Vietnam

Holt Vietnam recently hosted a three-day Roots to Grow training for 20 children, ages 14-18, in Dong Nai Province. The Roots to Grow training focuses on exploring nutrition, hygiene and sanitation, and budgeting presented through fun and interactive games, activities, meal preparation and cooking.

The recent training brought a lot of fun for the children and helped them to feel confident in the kitchen. They learned about how different foods protect your body, help you grow and give you energy. Through hands-on time in the kitchen, they also learned practical skills like handling kitchen knives, keeping utensils clean and even how to cook new recipes, like omelets, focaccia bread, bulgogi and apple crisp!

Without learning these essential life skills, it can be extremely difficult for children growing up in poverty to make their way as independent adults. Through the support of sponsors and donors, children in Holt’s programs learn life skills that they need to live healthy, successful lives.

Uganda

In Uganda, maternal and child health camps were recently held at four health centers as well as Holt sponsor and donor-supported early childhood care and development centers. These donor-funded camps offer crucial medical care to children, families and caregivers living in impoverished communities.

The recent maternal and child health camps served 8,250 children and 694 adults, providing interventions such as Vitamin A supplementation, deworming and health education through Holt’s Child Nutrition Program. Children and families also received treatment for prevalent conditions including malaria, chronic coughs, influenza and skin infections. Children with more complex health issues were referred to health specialists.

Thanks to the support of sponsors and donors, families receive one-on-one support and benefit from community events— like camps — that provide training to help them nurture their child’s growth and development. When children are healthier, they are more likely to meet developmental milestones, perform better in school and their families miss less work — enabling them to earn more income for their household!

China

In China, Holt’s family strengthening programs focus on education to lift children and families out of poverty. Child sponsors and donors provide the critical support needed to help children attend school for as long as possible — creating generational change for thousands of families.

During August, ten students from the Shangyi Family Strengthening (FS) program attended a five-day summer camp held by the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics in Jiangxi Province. Through the generosity of Holt donors, these students attended the summer camp free of cost.

The field trip included hands-on aeronautic and astronautic experiences, inspiring the students to develop their professional skills and explore possible career paths. For children in Holt programs, experiences like these help broaden their horizons beyond the limited career opportunities they witnessed growing up in impoverished communities.

Cambodia

According to Holt-supported students in Cambodia, donors and sponsors are making a big difference.

Recently, students were given an assessment through the Educational Support Program (ESP) in Phnom Penh. All students reported that Holt Cambodia’s ESP has helped them remain in school, with 86.96% strongly agreeing and 13.04% agreeing. Furthermore, almost all children (91.3%) who participated in the assessment strongly agreed and 8.7% agreed that ESP support has motivated them to pursue higher education.

In late July, 83 children in the ESP completed their Grade 9 National Diploma Exams and 71 successfully passed to Grade 10. Without support from Holt sponsors and donors, many of these children would have dropped out as early as in primary school. For children growing up in poverty around the world, education is the key to a brighter future.

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The post Notes from the Field: September 2025 appeared first on Holt International.

Every day, Dembe walks into preschool with a big, confident smile. She sits in her seat, focused and attentive as her teacher writes on the chalkboard. When it’s time for a meal, Dembe eagerly fills her tray with a banana, a boiled egg and a warm cup of porridge, sweetened with a touch of sugar. Healthy and strong, she smiles as she returns to her seat.

But it wasn’t always this way.

When Dembe first started attending preschool, she was quiet and tired. She often fell asleep during lessons and didn’t have the energy to walk to school, so her mom brought her by bicycle.

But as time went on, everything began to change. Receiving daily nutritious meals, she became energized, friendly and alert. She started looking forward to school — eager to go each morning.

“Her appetite greatly improved, even for other meals prepared at home,” her mom says.

Because of you, Dembe and other children in her class are able to attend preschool and receive a nutritious meal each day. Holt’s nutrition team selects the menu, ensuring the foods they eat will help them grow. For many children in Uganda, the meal you help provide is the only meal they can count on for the day.

For Dembe, that daily meal made all the difference.

Once a shy and tired little girl, Dembe became happy and engaged — one of the best students in her class.

Thanks to you, Dembe and her classmates are growing up healthy, strong and full of potential.

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The post A Meal and a Smile Every Day appeared first on Holt International.

Seven-year-old Natalie is a joyful and affectionate child who loves music. She has short-cropped hair and holds a warm, thoughtful expression as she sits beside her mother, Grace, whose radiant smile is full of laughter. Grace isn’t Natalie’s birth mother, but she has cared for Natalie since she was a baby.

“Natalie had been abandoned at birth and was a very sick baby,” Home Free, our partner in Uganda, shares. “When a government social worker reached out to Grace about a baby in need of a family, she began making regular visits, slowly forming a quiet but powerful bond. When Natalie turned three months old, Grace brought her home — not just as a foster child, but as the daughter she had longed to love.”

Last year, with the support of Holt’s team in Uganda and our partner Home Free, Grace completed the steps to formally adopt her.  

Home Free’s mission — like Holt’s — is to help children who are orphaned, abandoned or confined to facilities to grow up in safe and loving families. The Uganda-based organization works to reunite children with relatives, support families in crisis, and provide foster care and adoption to children in need.

Like Holt, Home Free strives to help children reunite with their birth families before ever considering adoption. But the reality is clear: not every child can rejoin their birth family. And for those children who can’t stay with their birth family, joining an adoptive family is a far better outcome than growing up in an institution. 

“Many orphanages in Uganda are not well resourced and there is little regulation,” explains Malia Robello, Holt’s senior program manager for Uganda. “Children often remain in the orphanages and suffer from poor nutrition, limited access to healthcare, social isolation and few educational opportunities.”

