Cambodia

Since 2012, Holt donors have provided scholarships for 185 high-achieving students to attend college in Cambodia through its University Education program. The program offers everything from full tuition to English and computer classes, career counseling and a monthly stipend to help cover additional expenses. Most of the students come from rural impoverished communities, and most are the first in their families to attend college.

In 2016, the University of Cambodia launched a volunteer program to encourage university students to make an impact in their communities by dedicating their time, energy and resources to improving the livelihood of others. Recently, students in Holt’s University Education program took part in these volunteer efforts. Through community awareness workshops, the students addressed the impact of drug addiction in the province of Battambang and the importance of reading in the province of Kampot.

Ethiopia

An estimated 4.5 million children are orphaned or growing up without permanent families in Ethiopia. In an effort to reduce the number of children living in institutional care, the country’s Ministry of Women and Social Affairs has issued an Alternative Child Care Directive, which focuses on supporting local families to foster or adopt children living in orphanages. Now, thanks to Holt sponsor and donor support, Holt Ethiopia has partnered with the ministry to train child welfare professionals, service providers and community organizers in central Ethiopia to promote family-based care. Holt Ethiopia held the first of five workshops in March and will continue to hold trainings through September.

India

In the migrant communities of Bangalore, India, Holt sponsors and donors help keep children in the safe and loving care of their families. Poverty is one of the greatest causes of abandonment and family separation in these communities. Our local partner, Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT), works with migrant families to help them develop a stable source of income — often through donor-funded technical education and training.

In May, VCT held skills training courses for migrant women and single mothers as part of its Income Generation Program (IGP). Through its vocational training and entrepreneurial support, the program helps low-income women become more competitive in the local labor market. The IGP also develops initiatives to promote social networks among women that lead to better access to services and opportunities. The joint efforts between Holt and VCT have so far enabled more than 1,600 migrant women and single mothers to set up their own businesses or join public or private industries. These women now earn a sustainable wage that supports their needs and those of their families.

Thailand

Holt’s local partner in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), recently organized two trips to the zoo for children living in foster care. The children and their foster families had a wonderful time viewing the animals, enjoying snacks and spending quality time together. Meanwhile, the social workers who accompanied the group were able to observe how the children reacted in various situations.

At any given time, between 90 and 100 children, ages birth to 6, live with HSF’s 90 foster families. With the support of Holt sponsors and donors, foster families receive a monthly delivery of infant formula and baby supplies as well as a childcare subsidy. Foster care provides a more nurturing alternative to institutional care, offering a loving home for children while they wait to rejoin their family or join a family through adoption.

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The post Notes from the Field: June 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.

Thuong is a young single mother who lives with her son in a small city in Vietnam. When Thuong was an infant, her parents worked long hours and had little time to care for her, so they sent her to live with her paternal grandparents. They visited every few days, but life was difficult as the family struggled to cover their basic needs. When Thuong was 18, she left home to find work in Ho Chi Minh City. There, she located a job selling dietary supplements, earning a salary of about 255 U.S. dollars a month.

Thuong remained in Ho Chi Minh City for several years, and when she turned 24, she began a relationship that lasted nearly a year. But in April 2021, with the cloud of COVID-19 threatening to shut down the city, Thuong left her job — and her boyfriend — to return to her hometown.

Two weeks after returning to her family home, Thuong found out she was 13 weeks pregnant.

A Gift of Hope for New Mothers

Thuong immediately called her boyfriend to share the news, and while at first he agreed to take responsibility for the child and marry her, he soon changed his mind. Heartbroken, Thuong became worried about her finances, her health and the health of her unborn baby, especially as COVID-19 continued to shut down services in Vietnam. 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. She was immediately enrolled 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. As needed, Thuong’s social worker also dropped in from time to time to offer support.

A Gift of Hope for a New Business

In 2022, as the pandemic began to subside and Vietnam reopened, Thuong started working at her mother’s food stall. With her 7-month-old 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, filled with cheese, sausage, pork or salted eggs. 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 then another wonderful thing happened! 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 an LED sign for her business and money for baking ingredients, such as flour, baking powder, whole milk, cheese, sausage, salted eggs and butter.  

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, at about 5 U.S. dollars a day, Thuong believes that over time, more and more customers will learn about her delicious hot dogs, and, through word of mouth, her business will grow. In the meantime, Thuong uses part of her earnings to pay for her son’s daycare and meals at school, and this makes her very happy.

Moving forward, Thuong has two dreams in life. The first is that Thanh grows up to be a healthy, kind, helpful and capable little boy. And the second is that her business becomes stable enough to support her family and her son’s needs. Despite her hardships in life, Thuong has always had a strong, positive attitude, a willingness to learn and a drive to overcome challenges, her Holt social worker shares. But thanks to your support — and Gifts of Hope — Thuong was able to welcome a healthy baby into the world, become more independent and have a dream for the future. For these things and more, Thuong sincerely thanks her Holt donors!

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The post Thanks to You, Thuong Has a Food Cart! appeared first on Holt International.

Yalena peeks out the side of her princess castle — a sheer, pink-and-white cylindrical-shaped tent with a miniature kitchen set and a family of stuffed animals to keep her company. Monica, her mom, grabs her foot, making her giggle and scoot back to safety.

Monica is 22. Yalena is 4. They live alone in a one-bedroom row house in Darien — a small, lakeside village tucked into a low-lying valley between the looming, dense-jungle mountains of southwestern Colombia. In the late 80s and 90s, Darien was one of the most dangerous places in Colombia.

Once a sleepy agricultural village and popular vacation spot for the country’s wealthy elite, Darien quickly became a war zone as Pablo Escobar and his drug cartel bought up many of the million-dollar homes overlooking the lake and began luring recruits from the impoverished local community — offering them more money than they had ever seen to work as hitmen and spies.

