Welcome to the Website for Children's Helpers Worldwide!
Children's Helpers Worldwide aims to improve the lives of children who are desperately in need of help, due to poverty or illness. Take a look around our website to see our work, meet the children who benefit, and learn how you could make a difference to the lives of some of the world's most vulnerable children.
Could you help the children?
Seawind Educare, South Africa
We work in partnership with local organisations, because this means we can work together with people who truly understand the needs of the children. We are sent appeals from the local organisations. Right now we hope to fundraise for the following projects:
Ghana: New Life International Children's Home provides a home for around forty children. It runs a school which is attended by these children, and also by around one hundred and fifty more children from the surrounding villages. CHW funded the building of a new classroom, as the number of pupils was increasing. The classroom is nearly finished, and New Life needs funds to buy chairs and desks to go in it. New Life also wants to build a vocational training centre, where teenagers at the orphanage and from the surrounding village can learn skills, like sewing, or carpentry, so that they will be able to provide for themselves when they are adults. The New Life staff also believe it is important for the children to learn how to use comupters. Some organisations donate computers to such projects, so we would love to hear from you, if you can help here!
Ghana: Sankofa Mbofra Fie runs a school and an orphanage in a small village. Classrooms were built using bamboo, but the education authorities recently said that they will close the school unless a proper building is constructed. Funds are needed to carry on building the school, and also to pay salaries for the teachers. This is a very desperate situation, as children must continue to have an education, but it is being disrupted. Sankofa is also looking for people who want to make regular donations to help pay for food for the children at the orphanage.
Romania: Casa Mea is a children's home. It needs help with funding to pay the salaries for the staff, so there are enough people to work with the children
South Africa: Seawind Educare is a creche which looks after children from the townships and the Cape Flats - the two most disadvantaged areas in Cape Town. Funds are needed to be able to provide food for the children at the creche and also for stationery and games, etc.
If you were able to fundraise for or donate to any of these projects, you would be making a BIG difference in the lives of some of the children who most need your help. If you want to make a contribution, please go to our "Donate" page. For more info on any of these projects, you can look on our country pages.
Thank you!
A big thank you to everyone who took part in our latest coin collection to support the Atelier Sacelean Association, in Romania. Together, we raised four hundred and sixty three pounds and sixty six pence! The funds raised will support the project run by the Association at a local hospital, enabling it to take better care of the children and babies there.
CHW Appeals Assistant, Marie-Lise, reading with a sick child at the hospital
Thank you to everyone who collected their coins, and also to those who came to our cash-in and coffee event. Thanks to those who ran coin collections. This includes Marie-Lise Despeghel, who ran a collection at her work, at American Express in Brighton, Mara Gheorghe, who ran a collection at University College London and Emma Hughes who ran a collection in Swansea, Wales. Special mention should go to Sue and Steve and Jonathan and Paula who donated massive jars of coins to Emma's collection!
Some of the people who came to the 'cash-in and coffee' event in London: Andrew, Sarah, Anna, Jana and Mara
Updates from South Africa!
We have quite a lot of exciting news from our projects in South Africa.
Sports Programme
We would like to thank everyone who took part in our coin collection to support sports programmes run by the local organisation, The Future Factory. We raised four hundred and twenty-eight pounds. Thanks to all those who donated in the UK, to those who gave to the collection run by Jana Liebau in Germany, and to those who contributed to the collection run by Marie-Lise Despeghel at her office: American Express, in Brighton. The donation is being used to buy soccer balls. Sport is good for children's health and offers so many other benefits too. The children learn teamwork skills, gain confidence and it keeps them off the streets, and away from the temptation of crime, which is a big problem in South Africa.
Diverse sports programmes are run for children and teenagers, most of whom come from townships or the Cape Flats - the most deprived areas in Cape Town
Clothes Distribution
Thank you to everyone who donated clothes for the children. They were given to individual families and to children attending projects supported by The Future Factory.
Children at Seawind Educare with some of the clothes (and a football from our sports appeal!)
Creating New Links!
During her visit to South Africa, CHW's director, Catherine, was able to introduce the directors of the two local organisations we support: Anne Siroky of The Future Factory, and Rita Benjamin of Seawind Educare. The Future Factory takes on different projects, and has now decided to support Rita's creche! One of the first things Anne did was arrange for the children to have bouncy castle at a party thrown for them by the creche. The children, who come from the poorest parts of Cape Town, had so much fun!
Children at Seawind Educare, having fun on a bouncy castle, arranged by the Future Factory
As well as these projects, aimed at allowing the children to have fun, the Future Factory also helps distribute food, and will give food for the children at Seawind Educare as often as possible. The Martin family, whom Catherine stayed with, are involved with the Future Factory, and Mrs Martin helps collect food, storing it at her house, for the director, Anne, to distribute. The following picture shows her with just some of the food she collected, which was given to Seawind Educare.
Mrs Martin with loaves of bread to distribute. These, and many other food items, were given to Seawind Educare through the Future Factory.