Tragically, children living in orphanages also sometimes suffer abuse at the hands of the people entrusted to care for them.

When Home Free first met Grace in 2017, she was fostering both Natalie and a one-year-old boy from the same orphanage. “Her foster son had experienced severe abuse and neglect in the facility and nearly lost his life as a result,” Home Free shares.

Although Grace struggled at first with his trauma-caused behaviors, she devoted herself wholeheartedly to nurturing him back to health. And with support from Home Free’s social work team to understand his trauma, their relationship grew stronger — and he began to heal.

Reflecting on her children’s experiences in orphanages, Grace shares that no child should endure abuse, neglect or hunger in a place meant to protect them. Every child deserves the chance to grow up in a safe, loving family.

“Adoption saves lives,” she says with conviction.

Partnering for Children in Uganda

Holt’s team in Uganda began partnering with Home Free to help complete domestic adoptions in 2024.

“Domestic adoption requires administrative and legal steps that can be hard for families to navigate on their own,” Malia shares. “Potential adoptive parents must coordinate with social workers, government entities, attorneys, courts and other service providers, and the process is not always clear. The expense of legal and court fees is also a barrier for most families wishing to adopt. This is where Holt comes in.”

While Home Free had developed incredibly successful foster and kinship care programs, Holt has long supported and advocated for domestic adoption in countries around the world — and could offer a unique expertise in navigating complex in-country adoption processes. 

Holt’s team in Uganda trained Home Free social workers on the adoption requirements and case file preparation. With this training — as well as additional financial support from Holt sponsors and donors — Holt’s team supported Home Free to complete the administrative steps for adoption applications, including adoptive parent assessments, background checks, family tracing to ensure children could not remain with their birth families, child medical checks-ups, and help convening district alternative care panels to approve adoption placements.

With donor support, Holt also covers the court/legal fees required for formal adoptions.

“Basic legal fees, investigation reports and court processes alone cost up to $1,500 per child, and this does not include the cost of assessment reports, background checks and other services that are required,” Malia says. “For a typical family in Uganda, these expenses are a huge barrier, which is one reason domestic adoption has not progressed in the country.”

The cost of adoption was also a barrier for Grace, who thought she had already adopted Natalie then was surprised to learn from Home Free that formal procedures were still needed.

“With the support of Holt donors, Grace was able to go through the administrative and legal process to become Natalie’s adoptive mother,” Malia says.

“I couldn’t have managed it alone—in terms of money, or even knowing what to do, when and how,” Grace says.

One important step was a medical examination arranged as part of the process, which revealed that Natalie had a heart defect.

“Thanks to that support, [Natalie] got the treatment she needed,” she says.

Changing Perceptions of Adoption

Today, Natalie and Grace share an unbreakable bond.

“She’s my prayer warrior,” Grace says. “Whenever she prays for something, it happens. She’s made me feel like a special mom.”

Still, the journey hasn’t always been easy.

“Some community members misunderstood Grace’s decision to adopt, and certain relatives felt she should focus on helping her nieces and nephews instead,” our partner shares.  

While progress has been made, adoption is not yet widely embraced in Uganda.

“Informal kinship care or taking in a child temporarily is more common, but the lack of a formal/legal structure for this type of care creates issues with child protection and wellbeing,” Malia explains.

Motivations to adopt are also not well understood.

“A lot of people wonder why a foster/adoptive family would not instead use their financial resources toward their own children, or care for family members in need,” Malia continues. “Many don’t know the conditions of orphanages or the impact of institutional care on a child, assuming the child has all their needs met at the orphanage. So we raise awareness of the positive, life-changing benefits of foster care and adoption.”

Through our the partnership with Home Free, Holt’s team in Uganda began holding information sessions for prospective adoptive parents — offering them a deeper understanding of adoption and the process involved. During these sessions, Holt and Home Free also address concerns that are challenging for prospective families to overcome without many positive examples of adoption in their community.

“It helps to have a community dialogue so people can hear about the motivations of families who wish to adopt and the benefits of providing children with a permanent, loving home,” Malia says.

While Grace has also had to overcome misunderstanding within her community, our partner shares that her close family — especially her mother and sisters — have embraced Natalie with love and pride.

They understand Grace’s motivation to adopt, which could not be more pure.

Growing up with a disability and facing rejection from her parents, Grace was raised by her grandmother, who helped her access the services she needed. Through this care and encouragement, Grace eventually learned to walk. As a foster and later an adoptive mom, Grace felt she could offer this same care and encouragement to orphaned and vulnerable children.

“I felt I had to love and support children that were rejected and neglected,” she says.

Grace’s courage has even inspired several friends to consider adoption themselves, and she encourages others to approach adoption with the right heart. “Wear the shoes of a true parent,” she says. “Don’t adopt to fill your own need — do it to give a child love and support.”

Next Steps to Get Children Out of Orphanages, Into Families

In December 2024, five children — including Natalie — were officially adopted through this program, and 15 more children are currently moving through the adoption process in Uganda. Without the joint collaboration of Holt and Home Free, these children would likely never be legally adopted.

To further our mission in Uganda, Holt is now beginning to work with orphanages in a district where sponsors and donors support children — to begin foster care and, eventually, domestic adoption services.  

“This is separate from the Home Free project, which takes place in a district in which Holt does not have a presence,” Malia says. “However, the goal is the same – to get children out of institutional care and into family-based care.”

*This story was written in partnership with Home Free.

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The post The Story of Grace and Natalie: Domestic Adoption in Uganda appeared first on Holt International.

On June 1, children in Holt programs across the world celebrated International Children’s Day, thanks to the support of Holt sponsors and donors. Focused on making children feel special and valued, the day’s activities included games, singing, dancing, storytelling and movie screenings. The children also had the chance to create drawings and posters and to role-play around the themes of child safety, health and freedom of expression.