Today, Darien is once again a peaceful place where women and children stroll the cobblestone streets under sun umbrellas and grade-school kids roam free on bikes. The violence of the 80s and 90s is past, but definitely not forgotten. No one seems to want to say Pablo Escobar’s name — like it’s bad luck if they do, or might somehow summon him from the grave.

Monica’s home is small, but perfectly designed for a 4-year-old princess, with princess bedding and a princess castle and a purple polka-dot princess guitar that Yalena is now learning how to play. Monica has built her home, and her life, around her daughter. She loves everything about her. “Even the tantrums,” she says. And she wants her to have everything she never had.

But two years ago, she had nothing to give. Literally, nothing.

When Holt’s local partner first met Monica, she and Yalena were living in a single room with nothing but a mattress for the two of them. Monica and her husband had recently separated, and he offered no support. Sometimes, her ex-husband’s mother — Yalena’s grandmother — would sneak her some milk and sugarcane for Yalena.

But many nights, they went without food.

Monica has glowing hazel-brown eyes and wavy reddish-brown hair that she wears long with a deep side part. On this hot and humid day in Darien she has on skinny jeans, a tank top and sandals that show deep divets in her red-polished toenails — a genetic condition that makes it look like she has an extra toe on each foot. Growing up, her parents couldn’t afford anything but sandals for Monica, and kids at school bullied her because of her toes. Now, she doesn’t care, she says. She laughs when people comment.

Although lighthearted and playful with her daughter, Monica seems much older than her 22 years. She’s serious and direct and shows no emotion about her past. The program coordinator for our local partner, a psychologist named Germán Vasco, says that’s common for people who’ve been through trauma. She has internalized her feelings.

When Monica was in the 8th grade, her dad decided it was time for her to quit school. Although public school is free in Colombia, he stopped paying for her supplies and uniforms. “According to him, it wasn’t a worthwhile expense,” she says flatly. He forced her to start working at a shop he owned in Darien.

At 17, Monica left home. She got married to a man she met in her father’s shop and by 19, she was pregnant. When her marriage broke up shortly after Yalena was born, she supported her daughter by herself on the 28,000 pesos, or about $9, she earned each day working in a nearby sugarcane plantation. Often, at the end of the day, she would be covered in pesticides. But before picking her daughter up from the daycare center across town, she would go home to wash the pesticides off the surface of her skin.

Monica calls the pesticides “poison.”

“I didn’t want to pick my daughter up with poison all over me,” she says.

When Holt’s local partner knocked on her door, looking for children and families who needed help, she hesitated. She felt unsure of herself and how the program could help her. But “they told me that whenever I was ready, I could go fill out the paperwork and there was always an open door for me,” she says.

When she got up the courage to open the door, and step inside, a whole new world opened up to Monica. A world she would ultimately create for herself and her daughter, with the support of Holt’s local partner — and the kindness and generosity of sponsors.

The Kidnapped Generation

Two years ago, Holt began looking to return to a country, and a continent, where we had not had a presence since the 1980s. The year before, in 2016, the local government signed a peace treaty with the largest guerrilla group in Colombia, the FARC, bringing an official end to more than five decades of an ideological civil war between the Colombian government, communist militants and paramilitary groups — groups that as the war went on became increasingly engaged in, and funded by, drug trafficking.

As the war came to an end, life in many ways went back to normal in Colombia. Families displaced by the fighting began to return home and Colombia became a safe place to travel again. But for the families who lived through the war — a war in which four times as many civilians as fighters died— normal is a relative term.  Everyone has a scar. Everyone has a story.

Ana Maria Fernandez, Holt’s Colombia program director, was living in Bogotá in the late 80s and 90s when the drug cartels, guerrilla fighters and local government fought for control of the city. In 1991, she left the country for a time — escaping the bombings that occurred every few days. When she returned in 1996, she remained captive in her own city. She never drove beyond city limits for fear of being stopped and killed or kidnapped for ransom — what she calls “normal kidnappings.”

“We were called ‘the kidnapped generation’ because we weren’t able to leave the cities,” she says today.

Although the cities experienced violence and bombings, the worst of the fighting took place in the mountains and jungles — in rural communities where families would be caught in the fire between the extreme right and the extreme left. Although many people tried to stay neutral, the guerrillas reigned terror on their communities — driving many of them to leave their homes and livelihoods, to leave everything, behind.

“In rural areas, they would just grab your child,” Ana Maria says of the guerrilla groups. “Weeks later, that 15-year-old boy was killing people.”

Many families fled because they loved their children too much to risk them becoming child soldiers. “If families saw their 13- or 14-year-old girl or boy being recruited, they would just leave whatever they had,” says Ana Maria. “Nothing was more important than having their children.”

For Ana Maria, this sentiment is personal. When she witnessed her brother get kidnapped from the same car where she sat with her young daughter, she thanked God that they didn’t take her daughter. And that, miraculously, her brother was able to escape the same day.

Between 1985-2012, more than five million civilians fled to Bogotá and other cities — creating the world’s second largest population of internally displaced people. But in the end, it didn’t matter where they came from or where they lived — in the city, in the country. In a war in which one out of every three people who died was a child, every family of Ana Maria’s generation was left scarred by the violence.

“Everyone has a story,” she says. “Everyone either knew someone who was kidnapped or killed.”

Two years ago, when Holt began exploring how we might help children and families in Colombia, we acted in response to a request from the Colombian government. They needed help finding loving families for children who had lost or become permanently separated from their birth families, and hoped we would re-establish an adoption program in Colombia.

