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.

Sonith was just 4 years old when he started preschool in his small village in Cambodia. His family’s rice harvest only lasted half the year. During the other six months, they went without enough food…

Sonith felt the effects. He was tired, frail and often sick. But everything changed when Holt donors like you stepped in. Because of your support, Sonith began attending a Holt-supported preschool — a place where he could eat, learn and grow.

When he first arrived at school, he barely spoke. He kept to himself, missed days often, and his teachers worried. But slowly, things began to change.

To monitor his health and growth, Sonith received regular health checkups. He also received daily meals consisting of noodles, curry, porridge, fresh fruits and veggies. With each meal, he grew stronger and healthier.

Today, he’s thriving. He sings, plays games and even learned to play the trombone and flute. Sonith is now 5 and in first grade. He washes his hands before meals, brushes his teeth every night and attends school each day.

Once quiet and withdrawn, Sonith is now a confident and bright little boy!

Because of you, Sonith has the energy to learn, grow and chase his dreams.

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Growing up in Vietnam, Thoa rose every morning at 4 a.m. to open her family’s noodle shop. Still dark outside, she would ride her bicycle to the market to buy vegetables and then work until it was time to go to school.

Even on cold, rainy mornings, she woke up before dawn — and summoned her two younger siblings from where they slept to help prepare the shop for breakfast. They were especially sleepy on cold winter mornings.

“The whole time growing up, I did not understand why I could not sleep every night,” shares Thoa, now a petite mother of two in her 50s with neat shoulder-length hair and a warm and gentle but hardworking nature.

Thoa’s sister later told her that they couldn’t sleep because they were cold — they couldn’t afford warm blankets.

Once Thoa graduated college and began to earn money, she bought high-quality blankets imported from Japan for her mom and siblings.  “The first thing I did when I made money was to buy good blankets for everyone,” she says.

Thoa has lived in the U.S. with her family since 2008 — and now serves as Holt’s senior advisor for international programs — but her childhood in post-war Vietnam is never far from her mind. She was one of seven children — nine including two siblings who both died of malaria within five days of each other.

Her family lived a relatively comfortable life near Danang, in central Vietnam. But when her father died suddenly of a stroke, her mother struggled to run his business and care for her children on her own.

Thoa was 7. Her mother was pregnant with her youngest sister at the time.

Slowly, they used up all the resources her father had left them, and Thoa watched as her family’s possessions began to disappear from their home. The black and white TV. The nice speakers from Japan. The refrigerator.

To provide for her seven children, her mom was forced to sell their belongings.

But Thoa’s mom was smart, resourceful and determined.  She decided to open a shop selling homemade breakfast noodles — a business that she knew how to run, and that she could manage while caring for Thoa and her siblings.  But with no savings and no collateral, she was forced to take out a loan at 20% interest per month — or, as Thoa calls it, a “shark loan.”

Loan sharks prey on people living in poverty, offering money they desperately need to start a business or just to buy food for their family — and then harass them for payment, aggressively demanding they give up the daily wages that are often all they have to live on. 

“It gets people into deep poverty, and they cannot really get out,” Thoa says. “They tear families apart … I think that’s when I started to have the realization of what poverty really means.”

Looking back, more than 40 years later, Thoa gets emotional thinking of that time in her life — and of what her mom had to go through to provide for her and her siblings. 

“It’s hard, as children growing up and seeing… loan sharks getting into your home every day and then yelling and screaming at your mother, demanding payment,” she says, trailing off as tears well up in her eyes. “That’s why I really believe in what Holt is doing — because it does help a lot of people.”

But it’s not just what Holt is doing. It’s what Holt sponsors and donors are doing with their heartfelt gifts to help families earn income — and overcome poverty — in countries around the world.

Donor-Funded Microloans: A Viable Path From Poverty

In the countries where Holt works — from Ethiopia and Uganda to Cambodia, India and Vietnam — many parents feel helpless to support their children when jobs are scarce and stable work requires specialized skills or higher education that’s often inaccessible to families living in poverty.

Households headed by single parents — especially single mothers — are often the most vulnerable.

In some countries, such as Korea and the Philippines, Holt sponsors and donors help provide job skills training to single mothers facing stigma and discrimination. In most cases, Holt empowers women like Thoa’s mom — women who suddenly find themselves the sole providers for their children after their husband dies or leaves the family.

Sometimes it’s the gift of a sewing machine from Holt’s Gifts of Hope catalog that comes with small business training so a mother learns how to sew and sell clothing for profit. It may be gardening tools so a family can grow vegetables to eat, selling the surplus in a nearby marketplace. Or the gift of a goat, chickens or a cow — providing abundant milk and eggs for a family.