International Children’s Day is celebrated in more than 100 countries each year as a time to advocate for and champion the rights of children. The June 1 celebration has become an annual tradition for Holt and its overseas partners, providing an opportunity to celebrate every child and promote an environment where all children can thrive.

China

This past June, 37 participants — all Chinese adoptees and their families — embarked on Holt’s 2025 China Heritage Tour. Jian Chen, Holt’s longstanding vice president for our China regional programs, once again led this year’s tour of the country.

Participants visited some of China’s most famous sites, including the Great Wall and Forbidden City in Beijing, and traveled to the ancient Chinese capital of Xian and the southern city of Guilin, known for its dramatic landscapes. They also visited a farmer’s painting village in Hu County, took a cruise along the Li River and learned to make traditional Chinese food at a cooking school, among other activities. Families who wished to travel to their child’s birth city were able to do so for two nights before or after the main tour.

Holt’s China heritage tour is open to families of children adopted from any province and through any agency. This year’s tour offered adoptees and their families a time to bond and support one another — and at the end of the trip, Holt presented each adoptee with a traditional Chinese outfit, called a qipao.

Since 1992, Holt has united more than 7,000 children from China with adoptive families in the U.S. (Visit Holt’s Tours page to learn more about opportunities to travel with Holt on heritage tours and vision trips.) And while Holt’s China adoption program is now closed, we encourage families to explore our two other adoption programs in the region — in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Ethiopia, Uganda

Nearly half the population of Africa is under the age of 18. And each year since 1991, African nations have celebrated the Day of the African Child to raise awareness about the rights and wellbeing of African children, particularly in regard to education, healthcare, protection and a safe environment.

On June 16, Holt Ethiopia commemorated the Day of the African Child in collaboration with the regional government and local partner organizations. Thanks to the support of Holt donors and sponsors, Holt Ethiopia donated more than 5,000 educational supplies to orphaned and vulnerable children who are at risk of dropping out of school due to lack of financial support.

Holt Uganda hosted Day of the African Child celebrations in the central Wakiso District under the theme “Planning and Budgeting for Child Care and Protection in Uganda.” Roughly 1,500 children and 300 parents attended the event, during which government officials, Holt Uganda staff and youth from the community made speeches about the importance of child protection.

India

On June 21, millions of people around the world came together to celebrate the United Nations’ International Day of Yoga, which embraced the theme “Yoga for One Earth, One Health.” According to a Harvard Medical School study about yoga, 60 percent of participants with depression experienced significant symptom reduction after practicing yoga twice a week for eight weeks.

In India, Holt’s partner organizations, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK) in Pune and Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT) in Bangalore, organized special yoga sessions for children, introducing them to basic asanas, breathing techniques and mindfulness practices. At BSSK, the sessions were designed for all age groups and were guided by trained instructors. Children participated wholeheartedly, learning how yoga can help improve flexibility, concentration and emotional balance. The day served as a wonderful opportunity to instill healthy lifestyle habits in children and highlight the importance of physical and mental wellbeing.

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The post Notes from the Field: July 2025 appeared first on Holt International.

Nantale was embarrassed.

It was her first day of school, but she didn’t look like the other kids in her preschool class. They all wore crisp, clean uniforms. She wore her regular clothes, which were torn and ragged and stained from the red dirt roads of the village where she lives in rural Uganda.  

Nantale shied away from playing with the other kids. She was quiet and kept to herself.

Although she proved to be a good student, she started missing class. Her parents couldn’t afford to pay her school fees. Nantale knew she might have to drop out at any time.

That’s when she and her family learned about a special program that would help her stay in school. She learned that kind people from across the world would help pay for her school fees, supplies and uniforms — expecting nothing in return.

“She remembers clearly when the news was announced that Holt was recruiting children for education sponsorship,” shares Tinka Murungi, Holt Uganda’s sponsorship coordinator. “She could not wait to be recruited.”

When 7-year-old Nantale became a Holt sponsored child, her life began to change — at first in small, tangible ways. Through the support of her sponsor, she received a new, pressed uniform to wear to school. She received school supplies — unused pens and pencils and gleaming white notebook paper just waiting to be filled with drawings and math equations and first written words.

She used to shiver through cold nights on her family’s small farm, arriving at school tired in the morning. From her sponsor’s monthly donations, her social worker purchased a soft blanket to keep her warm at night.

A blanket. A pencil. A uniform. These small gestures were anything but small to Nantale. They lifted her self-esteem and helped her focus on her studies.

But in addition to these material gifts, Nantale’s sponsor gave her a gift that would change her entire outlook on her future — a school scholarship to cover her required school fees and assure her education. With this gift, Nantale felt something that she had never known before: a sense of stability.

Like many children living in her community — and in poverty around the world — Nantale didn’t know how long she would be able to stay in school. At any time, her dream of an education could be shattered.

Barriers to a Child’s Education in Rural Uganda

Nantale’s family lives in a small farming community where they work as subsistence farmers — living off what they can grow on their small plot of land. In Uganda, farming communities take up about 71 percent of the land and make up 84 percent of the population. Years of war have devastated an already inadequate infrastructure in these villages, leaving gaps of all kinds — gaps in healthcare, gaps in education, gaps in access to fair and safe lending to help families rebuild their businesses and their lives. For the children of these communities, an education is no guarantee and depends on mainly two variables — whether they have access to a school, and whether their parents can afford to pay the fees required for them to attend.

Fees to attend a primary school in Uganda range from about 150,000-215,000 shillings — or $40-$60 — per child per year. School supplies and uniforms often triple the cost of school overall — with an expense 300,000 shillings, or $86, per child per year. If children need to attend boarding school, which many do as schools are so inaccessible, the cost is about 3-4 times as much. But in a community where a family may earn at best 10-20,000 shillings per month, this cost is too steep to afford on their own — particularly when a family has more than one child, which most families in Uganda do.