Immediately, we responded to this need — and once established with local partners, began seeking families for children. Many of them are older. Many of them are part of large sibling groups. And although many of them are too young to have directly experienced the worst of the war, many of their parents had gotten caught up in the violence and crime that so many people of that era resorted to just to survive. It became a way of life, and it hardened many of them — creating a cycle of neglect and abuse in families.

The trauma children waiting for families in Colombia have endured is, in many cases, unspeakable. But Ana Maria hasn’t given up hope for them.

Before becoming Holt’s Colombia program director, Ana Maria worked independently with several adoption agencies. An attorney by profession, she has over the past 20 years helped complete the legal process for hundreds of Colombian children to join permanent, loving families through adoption. She has seen what can happen when a child has a family.

“When a child has a family,” she says, “nothing replaces that look in their eyes. It’s like, ‘Wow, I know they’re going to be fine.’”

At Holt, this belief underscores everything we do. We believe children thrive in families, and that every child — no matter how traumatized, no matter their age or history or special needs — deserves to grow up loved and adored by parents of their own. But we also believe that whenever possible, children deserve to grow up in their birth families. Some children can’t, and for these children, we actively seek adoptive families.

But as in every country where we work, we’ve discovered that so many parents in Colombia just need a little help to care for their children. The kind of help that comes from the generosity and compassion of others. The kind of help that comes from sponsors.

A Different Way Forward

When Monica decided to open the door at Bambi, Holt’s local partner in Darien, she found on the other side a whole team of people ready to help her provide a better life for her daughter. She saw the bright, colorful daycare center where other moms and dads left their children while they worked during the day, and began getting up before dawn to drop Yalena off in the morning.

But as Monica quickly learned, free daycare was just one of the many support services that Bambi offered for struggling parents like her. “Many arrive [at Bambi] because they know they will care for their children for free,” Germán says of the parents who join the program. “They go looking for a place for their children, but when we explain everything they can do, they are like, ‘Seriously?!!’”

As the staff psychologist, Germán counsels and supports the families to help build their confidence and help them cope with the trauma they’ve endured. Some parents come to Bambi feeling hopeless, believing there’s no way in this world for them, he says. Many grew up surrounded by the violence and crime that the drug cartels brought to Darien during the war. Like Monica, many dropped out of school early and now have little opportunity to break free of poverty. They work as day laborers in the plantations without benefits like sick leave. If they bring their child to work, they will be fired, Germán says. And even if they have family in town, everyone has to work to survive.

“That leaves no one to be home with the children,” he says.

Some people long for the days when the cartels brought easy money to Darien, but Germán says that organizations like Bambi have had a huge influence on shifting attitudes in the community. “We’ve shown them that they can do it a different way,” he says. “You may not be a millionaire, but you can do it a different way.”

At Bambi, Germán coordinates the PROMEFA program — a vocational training program that empowers parents with the skills they need to earn a better income. Through PROMEFA, Germán shows parents a different way to overcome poverty than crime and drugs.

But first, they have to work on themselves.

“When they go to PROMEFA, the world opens up to them,” he explains. “Basically, our goal is to work with them — give them training so they can receive an income. But the basis is personal work. If they’re not healed, they can’t do anything.”

When Monica first came to Bambi, she had very little self-worth. She valued her daughter’s life, but not her own. “When I was young, I didn’t have support from my mom or my dad,” she says. “Nothing really mattered.”

Before moving to Darien to live with her dad at 14, Monica grew up in Agua Blanca — one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the southwestern city of Cali.

“It was horrible,” she says. “There were shootings, robberies, drugs.”

Her mom worked two jobs to provide for Monica and her two younger siblings. She would leave at 5 in the morning, and then come home briefly in the evening before heading to her second job at a fast food restaurant. Some days, Monica didn’t even see her mom. Coming of age in Agua Blanca, Monica soon fell in with the wrong crowd.

Her mom hoped sending her to Darien would get her back on track. Periodically, she even sent money for school supplies. But when Monica’s father forced her to drop out of school, any hope Monica had for her future started to fade away. Like most of the women in the Bambi program, Monica was still a teenager when she got pregnant with Yalena.

Colombia has a particularly high rate of teen pregnancy — one of the highest in Latin America, affecting one in every five girls between the ages of 15 and 19. Early marriage is a contributing factor, as is a cultural value placed on motherhood that leads young girls to find self-worth through pregnancy. Lisseth Romero, the director of the PROMEFA program in Bogotá, attributes the prevalence of teen pregnancy in part to a cultural taboo around sex education. But also, an overall absence of parental guidance.

“Parents often abandon their children all day,” she says. “They’re not available to care for them.”

In the communities where Bambi works — and where sponsors support children — many of the parents in the program also grew up in families caught up in crime and drugs. There’s 20-year-old Sandra, whose parents were drug addicts and who got into drugs in her early teens, too. She’s clean now, and has two young boys who attend Bambi’s daycare program in Bogotá while she works to graduate high school. Other parents in the program grew up in families displaced by the war only to find themselves in the city without any way to provide for their children.

Many, like Monica’s mom, struggled with poverty and tried their best, often working two jobs to make ends meet. But inevitably, as Lisseth observes, they had no time left over to be there for their children — to guide and support them, comfort and protect them.

As is the case everywhere, poverty, crime, drug use and teen pregnancy follow a cyclical pattern in families in Colombia. But with the support of sponsors and Holt’s local partners, some families are starting to break that cycle. They are learning to leave the past behind — in their lives and in their country — and create a happier, more hopeful future for their children.

When asked how she wants her daughter’s life to be different from her own, Monica says, “I want her to have everything that I was never able to have. Not a life of riches, but a good life economically.”