But quite often, it’s a small business microgrant or zero-interest loan that empowers a mother to start her own unique business — one that meets a need in her community and that provides enough stable and reliable income for her to provide for herself and her children.

The predatory lending practices to which Thoa’s mom fell prey are now banned in the U.S., but they are still rampant in developing countries around the world.

Had her mom had access to a zero-interest microloan to start her noodle shop, Thoa says she never would have endured abuse and harassment from loan sharks. Like the women in Holt microloan programs today, she would have saved all the money she earned to support her children — instead of falling deeper into debt.

“There was nothing like that — there was no Holt, for example, offering microloans at that time,” Thoa says.

Holt’s first income-generating program actually began in Vietnam, just before the end of the war in 1975. Like today, Holt supported care centers for children who had been orphaned or whose families couldn’t care for them. But our team in country soon recognized that in many cases, struggling families could in fact care for their children — given the support and resources they needed.

“They were seeing a lot of birth parents coming in saying they wanted to relinquish their child,” explains John Williams, who helped develop Holt’s first income-generating program in Vietnam and later served as Holt president and CEO. “If given an alternative to consider keeping their family together, that’s what they were looking for. They just were under so much stress — their child was suffering from malnutrition, health issues, etc.”

But when Holt offered help to support their child and keep their family together, they no longer wanted to relinquish their children. Within a few months, Holt’s first income-generating program was thriving.

“It was much like many of [Holt’s] family strengthening programs today,” John says. “The role of social workers and case workers was to determine what the interests, abilities and skills of the family were. … It was all about finding out what the interests of the community or village were and helping them develop that interest into an income-generating program that created independence, not dependency.”

Like today, families started small businesses like sewing or tailoring, or raised animals like ducks or chickens to provide sustainable food and income. The goal was to help each family get on their feet and provide for their children, keeping the family together.

“It was the first time that Holt began to broaden its services to children with a list of priorities — preserve the birth family, domestic adoption, international adoption …with no one being better than the other,” John says, describing the model of service that Holt has long ascribed to, and later advocated for when we sent delegates to help draft the Hague Convention on the Rights of the Child. “It’s based on the best interest of the child.”

But as the war ended, Holt left the country — and didn’t return until they could safely reestablish programs and fully serve children and families again, in 1989.

Thoa didn’t start working for Holt Vietnam until nine years later, in 1998. She later traveled to the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship to earn a master’s degree in social work, and then began working with children and families living in other countries where Holt works — particularly in South and Southeast Asia. 

What she saw when she first traveled to these regions reminded her of what she’d seen growing up in Vietnam after the war — extreme poverty, and predators looking to exploit people in desperate situations.

“When I travel to Cambodia, India, and I see signs saying, ‘Hey, if you need loans, quick loans, call this number’ … that’s exactly how the poor people get into the trap … That’s why I really love the models of grants or microloans, or the self-help groups that we have in Cambodia,” Thoa says, referring to a model Holt developed in Cambodia where families collectively save their money and then provide low-interest loans to group members so they can start or grow small businesses.

After developing microloan programs in Cambodia and Vietnam, Thoa encouraged Holt’s partners in India to replicate the model.

“I said, ‘We don’t have the income-generating program in this country, but I see you have a lot of advertising for loans for poor people … and let me share with you what happens when these poor people keep tapping into that money,’” Thoa says she shared with Hepzibah Sharmila, who leads our partner organization, VCT, in Bangalore. Thoa traveled with Sharmila to Vietnam and other countries to show her how Holt’s income-generating model works — and to introduce her to families that had successfully graduated from the program.

“When we give them $200, $300, then that helps the mother start a small business and achieve financial independence. And from there, they can provide for the basic needs of their children,” Thoa says. “But if they don’t have these opportunities, they would go to the loan sharks. And they could never get out. Their children could never get out, and they could never escape poverty.”

Driven to Live a Different Life

Deep in debt to loan sharks, with seven children to support, Thoa’s mom continued to struggle well into Thoa’s teen years. She was so exhausted that she often fell asleep on the floor of their home.

“It was so tiring, you know, to raise seven different children all by yourself … All the children were so small and young and everybody needed education. Everybody needed food,” Thoa says.

But like so many hardworking mothers and fathers and grandparents in Holt programs today, Thoa’s mom could still hardly afford to feed her children.   

One time, when Thoa was sick, her mom was able to purchase a small portion of meat that she guarded from her other children — giving it to Thoa so that she could regain her strength.