I thank you my sponsor for loving and supporting me. Because of you, my sponsor, I receive everything I need for my school. My mother is also happy for your support. We pray for you always.” — Nantale

Nantale is the fifth of six siblings. But unlike many children in her surrounding community, she lives with both her parents. Many children in Uganda have lost one or both parents to conflict due to armed fighting among ethnic groups or the HIV epidemic — leaving elderly grandparents or an older sibling to care for them.

Another reason children lose their parents is a lack of affordable medical care for families living in rural poverty. Accidents, especially road accidents, are common. Even if they survive, the consequences can be catastrophic.

When Nantale was 8 years old — less than a year into Nantale’s sponsorship journey — both her parents were in a devastating accident that left them both with fractured legs. In a more developed country — with a broader social safety net and greater access to advanced medical care — they would likely have recovered from their injuries. Instead, they both ended up permanently disabled.   

“They were likely treated at a Holt-supported health center in the community,” explains Malia Robello, Holt’s senior program manager for Uganda. “It’s also very likely they didn’t heal properly — even if they did have surgery —because they both needed to work and care for the home soon after the accident.”

Although Holt does on occasion provide medical care for parents of children in our child sponsorship program, funds are limited and primarily reserved for life-threatening cases.

“And typically,” Malia says, “for the children.”

Today, Nantale’s father walks with a walking stick and is not able to work the way he did before the accident. Her mother now supports herself to walk — but she can’t walk long distances.  Where before they struggled to support their children, now they faced even greater obstacles.

“Their disabilities created a significant barrier to earning an income,” explains Tinka.

Thankfully, when a child enrolls in Holt’s child sponsorship program, their whole family is empowered with resources and support to help them become stable and self-reliant.

In the rural villages of Uganda, Holt leads savings groups that teach parents, particularly mothers, how to earn money and save together. Through financial literacy training, these women are learning as a community how to make and sell goods, grow crops, buy and raise livestock, and become businesswomen in the hopes of better supporting their families.

When Nantale was enrolled in Holt’s child sponsorship program, a Holt social worker visited the family and identified ways to help them overcome the challenges they faced. Her mother soon joined a Holt savings group and received training in how to run and manage a small business. With start-up funds from Holt donors, she soon started a business that she could manage despite her disability.

“I learned how to make pancakes, which I sell in the market to get money to support our children,” her mother shared with Tinka. “I also save in the savings group. I am so happy because of Holt.”

Through Holt Uganda’s family strengthening program, Nantale’s mother also learned ways to improve her children’s health and nutrition, and gained parenting skills that strengthened her bond with her children.

“I am now a better parent. I used to be tough on my children, but now we share together,” she said. “They no longer fear me.”

Child Sponsorship Creates Generational Change

Through Holt’s child sponsorship model, families like Nantale’s are empowered to earn the income they need to support their children. But the primary way sponsors empower families and communities to overcome poverty is to educate future generations — starting, first and foremost, with their sponsored child.

Today, Nantale is 12 years old. She is in her fifth year of Holt child sponsorship. And she is at the top of her class.

“She is always the best in her class,” Tinka shares. “She enjoys school life and wants to become a lawyer after her studies. She says that she wants to be a lawyer to provide justice for poor people in the community.”

When Tinka asked Nantale’s mom what she would like to say to her sponsors, she broke down in tears.

“To Nantale’s sponsor, I want to say thank you so much for choosing my daughter,” she said. “You came in at a time when I had lost hope. We were not sure about keeping her in school. You brought joy to Nantale and our entire family. Because of you, our family is lively and hopeful. Nantale is now assured of her education. She is more confident, now socializes with other children, and tells me she works hard at school to make her sponsor happy. She is always the best in class. You have opened a brighter future for Nantale and our family. I only pray that our good Lord blesses you.”

Nantale also wanted to express her gratitude to her sponsor.

“I thank you my sponsor for loving and supporting me,” she said. “Because of you, my sponsor, I receive everything I need for my school. My mother is also happy for your support. We pray for you always.”

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The post God Bless You, My Lovely Friend: A Uganda Child Sponsorship Story appeared first on Holt International.

Thailand

In April, Holt’s partner in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), held Songkran celebrations for children and families in orphan care and family strengthening programs. Songkran — one of Thailand’s most important holidays — is traditionally a time for family gatherings and honoring elders. While the official celebration spans April 13-15, many, including HSF, extend the festivities for an entire week. Communities typically enjoy the holiday with water fights, traditional dances and delicious foods like mango sticky rice and khao chae, flower-scented rice.

Through the generous support of sponsors and donors, HSF is able to provide special celebrations for children and families in need — creating meaningful, enriching experiences they’ll never forget.

To celebrate, HSF organized a variety of interactive activities that brought excitement and joy to children and families. Children played board games and outdoor games together, encouraging teamwork and creativity. Volunteers also led English lessons covering topics such as greetings and naming animals. The children eagerly participated, raising their hands to answer questions with enthusiasm.

HSF also held cooking classes where children learned to make traditional Thai desserts like bua loy — rice flour balls simmered in sweet coconut milk. HSF staff say that the cooking activities not only taught practical skills but also helped children grow in confidence.

India

Holt’s partner in Pune, India, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK) recently organized a vibrant summer camp program for children ages 10-15. Children who receive services through BSSK live at the center or in impoverished communities in and around Pune.

Children enjoyed painting, dancing, storytelling, drumming circles and more. They even learned to make sprouts bhel, a flavorful dish with mung bean sprouts, mango and spices.

Some summer camp activities were led by older children — a valuable opportunity for them to develop confidence, leadership and teamwork skills. According to BSSK staff, the camp was a memorable experience filled with bonding, learning and fun.