It’s also important to Monica that she spend more time with Yalena than she had with her mother growing up. “I think I was the way I was and I didn’t value life because with my mom, we were hardly ever together,” she says. “Then with my dad, we have a very bad relationship.”

Monica is now working to achieve her goals — to give Yalena the life she never had. Through the PROMEFA program, she learned how to sew and crochet, attended entrepreneurship classes and developed a business plan. She received a sewing machine to help her start her business, and now earns significantly more money working as a part-time tailor. She no longer works in the plantations, and found a job cleaning houses while she works to grow her client base. Ultimately, she wants to have her own business and work out of her home so that she can spend more time with her daughter.

Germán says Monica is the “best example” of the impact of the program, and of sponsorship.

“All she has is because she was able to start working and bought everything herself,” he says, surveying her front room — at the center of which sits Yalena’s princess castle. Monica shows us a picture of Yalena’s baptism dress, which she made her, as well as a tablecloth that she crocheted herself.

Monica says she has seen a dramatic change in Yalena since she started attending the daycare program at Bambi. “The difference is huge,” she says. “She learned to share with the other kids. She learned how to be around other people. And she has learned a lot through the music, dance and art classes. That’s what she likes the most.”

Monica especially loves the nurturing care that Yalena receives at daycare. “I love the way that they care for the kids, dedicate time for them,” she says. “The love that they give our kids while we are working helps all of us to move forward.”

Since starting the program, Monica has started taking high school equivalency classes in the evenings around her work schedule. She brings Yalena to class, who sits beside her pretending to take notes like her mom. Monica’s greatest wish is to walk alongside her daughter at graduation, with Yalena in a miniature matching cap and gown.

“My life has changed 100 percent,” she says. “For me to give me daughter a better future has been the greatest … I have learned to value life and to enjoy it. To keep moving forward for me and for me daughter. Especially, for my daughter.”

But without the support of sponsors and donors, and Holt’s local staff and partners, Monica knows that the door would have been closed — not just to her, but all the moms and children whose lives have changed because of the program.

“With all my heart and speaking for all of the moms who have received help, I would like to give a very heartfelt thanks, and may God bless you today and forever,” she says to sponsors, speaking through the camera. “Because there aren’t people like you in other places. You help us open doors that allow us to support our families. With all my heart, I give you thanks.”

With all my heart, I give you thanks.”

Monica

As we leave, Monica stands in the doorway of her home, holding Yalena in her arms. The sun has begun to set over Darien, lighting up the sky in a dusty pink and gold. Monica’s neighbors sit on their porches or arrive home on motorbike while their children ride up the hill on their bicycles — carefree and safe even as the day wanes. As she surveys the scene, Monica’s eyes have a look of peace in them. And as Yalena nestles into her mom’s arms, safe and loved, she gets that look in her eyes that children get when they have a family. And we know they’re going to be fine.

This story was originally published on July 12, 2019

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The post A Whole New World appeared first on Holt International.

Thirteen years ago, Deepa got married. At first things were good; she felt safe and happy. She and her husband had two children that they love dearly!

But then, a few years ago, her husband started drinking more. He began abusing Deepa both mentally and physically. She didn’t know where to turn.

Deepa was so scared and desperate that she considered ending her life, just to escape. But then, a year ago, Deepa’s husband left her and her children completely. This brought relief from the abuse, but also significant instability. Without her husband’s income, how would Deepa pay rent and buy food for herself and her two children?

Deepa suddenly faced new panic about her circumstances, especially the well-being of her children. She began taking odd jobs as a caregiver for a family in Bangalore where she lives. But this work was inconsistent and didn’t pay her enough.

Then Deepa started working in a garment factory, which pays better but is also dangerous work. It also meant she had to be away from home all day, leaving her children alone.  

As a single mom, Deepa felt she had no options. And there are so many women like her…

Worldwide, Single Mothers Are Common

Around the world, women are far more likely to be single parents than men, especially in developing countries. Men often take dangerous jobs in hard labor such as construction where their lives are at risk or move away to find better-paying work elsewhere. Or sometimes, in cases like Deepa’s, they abandon the family entirely. In Bangalore, many of the women left alone are migrants who never had a chance to complete their education. They work hard to provide for their children as the sole breadwinner. But, in a foreign city without family support, the task can be insurmountable.

Especially before their children are old enough to go to school, single mothers are in an impossible position. They have to choose between staying home to care for their children and leaving their children alone to work so they can put food on the table.

Thankfully, there is a safety net through Holt’s local partner in southern India.

Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT) is a safe haven where many migrant families can go to find support, opportunity and empowerment. Through their income generating program, VCT equips women with marketable skills so they can provide for their families.

And for women like Nisha, this opportunity and support makes all the difference.

Nisha’s Story

When Nisha came to VCT, she was desperate. Her husband had left without warning, leaving her alone to provide for their children. She was scared.

But, through VCT’s income generation program, Nisha started learning how to sew products out of burlap. She has made laptop bags, file folders, gift bags and pouches. Nisha picked it all up quickly, thriving in a newfound community of other hard-working mothers, just like her. She bonded with them, and they helped make her strong and resilient.

Nisha soon started earning regular, consistent income for her family by selling her products. She became so accomplished at her craft that she now works for VCT! Nisha conducts sewing training herself and encourages the mothers entering the program with her story. She became a confident, independent businesswoman and they can too, she tells them.

Nisha even received a sewing machine to take home, so she can work and care for her children at the same time.

The pandemic was a crisis for many women in India who had worked as maids in the homes of wealthy families. With social restrictions in place, so many women were left out of work without other skills they could use to find a job.

