto French and then they can enter the trade of their choice.

This information is important because these are the ministries Beautiful Blessings is partnered with in Congo. Beautiful Blessings watches the children of women who are already enrolled in Global Fingerprints in a specific Tabitha Center near us. These are the most vulnerable girls and children and the ones who often do not have someone to watch their child while they are in classes. While the women go to their classes at the Tabitha Center, we are playing, teaching and feeding their children. When they finish their class, they come and pick them up. If we grow, we hope to open up Beautiful Blessing to any woman already enrolled in the Tabitha Center near us. After that, the big goal is to open new Beautiful Blessing programs near other needy Tabitha Centers.”

Please click here to donate to Beautiful Blessings.

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Community Evangelism

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The Volta Region in southeastern Ghana, like many rural areas in Africa, is full of schools willing and even anxious to allow gospel presentations.  ECM’s Community Evangelism program reaches out to these schools and the communities they serve with the gospel message, presented via film media as well as personal evangelism.  Our staff makes frequent visits to local schools and churches, and conducts follow up discipleship as needed.

Your gift today allows ECM to continue to bring hope to children through programs like Community Evangelism.

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Children with Albinism

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In many African countries, children with albinism, or “albino” children, are often considered to be a curse. At ECM, we understand that children with albinism are valued and loved by God. Like EVERY CHILD, they are valued because they are created in the image of God.

A Life of Severe Rejection

These children are often ostracized, neglected, despised, and at times, even physically abused. Parents, especially fathers, often desert their families when albino children are born, or later, when they face ridicule by the community. Children with albinism are not only subject to taunting at school, but are often beaten up if they accidentally touch anyone. Often, teachers do not understand them, and in some places even health care workers are afraid to touch them. In extreme situations, the children’s safety is at risk, since in some areas the body parts of people with albinism are considered to have “magical” powers. ECM workers have even found that some albino children are hidden indoors and denied interaction with others because of the ridicule the family faces. This all makes for a life of severe rejection. But ECM was established for “the forgotten children of Africa.” That’s why our workers are seeking to reach out to these children.

Showing God’s Love

ECM is showing them God’s love in very practical ways –for example, by giving them the gift of a pair of sunglasses, a hat, and some sunscreen. As we distribute these items we share the Gospel story of God’s amazing love with the children, give them hugs to demonstrate our acceptance, and gather information so we can keep in touch with them. Many children with albinism have become a part of our regular sponsorship projects, attending Saturday Bible Clubs and participating in events. ECM also works to educate the public about the truths of albinism through trainings in schools and participation in local radio programming.

Click here to sponsor one of these precious children!

 

Your gift today allows ECM to continue to bring hope to children through programs like our ministry to Children with Albinism.

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Child Rescue

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What do ECM workers do when they find a child in a life-threatening situation? Sometimes a relatively small amount, even under $100, can save the child’s life, but the family does not have it. The child’s need is urgent, but there seems to be no way for the family to meet the need.

 

ECM works hard to help children in these life-threatening situations. We begin by removing the child, whenever possible, from the difficult situation. We provide medical help and offer the family assistance as needed. We don’t run away once the immediate need is met, either. We stay involved as long as is needed, and as long as the family wants us to help. And all we do is openly given in the name of Jesus Christ. We don’t force anyone (as if such a thing were possible), but when love is shown in Jesus’ name, many families do take notice. When people ask why we care, it leads to opportunities to share the Good News that can bring eternal hope.

 

Your gift today allows ECM to continue to bring hope to children through programs like Child Rescue.

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Biriwa Hope Center

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Just to the west of Accra along the coast, the Central Region boasts some well-known tourist attractions such as Cape Coast and Elmina, major one-time slaving castles, Kakum canopy walkway, fabulous beaches and picturesque fishing villages along the Gulf of Guinea. It is also a place of abject poverty, especially in the Gomoa District, reported by the World Bank to be the poorest area of Ghana in 2002. Although there have been improvements since then, the Central Region continues to be a major source of kids landing in desperate situations.

 

God has brought us awareness of situations in which children are being trafficked, along with key contacts to help us to tackle the problem. ECM has developed a sponsorship program in one of the poorest communities in the area, and an office from which we coordinate programs including an initiative to fight child trafficking directly through documentation and intervention. Perhaps more importantly, we are fighting the root causes in key areas. A sponsored child is extremely unlikely to be trafficked or to end up on the street, because that child’s education is assured and loving mentors are watching over his or her welfare. And while we can sponsor only a small number of children at the present time, the mere existence of a sponsorship program in the area creates hope for all the others as well.

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