Holt’s partner in Bangalore, India, Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT), is making strides in providing educational support. For children living in impoverished communities, VCT child development teams provide vital support and guidance as they grow up. With encouragement and academic support, children stay on track with their studies and navigate challenges with confidence.

Recently, VCT organized a parent meeting to support families with students who are facing stresses from school life, academics and family issues. The evening covered a range of topics, including improving communication among family members, addressing behavioral challenges and developing healthy coping strategies for managing stress.

Holt sponsors and donors help support children and join BSSK and VCT in their efforts to empower young people growing up in difficult circumstances in India.

Uganda

One of the key pillars of Holt’s work in Uganda is early childhood care and development (ECCD). On April 30, Uganda celebrated National Children’s Play Day — becoming the first country to establish such a day since the UN resolution for an International Play Day.

National Children’s Play Day raises awareness about the transformative power of play in a child’s life and its critical role in healthy development. Children at ECCD centers in Uganda benefit daily from indoor and outdoor play equipment that supports their physical and cognitive development. On this special holiday, caregivers gave children extra time to play — and joined in the fun themselves!

Holt’s Village Health Teams (VHTs) also recently led food demonstrations at ECCD centers to further parents’ knowledge of nutrition, food preparation and safe handling practices. These presentations emphasized the connection between good nutrition and children’s physical and cognitive development. Nearly 1,700 caregivers across three districts participated.

Thanks to the support of sponsors and donors, families receive one-on-one support and benefit from community presentations — like food demonstrations — that provide training to help them nurture their child’s growth and development.

Colombia

Through Holt’s partner La Casa de la Madre y el Niño in Bogotá, Colombia, sponsors and donors help provide high-quality, nurturing care for orphaned and vulnerable children. As the largest institution registered to facilitate international adoption in Colombia, La Casa brings more than 75 years of experience to its work with children and families.

La Casa provides care for children living at Casa Imagina, a residential home for older children ages 10-17 who have special needs or face other barriers to adoption. Casa Imagina offers a warm, family-like environment with nourishing meals, health care and education. Through a new partnership with IdeaArte, children at the home can also now enroll in educational art classes, helping to grow their creativity and confidence.

Recently, four children entered Casa Imagina to prepare for adoption, and three children left to join permanent, loving families. Caregivers at the home receive specialized training to advocate and care for children waiting to join adoptive families. Once children are matched with families, caregivers help prepare them for the transition ahead. With one-on-one support, the children learn about culture, climate, language and, for many, what it means to be part of a family.

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The post Notes from the Field: May 2025 appeared first on Holt International.

Colombia

Bambi, Holt’s partner organization in Colombia, recently held a workshop for parents and caregivers enrolled in its PROMEFA family strengthening program. During the workshop, mothers in the program learned how to create a “life timeline,” allowing them to understand where they are in life, their priorities and resources available to them. The program also helped mothers determine how they want to live their lives in order to end generational cycles of conflict and poverty. With the support of the group, the women expressed motivation to take steps to achieve their life and family goals.

Parenting education is an important pillar of Holt’s work in Colombia. Thanks to the support of sponsors and donors, families living in vulnerable, impoverished communities are receiving the help and resources they need to create a safe, secure and supportive environment for their children.

Ethiopia

Since 2017, Holt donors have supported an early childhood care and development (ECCD) program in an impoverished region of southern Ethiopia. Through this program, 1,500 children are able to receive a critical preschool education in a safe and nurturing environment while their parents work during the day.

Recently, through Holt’s Gifts of Hope program, families whose children attend the ECCD centers received gifts of chickens as well as the supplies to raise them. Raising livestock such as chickens can improve a family’s food security and create income-generating opportunities. For example, within a few months of hatching, chickens begin laying eggs, providing protein and other vital nutrients to growing children and families. In addition, families can sell their eggs or full-grown chickens at the market for a profit, using the money they earn to buy food and other essential items for their family. They can also invest their profits into raising more chickens, thus expanding their business and improving their long-term livelihood.

India

In March, Holt’s long-standing partner in Pune, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK), held Holi celebrations for children who receive services through all four of its Holt-supported centers. Known as the springtime festival of colors, Holi is a major holiday in India. The children who receive services through BSSK either live at the center or in impoverished communities in and around Pune. As they rarely receive anything extra, the Holi celebrations were a special treat!

During the party, the children engaged in fun games and activities, which included dousing one another with vibrant colored powders known as “gulal.” The colored powders symbolize the arrival of spring and new beginnings. The Holi celebration strengthened bonds and spread happiness between the children and BSSK staff and reinforced the holiday’s spirit of unity, joy and festivity.

Uganda

Holt Uganda staff recently visited women in six rural communities to provide maternal health outreach and services. Thanks to your support, 1,995 women received health education materials, 330 pregnant mothers were tested for anemia and 256 pregnant mothers were given prenatal vitamins.

In late 2024, 60 health workers in Uganda received a revised version of Holt’s Child Nutrition Program Community Flipbook, which is used to support education for families on proper nutrition and health practices as well as child development and disabilities. Health workers from Holt partner health centers, Holt village health teams and Holt Uganda staff received training on how to use the new flipbooks, and each participating health center received a revised copy. During their recent visit to the six communities, Holt Uganda staff used the flipbooks to educate mothers on important issues of maternal and children’s health, including prenatal care and malnutrition.

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The post Notes from the Field: April 2025 appeared first on Holt International.

A single mother in Vietnam receives a food cart and starts her own business. Women in rural Uganda learn to break the cycle of generational poverty by joining community savings groups. A mother and her family in Mongolia are gifted a life-changing herd of livestock. Mothers and children in Ethiopia gain access to lifesaving healthcare, thanks to a mother and child hospital Holt donors helped build and continue to support in an impoverished rural region.