But, during the pandemic, Nisha trained many women to make masks to sell. She encouraged them to learn a skill and become financially independent. During the lockdown — with her at-home sewing machine! — she worked hard to supply the masks they had made to children’s homes, old age homes, the police force and other nonprofits in Bangalore. Her efforts were recognized by Book A Smile Foundation, and in 2021 she received the Covid Hero Award!

Now, Nisha’s income is enough to pay for rent and her children’s school fees, and she has enough time in the day when her kids come home from school to help them with their homework. She is thriving as a mother and a businesswoman, all because of a sewing machine.

Through her classes, Nisha met another woman who was facing similar circumstances…

Sabiha’s Story

Three years ago, Sabiha’s husband passed away in a car accident. They had one son, and she suddenly became the sole breadwinner for their small family.

Sabiha was depressed and overwhelmed. She had never finished high school, marrying young instead, so she had very little education and no skills with which to get a job. Paying for rent and her son’s education seemed impossible.

But then, in January of this year, Sabiha joined VCT’s income generation program. She started a three-month skills training course in sewing — the same one Nisha leads! At first she could just work at the VCT facility, since they have sewing machines there. Sabiha learned quickly, and hoped that one day she would be able to take projects home so she could accomplish more.

But this would require having a sewing machine at home, a tool that Sabiha could never have afforded on her own.

Then, to Sabiha’s joy, she received a life-changing gift: a sewing machine! Sabiha has become skilled enough to make alterations to women’s clothing, and even sew simple dress patterns. With a sewing machine at home, she has been able to increase her income significantly and send her son back to school!

Sabiha’s confidence and hope for the future is growing by the day! She even joined a peer support group organized by VCT, where like-minded entrepreneurial women gather to share their challenges and successes with growing their business. They are all working toward the same goal: financial stability for their families. Most of the women are the sole providers for their families too, and each one receives a great deal of support and encouragement from this group!

With their support and help from VCT, Sabiha plans to open her own tailoring shop in the future where she can sell fabric and continue to make clothing to sell.

And with the help of a sewing machine and a community of other strong women, Sabiha is achieving her dreams and providing for her son!

Finally, there is one more woman whose story took a turn for the better…

A Happy Ending for Deepa

Thankfully, Deepa didn’t have to keep putting in grueling, all-day shifts away from her children at the garment factory for long.

She started coming to VCT for counselling sessions and attending the peer support group meetings — the same ones that Sabiha does! She met Sabiha and other women who, like her, face many problems and are working to fight for a better future for themselves and their children.

Deepa has found that her mindset is changing, from one of despair to one of hope.

“I want to bring my children up, give them an education,” Deepa says. “There is no one else for my children, I have to take care of them. I tried to commit suicide but I failed… now I believe God saved me for the sake of my children.”

Through the same Holt-supported income generation program at VCT that helped Nisha and Sabiha, Deepa too is finding new life. She already has some sewing skills, and VCT is working to get her a sewing machine so she too can start a business from home.

With a sewing machine, Deepa will be able to work from home, make enough money to support her family and avoid leaving her children alone to go to work!

For each of these women, one sewing machine is bringing about a lifetime of transformation and hope!

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The post Three Women, Three Sewing Machines — The Same Transformation appeared first on Holt International.

When Yuleidy first came to Bogotá, Colombia, she and her two children settled into a neighborhood characterized by impossibly steep streets and multi-story apartment buildings nestled straight up into the hillsides. It’s also one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in the city – but it was all Yuleidy could afford.

In a whole new city, all on her own, she felt lost. She had lived in Venezuela her whole life, but after years of political instability and deep poverty in her country, she gathered her two children and immigrated across the border to Colombia. But her new life didn’t come easy.

“We had to start a new life and adapt to everything,” Yuleidy says. “I had to sell empanadas, arepas and other foods on the street.” But despite how hard she was working, she was barely getting by. She had no way of making more money, and no one to help her with the children.

That’s when a neighbor told her about Bambi, Holt’s partner organization right there in her neighborhood.

For over twenty-two years, Bambi has served children and families in this impoverished area of Bogotá. And the help they offer meets families right where they’re at.

For children who have lost their parents, Bambi is a nurturing care facility where children live as they wait to be reunified with birth family or join a loving, permanent family through adoption. But Bambi also works to keep children together with their birth parents — offering interventions and support to lift families from poverty and prevent children from being separated from their families in the first place.

“This is a really vulnerable population — it’s a lot of people who have had to migrate here, and they came without anything. When you feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders and nowhere to turn, it’s not just stress — it can be debilitating.”

Malia Robello, Holt’s Colombia program manager

This was exactly the help that Yuleidy and her children needed.

While Yuleidy’s older daughter spent her days safely at school, 2-year-old Arturo had nowhere to go – making it impossible for Yuleidy to pursue a different, higher-paying job than selling food on the side of the road. Yuleidy, like so many parents like her, felt stuck. Without a support system or resources, she felt helpless to create a better life for her children.

“This is a really vulnerable population — it’s a lot of people who have had to migrate here, and they came without anything,” says Malia Robello, Holt’s Colombia program manager who recently visited Bambi. “When you feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders and nowhere to turn, it’s not just stress — it can be debilitating.”

That’s why Bambi works in this neighborhood, among these parents and children. With the support of Holt sponsors and donors, they help families by providing a safe place for children to be looked after and nurtured while their parents receive the tools and training they need to thrive, too.

The Comunidad is a free daycare open to children every day of the week, any time day or night — in order to accommodate parent’s daytime or nightime work shifts. The daycare itself has brightly colored walls, with the children’s art projects taped up around the room. A cook provides children with nutritious meals at tiny tables and chairs, and a napping room is available for afternoon naps as well as nighttime sleep. Bright toys line the floor and walls of the playroom, and outside a playground invites children with a slide, swings, a tunnel and monkey bars.   

