Category: Join Hands Join Hearts

Bringing Light to the Youths Living in Darkness

“Left-behind Children”, a term describing over 60 million children in China who stayed behind with their grandparents in rural areas while their parents are working in the cities. While not all left-behind children suffer from poverty as their parents work far away from home, they all suffer the lack of parental care and love, and bear emotional burdens due to this long-term void. CEDAR’s partner in Sichuan, Chengdu Fuyi Community Services Centre, began supporting youths in quake-affected communities through caring and training programmes after the 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan. Two more earthquakes happened in Ya’an, Sichuan and Zhaotong, Yunnan in 2013 and 2014 respectively, leading to the expansion of our partner’s service to the youths in those

Child Rights for ALL Children

Banner image: As a peer educator, Taslima (middle) often catch up with other girls in the community to learn about issues they are facing Every individual has their rights despite their social status, age, gender, and education level. According to the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child should have the rights to survive and thrive, to be protected, to participate and make their voices heard. In Bangladesh, where 90% of its population are Muslims and 10% are Hindus, the caste system plays a significant part in the lives of Bangladeshis. People are categorised into different castes, and people who belong to the lowest social status group in the caste system are the Dalits,

Children Are Priceless

Barla (obscured), 12, was a student in Pastor Thomas’ tutorial class. She missed classes a few times, and Pastor Thomas started searching for her to no avail. He feared for the worst that she might be caught by traffickers, so he filed a case at the police station. The investigators soon found out that Barla’s parents had sold her to a pimp at the price of less than HK$16. This is the story of one of the trafficked children told by CEDAR’s partner, EFIC@R, located in northern India where human trafficking is prevalent. EFIC@R started serving in the Jharkhand State, Orissa State, and West Bengal in 2012, establishing support networks with local churches to protect vulnerable children and

Sharing Land and Cultivating Lives

Traditionally, our impression towards children ministry might involve sponsoring a child or orphan in their daily expenses or education, but did you know that we could now combine children ministry with community resettlement and agricultural development? There was a rapid increase in the number of homeless and orphaned children in Myanmar due to civil wars and natural disasters in the past 60 years. CEDAR’s partner, Full Moon, started building children’s home 20 years ago to take care of the children affected by wars, disasters, and poverty. However, God has instilled a vision in Full Moon’s founder, U Ba Hla, that urged him to not only provide for the children, but to also fight for the welfare of the

Rekindling the Hope of Poor Suburb Children

Children are the hope of our society, and most parents would stop at nothing to provide the best for their growth. However, life is different for the children born in the slums who struggle to obtain necessities daily, consequently giving them more obstacles to a bright future. Our partner in Ethiopia, the Addis Ababa Guenet Church (AAGC), has been tasked to giving the slum children and their families a better environment for over 20 years. AAGC provides basic living, education, and health support to the children admitted to their programme, and it holds regular parent self-help groups where they would learn how to manage their finance and do business, to give them a more stable income. It keeps