Around the world, Holt sponsors and donors empower mothers to provide for their children, keeping them together despite poverty, conflict, migration and the stigma of single motherhood. One of the ways your generosity supports these women is through our life-changing Gifts of Hope. Whether it’s through food carts, small business microgrants, livestock, new mother baskets, pregnancy healthcare and more, your gifts help women become stronger, healthier and more self-reliant, allowing them and their children to thrive.

As we approach Mother’s Day this year, we’d like to highlight the stories of women in four countries who have benefited from your generosity and Gifts of Hope. With your support and compassion, these mothers and their families now face a brighter future!

Healthcare for Mothers and Children in Ethiopia

In 2015, Holt donors joined local leaders and community members to build a full-service, maternal-child hospital in Shinshicho, an impoverished rural region in southern Ethiopia. At the time, only 3 percent of births among women living in rural Ethiopia were attended by a health professional, and 25,000 women in Ethiopia died annually from complications during pregnancy and childbirth. In many cases, these women could not get to a hospital in time. When Holt committed to funding most of the construction costs for the Shinshicho Mother and Child Hospital, the local community responded with an outpouring of donations — often a precious few dollars from individuals whose income was just one or two dollars a day. With backing from the government, and significant involvement from the community — both in funding and labor — the health center first opened its doors to patients in 2015.

Today, the hospital has grown both in size and in the level of services it provides. It is now known as the Shinshicho Primary Hospital, and it serves more than 250,000 patients each year with emergency, surgical and outpatient services for children and adults. Although the mother-child hospital is run by the local government, Holt continues to fund much of the staffing, equipment and materials needed to operate the maternal and child health departments, which provide labor and delivery, family planning, ob-gyn and neonatal intensive care services. Holt also supports a child stabilization center for severely malnourished children. 

When two children, Anika and Kia, were found to be acutely malnourished, they along with their mother were immediately taken to the child stabilization center at the Holt-supported mother and child hospital, where they received the critical help they needed.

“In the rehab unit, the babies received a specialized low-protein, milk-based formula diet to help them stabilize,” says Emily DeLacey, Holt’s director of nutrition and health services. “Their sick, malnourished mother was also able to receive support at the hospital and began to get healthier so that her supply of breastmilk replenished and she was able to continue feeding her girls to ensure they were getting the vital nutrition they needed.”

It wasn’t long before Anika and Kia became stable. And not long after that, they returned home. In just a few short months, their transformation was incredible. They went from being terribly sick, skinny, malnourished infants to plump and happy babies. And that’s just their physical appearance. Now that they’re getting all the nutrients they need, their brains and bodies are able to grow and catch up in development. For the mothers and children in rural Ethiopia, the gift of maternal health and childhood nutrition is a blessing on Mother’s Day — and on every day throughout the year.

Empower a mother with the gift of pregnancy health care this Mother’s Day!

A Herd of Livestock in Mongolia

Five-year-old Erdene and her family live in Mongolia’s northernmost province, where herding families continue a traditional way of life — seasonally migrating with their cattle, sheep and goats across the vast plains. Life is hard on the land, not far from Siberia, and winters are especially harsh with temperatures that can dip to -60 degrees. Although the nomadic people of this region have existed here for generations and know how to survive the extreme climate, many live in poverty and struggle to provide enough food, warm clothing and other necessities for their children.

In 2019, Holt’s team in Mongolia began working in this remote province to help care for the region’s most vulnerable children, including children with disabilities, children growing up in orphanages and children living in poverty with their families, including the children of assistant herdsmen. Erdene and her siblings were among the over 80 children who Holt donors began to support through Holt’s family strengthening program. Holt provided emergency food for Erdene and her siblings. Erdene was also enrolled in Holt’s child sponsorship program, which provided ongoing support for her and her family.

Erdene’s family felt deep gratitude for the support of Holt sponsors and donors. But as traditional nomadic people who have chosen to stay and work the land like their families have for generations, Erdene’s parents are hard-working and skilled in raising livestock. Like many assistant herdsmen, they dreamt of owning their own herd, nourishing their children from what they produced and living by their own means.

“If they could own some livestock, they would be able to get wool and cashmere during springtime,” explains our team in Mongolia. “And in summer, they would be able to get dairy products — and the children would benefit from the milk.”

In March 2021, their dreams were realized when Holt presented Erdene’s family with an incredible, donor-funded Gift of Hope — a gift that would empower Erdene’s parents to work toward stability and self-reliance, and ultimately meet all of their children’s needs. They gave the family a herd of 20 goats and 28 sheep.

Over the past four years, Erdene’s parents have nearly doubled the size of their herd and added cattle as well — bringing in considerable profits for their family. In that time, Erdene and her siblings have also grown healthier and stronger because of the nourishing milk and cheese they regularly have in their diet.

“I am very happy as a mother to see my children growing, thriving, healthy and happy … Life has changed and we are very, very happy,” Erdine’s mother shared. “I would like to say thank you. Really, really thank you.”

Empower a mother with a life-changing gift of a goat!

A Food Cart in Vietnam

Thuong is a young single mother who lives with her son in a small city in Vietnam. In April 2021, Thuong learned that she was 13 weeks pregnant. But when she called her boyfriend to share the news, he refused to take responsibility for the baby. Heartbroken, and fearing a life of poverty and social stigma as a single mother, Thuong considered relinquishing her baby for adoption after giving birth.

But then something wonderful happened! When Thuong was 7 months pregnant, a friend introduced her to a local Holt social worker, who enrolled her in a program for single pregnant women supported by Holt donors. Through the program, Thuong received food and nutritional support for the remaining months of her pregnancy, as well as baby essentials such as clothes, diapers and formula — gifts for new mothers provided through Holt’s Gifts of Hope program. The costs of her pre- and post-natal doctor exams were also covered, as were her hospital fees for the birth of her child.