“The facility itself is really calming and relaxing and comforting,” says Malia. It’s a safe and fun place for the children — but also for their parents.

With Arturo safely in the Comunidad program, Yuleidy was free to receive the support she needed, too. Like most parents at the center, Yuleidy hadn’t completed her high school education. Like many Venezuelan immigrants, Yuleidy’s education was interrupted due to instability during their teenage years. For other immigrant parents, the interruption was due to poverty, an early pregnancy, or other difficulty. So one of the first things Yuleidy did at Bambi was enroll in a high school equivalency course, to work towards earning her diploma.

“It has given me a total change since I have learned a trade, which has allowed me to guarantee food and sustenance for my children.”

Yuleidy

“They’re really proud, most proud, of getting their diplomas and finishing school,” says Malia of the parents in the program. For many parents, it’s the chance to achieve a dream they never thought possible.

But beyond completing their education, parents also have the opportunity for vocational training — to master a trade that will earn the income they need to stand on their own two feet.

The vocational training programs Bambi currently offers are sewing, cosmetology and baking. After having the chance to explore all three, Yuleidy decided to focus on baking.

Every day, Yuleidy drops Arturo off at the daycare, and walks to the other end of the building. In a kitchen complete with all the tools and ovens needed, she learns baking from an expert pastry chef. She’s now been in the program over 18 months, and in that time has become skilled and confident in her new trade.

“It has given me a total change since I have learned a trade,” Yuleidy says, “which has allowed me to guarantee food and sustenance for my children.”

In addition to the actual vocational skills, parents also complete a “life project” during their time at Bambi. This project encourages them to dream and build a sustainable business plan, complete with identifying obstacles, and thinking ahead to acquire the resources they’ll need to be successful.

“They feel they have a safety net and some resources now,” Malia says, “and a lot of pride and feeling a lot more confident in themselves.”   

In addition to being empowered with the skills and knowledge to start a business, parents also receive important parenting support and training.

A staff psychologist is available to parents every day, to help them heal from trauma and learn healthy ways of parenting their children.

“Bambi helped me personally with psychology, how to treat my children, to take care of myself to change my way of thinking and acting,” Yuleidy says. And now, she has a healthier and closer relationship with each of her children.

Yuleidy dreams of becoming a successful pastry chef in Bogotá, and most of all, she dreams of being able to continue her business to guarantee a good life for her children. But now, it’s not just a dream, but a reality that she’s been empowered to accomplish.

“My life is wonderful,” Yuleidy says, “because I have my two children who I fight for every day.”

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The post I Fight for Them Every Day appeared first on Holt International.

A young mother in Ethiopia uses the last cup of rice and the vegetable scraps from yesterday to prepare dinner for her family in Ethiopia. When the food is ready, she lets her husband eat his fill first, and then she scoops out bowls for her hungry children. After that, just a few spoonfuls remain for her.

This scenario is all too common for women around the world, in many of the communities Holt serves. Due to a variety of factors, women eat last and least.

The Problem

According to the U.S. World Food Program, women are more likely to experience chronic hunger than men. 

Why? Around the world, women are more likely to live in poverty and face gender-based discrimination. They are also less likely to receive resources like education, property rights and health care. All of these factors contribute to a person’s food security – their ability to have reliable access to enough affordable, nourishing food. As a result, women are hungrier.

Unfortunately, it’s getting worse. Back in 2018, 18 million more women than men were food insecure – lacking regular access to sufficient safe, nutritious food. But just three years later, in 2021, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) found that the number had jumped by a factor of 8 to 150 million more women than men facing food instability.

Many experts also say that the combined forces of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are reversing decades of progress in gender equality. Each of these global situations corresponds directly to hunger rates among women.

Holt staff and partners around the world are seeing these worrying global trends as well. Issues such as women’s livelihoods, child marriage, education, lack of land ownership and traditional customs all play a role — all factors that disproportionally affect women. 

Women’s Jobs are Less Reliable

In most countries where Holt works, women have been unduly affected in their livelihoods by the pandemic. Women receive fewer resources and opportunities at home and at work, resulting in lower income than male-headed households.

A recent article in Women’s Agenda commented that the pandemic has exaggerated this state of affairs. Women have experienced greater job and income losses since the pandemic than men. This is because they tend to work jobs that are less secure.

Our overseas program staff sees the truth of this daily. Women who were employed as maids, cooks or in agriculture fields all lost work as a result of COVID-19 shutdowns. This left many women and families hungry and out of options. And many of these job positions haven’t become available again even as countries and communities have opened back up post-pandemic.

Women are in crisis without sustainable job options, and the first and most dangerous result of this is hunger.

Child Marriage Leaves Girls Hungrier

Another reason why women experience more hunger is rooted in another issue — child marriage. In the communities where Holt donors support children and families in India, the economic pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed many families into poverty. In situations where it wouldn’t have been considered a decade ago, parents are once again pursuing marriage for their 14- and 15-year-old daughters. Many believe it will provide their daughters with security while reducing the number of mouths they have to feed at home.

This is true in parts of Africa as well, including Ethiopia.

“While the practice of child marriage across Ethiopia has significantly decreased recently, we continue to see less priority for girls to be educated. This is especially true in rural areas,” says Malia Robello, Holt’s Ethiopia program manager. “Without education and pathways to stable income, early marriage is seemingly the best option for many girls when their families are struggling to meet the needs of the entire household.”

But early marriage doesn’t make these girls any more food secure. Instead, it renders them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. And since child marriage terminates girls’ schooling, it leaves them less equipped to provide for themselves and more vulnerable to hunger in the future.