CHW has a Logo!
CHW now has a logo, which you can see at the top of each page on this website. The logo was designed by Anne Mascellani. She is a graphic designer and gave up her time to volunteer for us and develop this logo. You can see more about her work on her own website: avangardesign.com. Our website looks much better now, and it is great that CHW has a logo. Thank you so much for all your work, Anne!
Donation to Sankofa Mbofra Fie, Ghana
We have been able to give a donation of three hundred pounds to Sankofa Mbofra Fie in Ghana. This was raised from individual donations and also from a fundraising dinner held by Louise Lam.
We would like to thank the manager of the Dragon City Chinese Restaurant in Alperton, London, for allowing this fundraiser to go ahead.
Sankofa Mbofra Fie runs a school and an orphanage. The school consists of bamboo classrooms, and the director, David, is trying to get the funds to complete a proper school building. The donation will go towards building work, and also the salaries of the teachers at the school.
Teacher and pupils at the school run by Sankofa Mbofra Fie.
Fundraising for Casa Mea, Romania
We would like to thank the Coordinator of CHW Germany, Jana Liebau, and all those who helped her, in arranging a Charity Concert, in Rostock, Germany. The money raised will go towards paying the salary of a carer at the children's home, Casa Mea, in Romania.
Children at Casa Mea, holding up a "Children's Helpers Worldwide" sign!
Comings and Goings
We would like to welcome three new people to CHW!
Mara Gheorghe has become our UCL representative; Louise Lam has become a CHW Fundraising Volunteer and Andrew Borland has joined our board of trustees. We are so happy that Mara, Louise and Andrew are dedicating their time and efforts to supporting our projects to help the children.
Sophie Williams will no longer be trustee of CHW, but will continue to support our work in other ways. We would like to thank her for the time she spent as one of CHW's trustees.
Progress on building a classroom at New Life International Children's Home, Ghana
New Life International Orphanage runs a school for the children that live there and also for children from the surrounding villages. More and more children have been attending the school, and to be able to continue to give the children a good quality education, building a new classroom is necessary. We would like to thank all those who supported this project. We had donations from individuals, a grant for one thousand pounds from the Marr-Munning Trust, and a very large donation which was raised by CHW's Patron, Steve Parkinson. The building work has been overseen by Derrick Fletcher Gaisie and Jacqueline Hinson, who run the Home. Thanks to Derrick for sending us photos so we could keep you all updated!
The classroom should be completed soon. We will keep you updated on its progress.
Painting at the Sacele Hospital, Romania
Director of the Atelier Sacelean Association, Cristina Birsan spent part of a donation we gave her organisation on buying paint for volunteers to decorate the babies' ward. The babies are left in their cots for long periods of time, staring at the walls, but now they will have something more stimulating to look at.
Further news from this project:
The rest of CHW's donation was spent on pyjamas, slippers and blankets for the ill children, as well as cleaning products for the hospital. CHW was also able to collect clothes and give them to the Atelier Sacelean Association three times over the past year. The clothes were distributed to babies and children at the hospital and to families living in the nearby Roma settlement. Thank you to everyone who helped fundraise and who donated clothes.
New Patron!
We are delighted to announce that Steve Parkinson has become a patron for CHW! Steve is the Managing Director for Kiss and Magic, two of the UK's most successful music media brands, spanning radio, tv and online. He is also on the board and the patron of other children's charities. His support is invaluable. He has said that he is pleased to support CHW especially because "fundraisers can see the tangible results the team deliver. If you raise ten quid for an orphanage, the ten quid is spent on the orphanage." You can see more info about Steve on our "About us" page.
Our Patron, Steve Parkinson
In the past Steve has supported our projects installing a water tank and New Life International Orphanage, Ghana, and building a playground there. He has just held a fundraiser that has enabled us to reach our target to complete the building of a classroom at the school run by the orphanage. We are so happy that he is now our patron, as he has done so much to help improve the lives of the children.
Volunteer Trip to Romania!
We were able to arrange a volunteer trip to Romania. Two volunteers, Jess Waite and Marie-Lise Despeghel (who is now our Appeals Assistant) came with CHW trustee Anna Booth and director, Catherine Franks to work at the hospital project run by the Atelier Sacelean Association and in the children's home, Casa Mea.
From left to right: Anna, Catherine, Marie-Lise and Jess, with all the children at Casa Mea
We were able to give clothes for the Atelier Sacelean Association to distribute to disadvantaged children for the second time this year. We would like to thank everyone who donated children's and babies' clothes.
Also, CHW trustee Anna Booth, has arranged for Cristina Birsan, the director of the Atelier Sacelean Association, to have free legal advice for her organisation. This is useful for if she wants to draw up or enter contracts or make applications for various things. Anna has a training contract with a large international law firm, and Cristina can contact the lawyers at the Bucherest firm whenever she needs. We would like to say a big thank you to Anna for arranging this, and to the lawyers in the London headquarters and in Bucharest for allowing this pro bono work to go ahead.