In November 2021, Thuong gave birth to a healthy baby boy she named Thanh. After leaving the hospital, she and her son returned to her family home, where her parents and grandparents helped care for them.

Then, when Thanh was 7 months old, Thuong began working at her mother’s food stall. With her baby at her side, Thuong washed vegetables, grilled pork paste and meat, and helped her mother sell food. Though the women worked long hours, they earned roughly 8 U.S. dollars a day. Although this amount stretches much further in Vietnam than it does in the U.S., it was still barely enough to feed the entire family.

That’s when Thuong decided to supplement the family income by learning to make Vietnamese-style “hot dog” cakes. She took orders for the hot dogs online, then delivered them herself to customers around the city. Lacking the funds to make large quantities of food, Thuong sold about 25 hot dogs a day. After deducting her expenses, Thuong earned less than 4 U.S. dollars per day — but this amount increased her income enough to meet some additional needs, and she began to grow excited about having her own business!

And that’s when the generosity of Holt donors came through again! This time, Thuong received a food cart through Holt’s Gifts of Hope, as well as funds to purchase baking ingredients.  

These days, Thuong operates her food cart in front of her grandparents’ house. It’s open from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. Although her income is still modest, Thuong is now able to pay for her son’s preschool fees and meals at school, helping him get an early education and the nourishment he needs to thrive. Thanks to the generosity of Holt donors, Thuong has big dreams for her son — and for her own future!

Empower a mother to start her own business by providing her with a food cart!

Financial Literacy Training in Uganda

In the rural villages of Uganda where Holt sponsors and donors support children and families, women now have the opportunity to break the cycle of generational poverty. In these villages, Holt has been leading savings groups that teach parents, particularly mothers, how to earn money and save together. Through financial literacy training, these women learn as a community how to make and sell goods, grow crops, buy and raise livestock, and become businesswomen in the hopes of bettering themselves and supporting their families.

With a small initial investment from Holt donors, these groups of women pool their money together and are then able to take out loans from the group to grow their business or address an urgent need such as a home repair. They pay the money back on a schedule, thus replenishing the fund so other women can borrow as needed. Some Holt savings groups have existed for more than five years — helping the families weather the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without the savings and loan groups, many of their businesses would not have survived financially — and they would have struggled to afford food and other basic necessities for their children.

Beyond financial stability, the savings groups have offered women a sense of pride in their accomplishments. For example, in one rural community, the members of one group named themselves the “Group of Happy Parents.” That’s because their savings have gone towards buying livestock, starting microbusinesses, and paying for their children’s school fees and uniforms. When mothers are able to care for their children, they are happy parents indeed!

Empower a mother to break the cycle of generational poverty with job skills training!

Mother’s Day Gifts That Matter

Honor a mom you love with a Gift of Hope that changes the life of a mom across the world!

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The post So Their Children Can Thrive appeared first on Holt International.

Right now, Holt International is facing an urgent financial shortfall of $1.4 million. If we don’t close the funding gap by April 30, we will be forced to make heartbreaking decisions — reducing the number of children and families we serve and cutting programs that provide vital care and resources.

You are probably aware of the pause the government has placed on international funding through USAID, which many humanitarian programs overseas rely on. In many places, Holt is now one of the few organizations — if not the only one — that can help children in need.

But first, we must overcome this critical shortfall.   

Your support will ensure no child is turned away from the love and care they need.

Educational Support at Risk for Children in Mongolia

Overlooking Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia is the city’s largest garbage dump. Here, a whole community of children and families survive on what they can find in the refuse — whether bits of food they can eat or items they can sell. They live in makeshift homes on the edge of — and sometimes inside of — the dump. For children growing up in such dire poverty, you help to provide a special sanctuary — a place where they can take a warm shower, eat a nourishing meal and receive an education that will help them escape a life in the garbage dump.  

Your support provides school supplies, nutritious meals and social work support to help more than 200 children attend this special place called the Red Stone School. Instead of gathering and selling refuse in the garbage dump, these children are receiving enrichment in school each day.

But without your support to overcome the shortfall, children in Mongolia may lose the critical support they need to stay in school.

Vital Medical Care for Women and Children in Uganda

Every day, 300 infants and 20 mothers die from preventable causes in Uganda — and the rate is even higher in rural areas. Infant and maternal mortality is often attributed to delays in seeking care, delays in proximity to a health facility and delays in receiving adequate treatment.

But through your faithful support, you have helped make it possible for our team in Uganda to host Child Health Days for pregnant women and children living in rural communities where care is less accessible. You’ve provided the resources for village health workers to go door-to-door in communities to screen mothers and children for malnutrition, provide essential supplements and vaccinations, offer resources and education and encourage prenatal care and nutrition.

Recently, through this outreach program, you helped provide lifesaving care for one sick mother and her child who was dangerously underweight.

Approximately 150,000 children and 5,000 pregnant women are provided life-changing medical assistance in Uganda each year. Without the funds to continue serving pregnant women and infants, we’ll be forced to reduce critical medical services in Uganda.

Nurturing Foster and Kinship Care for Vulnerable Children in Cambodia

In Cambodia, thousands of children are growing up in orphanages. Many of them have living relatives who could care for them if given the resources. In recent years, with funding from USAID and other grant organizations, Holt began working alongside other organizations to help move these children from institutions into more nurturing care settings.  

Through kinship care, Holt works to reunite children with their birth families — if not parents, then aunts or uncles or grandparents who can provide the kind of loving, attentive care that children just don’t receive in institutions. Your support helps provide the tools and resources these families need to care for the child — such as food support, school supplies, counseling and even job skills training for the adults.