Women More Likely to Leave School Early

Not only is an education a way to protect girls from child marriage, but it also protects girls from hunger. But girls are more likely than boys to be pulled from school to help their families in times of crisis.

“When families are really struggling, we know that the women and girls will take on extra responsibilities to provide for the whole family,” says Malia Robello. “When prolonged drought destroys a family’s cash crops or an accident puts a parent out of work, we see girls – more than boys – drop out of school to help out at home.”

Girls dropping out of school is a short-term solution that perpetuates a long-term problem — literacy rates among women and girls. Around the world, women are less literate and therefore less likely to find employment. This renders them unlikely to earn a stable income and provide enough food for themselves and their children.

Agriculture & Lack of Land Ownership for Women

Women around the world who work in agriculture are also susceptible to malnutrition and financial instability, as well as their families.

The World Food Program reports that though women produce 60-80% of the food in low- and middle- income countries, they own less than 10% of the land. This bars women from the rights and protections of land ownership that men receive. So women are left out of work and their children underfed when crops don’t grow or land is repurposed.

“Overall, women’s land ownership is connected to income growth and better child nutrition, but women are usually not even recognized as farmers,” states a study on hunger and gender disparity by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Much of this agricultural work is unpaid, time-consuming and exhausting. For example, women spend billions of hours gathering water for their households and gardens every year. In areas of the world where the climate has grown more prone to drought and flood, women are paying the price in hunger and productivity.

Tradition

Finally, like for the young mother in Ethiopia, in many places gender disparity is baked into their very customs and traditions. While this has decreased over the years, it still persists in many of the countries we serve.

“Women and girls traditionally eat last during daily meals. When food is scarce it is often women and girls who are undernourished,” adds Malia Robello.

In times of upheaval that already leave women more prone to hunger and instability, gender norms can make it worse. 

“An Ethiopian proverb says ‘a woman’s saliva is thick’ to denote that she doesn’t require much to nourish herself,” says Zerihun Gultie, Holt’s Ethiopia country director. “During the difficult seasons, the responsibility of women to prepare and feed family members is enormous. And many women go to bed on an empty stomach.”

Empowering Women Directly Addresses Hunger

The good news is that women have incredible potential to be a vital part of the solution to global hunger. In many places, they already are.

A recent report by international aid organization CARE looked specifically at the link between gender equality and food security.

“Women are critical members of society who play important roles in producing food, and getting it on the table,” the report states. “Their rights and their access to food are heavily intertwined. More than that, gender equality is highly connected to food security at a local, national, and global level. Simply put, as this research shows, the more gender inequality there is in a country, the hungrier people are.”

To put it more positively, the FAO has found that women’s agency is a crucial component of food security. Women’s empowerment is strongly correlated with a reduction in poverty and hunger. This is especially true in the lives of children, globally!

“When women and girls are educated we see a decrease in their and their children’s risk of malnutrition,” says Emily DeLacey, PhD, RDN, LDN, director of Holt’s nutrition and health services.

In fact, one study found that women’s education contributed to a 43% decrease in child malnutrition. In addition, even though women globally earn 77 cents for every dollar men earn, women invest 90% of their income back into their family. Men only invest 40%!

The World Bank found that for every year a girl remains in school, her average income rises by almost 12%. Women’s empowerment also has enormous benefits for a country’s economic development and prosperity.

Why We Emphasize Women

This is why we focus on female empowerment in so many of our programs. It is also why so many of Holt’s Gifts of Hope support women and girls! With the generous support of Holt sponsors and donors, our teams in the field are able to develop community savings groups in countries like Thailand and Uganda. They also deliver Gifts of Hope like livestock and gardening training to women and provide microgrants for female-run small businesses.

“In India, we engage women in workshops that teach them about good nutrition, hygiene, child development and provide them and their children a nutritious snack,” says Emily DeLacey. “This engagement with mothers provides them support that supports their whole family. Many report a sense of pride in their participation and that their husbands are also proud of their accomplishments and new skills and knowledge.”

Wherever we can, we identify areas to invest in women because we see and know just how fruitful it is.

“Because the causes of hunger are so complex, our programs in Ethiopia link nutrition, education and women’s economic empowerment to ensure families have the resources they need to provide for every member of their household,” says Malia Robello.

When women are equipped with the resources they need, they feed their children, families and communities!

Empower Women and Girls!

When you give a Gift of Hope like job skills training, a sewing machine or a school scholarship to a woman or girl living in poverty, you empower her to change her life forever — and transform her family and community!

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The post When Food is Scarce, Women Go Hungrier Than Men – Here’s Why appeared first on Holt International.

In the rural villages of Uganda where Holt sponsors and donors support children and families, 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 bettering themselves and supporting their families.

With a small initial investment from Holt donors, these groups of women then 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 longer than three years and experienced the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Without the savings and loan groups, many of their businesses would not have survived financially — and their families would have struggled to afford food and other basic necessities.

Learn more about Holt’s work in Uganda!

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The post Strengthening Families Through Financial Literacy Training in Uganda appeared first on Holt International.

Mukul, 47, is a single father living in New Delhi, India. He has been the sole provider for his daughter since his wife passed. His daughter was just 8 years old at the time. Mukul wants nothing more than to provide her with a stable home and future, but he’s had a hard time finding steady work. Facing an unemployment rate of about 9% in India’s cities, Mukul has found himself juggling low-paying jobs on and off.

Then in May 2022, Mukul and his daughter’s lives changed for the better when Mukul enrolled in a professional job skills training and placement program through a local Holt partner. The training is part of a larger effort to help strengthen families at risk of separation in some of Delhi’s most impoverished slum communities, and is supported by Holt sponsors and donors. Called the “KARE” program — short for “Kinship Care and Relational Engagement” — this family strengthening effort focuses on keeping children ages 5-15 out of institutional settings and in the care of their families. Many of them are led by single parents like Mukul. Other children live with extended family members in what is known as “kinship care.”  

In 2022, Holt’s partner in Delhi came to an important realization about how to achieve the mission of the KARE program. It was clear that if caregivers are economically disempowered, they have no option for survival and end up being dependent on others for their livelihood.

With that in mind, our partner assessed the job market in New Delhi and decided to launch an intensive job skills training program to help parents and other caregivers earn a more stable income. We decided to focus on one high-demand skill — professional housekeeping. In the city of New Delhi, thousands of families are in search of good and well-trained housekeepers, but there has been no structured investment to train housekeepers professionally. It remains the most disorganized industry so far.

In May, our partner launched a housekeeping training program that will take place over 40 working days and conclude in early July. It enrolled 30 women as well as two brave men, including Mukul. In a country where social tradition continues to assign specific roles and responsibilities based on gender, Mukul’s decision to learn housekeeping underscores his commitment and love for his daughter. He will do anything to give her a better life.

The inclusion of men in the program is a classic example of gender nonconformity, as men are not supposed to participate in household work in Indian society.

To provide hands-on experience to its participants, the program is conducted at a dedicated training center, with six workstations set up for food preparation and cooking, a “dummy” apartment set up to teach household management skills, and a classroom where participants learn English and other non-technical skills. The instructors include a chef from the hotel industry, a housekeeping trainer with more than 15 years of experience and a certified English teacher. With the support of Holt sponsors and donors, childcare and a meal are provided for younger children while their parents study.

In addition to the housekeeping training, our partner is teaching four grandmothers in the KARE program how to be daycare providers. The women are learning how to manage a daycare center, care for children and provide meals, activities and other essentials. With the income they earn, they can better care for their grandchildren, whom they are raising on their own.

Once the training period is over, the program intends to:

• Find housekeeping jobs for each caregiver. Ideally, the graduates will earn an average of about $250 (U.S.) per month.

• Help each participant set up a bank account where they can deposit their salary and put at least $20 a month into a government savings bond.

• Provide safe daycare options for its participants. While parents work, they will be able to bring their children to the home of one of the grandmothers enrolled in the daycare training program. Young children will spend a full day at daycare, while older kids will come after school. With the support of Holt sponsors and donors, children will receive two meals a day, some recreational activities and a safe place to study and rest. Each caregiver will contribute $20 a month to the cost of their child’s care, thus providing the grandmother with an income.

• Ensure that the men and women in the program are treated fairly — that they are not abused by their employers, have legal rights and a safe workplace environment.

For Mukul, the program holds the promise of a better life. Through professional training as a housekeeper, he hopes not only to find steady employment — but also to achieve the level of security he so desires for himself and his daughter. After the heartbreak of his past, the road ahead finally looks bright!

Learn more about Holt’s work in India!

See how sponsors and donors create a brighter, more hopeful future for children and families in India!

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The post Job Skills Training Empowers 36 Caregivers Through Holt Partner in India appeared first on Holt International.

Nutch and her family live on an abandoned palm plantation in southern Thailand. They couldn’t afford to buy or rent their own house, but their friend offered them this space that wasn’t being used. And they were so grateful — because money was tight. 

Nutch’s husband works as a delivery truck driver, making the equivalent of about $200 a month. Nutch stays home to care for their four children, who span in age from 16 years old to just 3 months. The three older children are in school, but Nutch and her husband struggled to afford their school fees.

One of their children’s teachers referred them to Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), Holt’s partner organization in Thailand. A social worker visited their home and got to know their family. And when she was there, she realized something … The abandoned palm plantation where they lived would be a great place for growing vegetables.

So this is exactly what they did.

They found the right space outside their house, and got to work — strategically planting vegetables that would grow for them throughout the year. Nutch’s garden took off.

Today, they have more than 15 types of vegetables: chili, turmeric, lemongrass, papaya, galangal, basic, morning glory and more. This garden has changed Nutch’s life.

“From growing vegetables, the family saved money and even built up a little savings,” says their HSF social worker. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, they had food sources around their home — a safe meal. They are self-reliant.”

The entire family gardens together, growing food for their daily meals. They sell their vegetables in the market, which is providing the critical extra income they need to provide all that their children need.

Nutch loves sharing their vegetables with friends in need — and is even teaching their neighbors to garden!

“Nutch has the volunteer spirit to help take care of friends in the community,” her family’s social worker says.

Nuch’s simple garden is changing her family’s life, and even changing her community.  

Nuch wanted to share her story in her own words, and wrote the following handwritten “Sawadeeka,” or “thank you,” note to the Holt donors who helped make her garden possible:

There are six people in our family. In 2021, we were able to  reduce expenses and increase income from growing vegetables. This is how we did it:

All our family members are involved in growing vegetables — from helping each other to plant to harvesting the food for meals. We all helped weed, water, pick vegetables and gathered leftover vegetables to sell in the community.

My children love nature, having fun and taking care of plants. They help with the work and have clear responsibilities for themselves. For example, the older ones put water in a watering can for the younger siblings to water the plants. They help with the weeding after school.

“Our family uses vegetable planting activities as a gathering point for members of the family. And the children eat all the vegetables they grow! “

Our family uses vegetable planting activities as a gathering point for members of the family. And the children eat all the vegetables they grow! The youngest son likes to eat lentils. Our house menu is mixed vegetable curry, as well as stir-fried bean sprouts that we grew ourselves.

Now, we save 500-700 baht per month because we no longer have to buy vegetables outside the house. And have extra income of 100-200 baht per month from selling vegetables.

Thank you very much for all the help you have given my family!

Thank you,

Nutch  

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