Not every child has a family member who can care for them, however. For these children, Holt developed another alternative — foster care. Foster care ensures a child has a nurturing, safe and family-like home where they can grow and develop while they wait to reunite with their birth family or join a family through domestic adoption. Through your generous donations, you have helped support children so they have everything they need to thrive while in the care of a loving foster parent — from food and clothing to critical medical care.

Due to a loss in federal funding, this program is now at risk.

Without your help overcoming the $1.4 million funding gap, orphaned and vulnerable children in Cambodia may lose the nourishing food, safe shelter and nurturing care they need to thrive.

Emergency Medical Care Around the Globe

For children around the world with urgent medical needs, medical care isn’t an option — it’s essential.  

Many children are sick when they first enter orphanage care, which can often be attributed to underlying medical conditions, special needs, chronic hunger and the overall impoverished conditions they lived in before coming into care. Upwards of 40% of children are malnourished when brought into care and approximately 25% of children come into care with a medical need or disability.

Your generosity ensures that children who need urgent medical interventions, like heart surgeries or cleft palate surgeries, receive the lifesaving or life-changing care they need. No child should go without the critical care they need and deserve. That’s why we must bridge this gap together.

Every contribution, no matter the size, brings us one step closer to ensuring no child or family is turned away because of the funding shortfall. Through your compassion and generosity, we can continue working toward a world where every child can grow and thrive in a loving, secure home.

Help a Child in Greatest Need

Give emergency help to a child who is hungry, sick or living in dangerous conditions. Your gift will provide the critical food, medical care, safety and more they need when they need it the most.

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The post No Child Should Be Turned Away appeared first on Holt International.

Ethiopia

One of Holt’s local partners in Ethiopia, Sele-Enat, recently organized a Cancer Awareness Day in central Ethiopia, which many families in the community attended. Cancer is a public health crisis in low-income countries, including Ethiopia. Treatments such as radiation and chemotherapy are not widely available, leaving families with few options for their affected loved ones. Sele-Enat’s Cancer Awareness Day event brought families together and provided hope for many. Medical professionals specializing in oncology gave presentations and led discussions for the attendees.

Sele-Enat also recently launched a community awareness campaign for children with autism. Autism is widely misunderstood in Ethiopia, leading to a severe shortage of services for children with this condition. Sele-Enat is working to educate the community about autism and autism spectrum disorder to promote inclusivity and understanding for all children and families. Raising awareness and providing education helps equip caregivers with the knowledge to offer the best care for every child and their needs.

Our partner, Sele-Enat, cares for children with autism and other developmental disabilities at their orphanage. They receive nutrition and medical support through Holt’s Child Nutrition Program, education support, as well as recreational and experiential activities to meet their social and psychological needs. Inclusive education is a priority for Holt and Sele-Enat to ensure children with disabilities and other special needs have access to learning environments in which they can thrive. Through the autism advocacy, Holt and Sele-Enat work to raise awareness about autism spectrum disorder with the larger community. This helps to reduce stigma, inform parents, caregivers and educators about the needs of autistic children and ensure families are accessing education and other services they may need. This type of advocacy is essential to preserve and strengthen families, and it would not be possible without the support from Holt sponsors and donors.

India

Holt-supported students enrolled in higher education programs in Pune and Aurangabad recently took a field trip to explore careers in manufacturing. Through Holt’s local partner organization, Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra (BSSK), Holt sponsors and donors help support these students and join BSSK in their efforts to empower young people growing up in difficult circumstances in India.

The field trip included hands-on experiences and allowed students to observe vehicle production, robotic automation and other industrial technologies up close. The field trip inspired the students to develop their professional skills and explore possible careers paths. For children in Holt programs, experiences like these help broaden their horizons beyond the limited career opportunities they witnessed growing up in impoverished slum communities. This is especially true for many girls in India, who face greater gender discrimination and also marriage at a young age.

With the support of Holt sponsors and donors, BSSK has worked to change that since 1979. Through Holt sponsorships, educational workshops, career field trips and other support, children receive the tools they need to succeed and thrive.

Uganda

Uganda has one of the youngest populations in the world, with a median age of 16.2 years. And in the rural villages where Holt sponsors and donors support children, more than 30 percent of children ages 6 to 9 have never attended primary school.

Education is expensive in Uganda. The cost of school fees, books, supplies and uniforms is too high for families living in poverty. In rural areas, schools may also be too far for some children to walk to, and few families can afford boarding school fees.

Thanks to Holt sponsors and donors, our team in Uganda recently provided scholastic materials and school uniforms for 904 children at Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) centers. ECCD teachers also received teaching materials for the term, and the schools received food items such as fortified flour, sugar, eggs and bananas for mid-morning meals.

Your generosity not only provides nutritious meals each day for children in need — but also helps them focus in school, where both attendance and grades have improved!

Colombia

Holt partner Bambi in Colombia has served children and caregivers in an impoverished area of the city for more than 22 years, thanks to sponsor and donor support.

Bambi works to keep children with their birth parents, offering interventions and support to lift families out of poverty and prevent children from being separated from their families. Bambi provides vulnerable parents and caregivers with access to education, job training and childcare to help them gain financial independence and create a safe environment for their children. Caregivers can enroll in vocational courses, such as baking, sewing and cosmetology, or receive support to complete their secondary education. Parents and caregivers also have access to financial literacy and business training, weekly counseling and parenting groups with staff psychologists.

To ensure these caregivers can complete their education and training, Bambi provides 24/7 flexible childcare with health and nutrition screenings and early childhood education for children under age 5. Recently, Holt sponsors and donors helped to ensure the children in the daycare program received wellness and development checks. These evaluations help caregivers cater to the needs of each child and set goals for their development.

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The post Notes from the Field: March 2025 appeared first on Holt International.