“My mom pointed to it and said, ‘Hey, this is just for you because you’re sick’ and nobody should touch that because I needed nutrition … Like a small portion of meat. And I was the only one who could have that meat,” Thoa says.

Thoa’s older siblings gave up on the dream of further education. But from a young age, Thoa knew that completing her education was more than just a dream. It was her way out.

When Thoa’s mom opened the noodle shop, Thoa was by her mom’s side — opening and closing and running the business every day.

“I worked very hard to help her, just because I love her so much and I understood, you know, how it was,” she says.

But every night, when she finally finished food and business prep around 9-10 p.m., Thoa shifted her focus — studying until midnight or the early hours of the morning.  “I really had this drive … I had to get out … I just could not foresee the rest of my life being like this,” she says. “So I studied very hard.”

When Thoa passed the university entrance exams, news spread quickly.

“The neighbors were so proud because it was very rare to see a kid [from our community] pass the university exam,” Thoa says. “We were so poor.”

No one felt more pride than Thoa’s mom. “I was excited. She was so proud,” Thoa says.

But Thoa also knew that her mom couldn’t afford the tuition. “I said, ‘Hey, you know, you already have so many burdens. I don’t want another burden on you. I will not go to university,” she told her, promising instead to find a job to help support her family.  

But then her mom said something that surprised her.

“She said that all her life she did not have a chance for education and that’s why her life is hard,” Thoa says of her mother, who never finished elementary school. “She believed education could give me a different life.” As Thoa was the first child in the family to pass the university entrance exam, her mom was determined to give her that opportunity.

 “Whatever I have to do, I will send you to university,” she told Thoa.

So she raised chickens. She ran the noodle shop. She sold some more of her belongings. And she asked her extended family for help. Some contributed small amounts as gifts. Others loaned her the money. Eventually, she cobbled together the tuition for Thoa’s first semester.

Like always, Thoa worked incredibly hard in school and was always the top one or two in her class. She earned scholarships from her grades. A good singer, she performed on stage for the university to get some additional scholarships.  And she worked any job she could find to pay for her degree and support her family. She promoted shampoos for Proctor & Gamble. She provided English tutoring. And she continued helping her mom in the noodle shop. Some of her professors learned about her situation and they offered her an opportunity to teach evening classes as well as a part-time job at the university. 

“Basically, what I did was I did everything on Earth,” she says.

But she saved everything she earned to support her education, and to support her mother and her family.

Later, once she graduated, she helped her mom get out of debt, and buy back all the appliances and furniture she had sold to support her and her siblings. She even helped her mom pay for her two younger siblings go to university, too. “Both are quite successful now in their lives,” Thoa says of her younger siblings. One went into economics, the other studied English.

Thoa says the mindset of helping your family and community is deeply rooted in her culture, as it is in many of the cultures and communities where Holt works around the world. “We don’t want to leave anyone behind,” Thoa says — offering Holt’s university program in Cambodia as an example. Through this program, donors provide full scholarships for high-performing students from impoverished backgrounds to attend university. 

Through our partner KBF in the Philippines, Holt also empowers youth aging out of orphanages to gain independent living skills and go to college. After they complete their degrees and begin earning money, they often go back and help their siblings. Many even return to their communities to volunteer or even work as social workers or teachers.

“Many graduates become self-reliant and just want to give back what they have received through the program by mentoring, sponsoring or working in NGOs,” Thoa explains.

It’s the same motivation that drew Thoa to a humanitarian career devoted to helping children and families escape a life of poverty and desperation.

“I understand their struggles,” she says. “I understand what they’re going through … I just want every one of them to get out and have a better life.”

Looking back on her own life story — and on the many lives transformed through Holt programs around the world — Thoa says she profoundly believes in two of Holt’s donor-funded programs in particular to help children and families lift themselves a life of poverty: educational sponsorship, and programs that empower families to generate income.  

“To see these women who started to make money after they set up their shops, and then say, ‘Hey, I make good money’ … That’s how far small amounts of money can go when it goes to the right people in the right way at the right time. It changes people’s lives in a way that we cannot even imagine,” she says. “And we know they can now provide for their children’s medical, nutritional and educational needs.”

Thoa is especially thankful for the small donations she received from family members so that she could go to college — small donations that she compares to the microgrants Holt donors provide families in need today.

“[If not for those donations], I probably would have ended up quitting and become one of the sellers in the street like everybody else,” she says.

It All Traces Back to Her

Thoa’s mother passed away several years ago. But long before she passed, Thoa wrote her a letter. She had just left Vietnam and she wrote from the airplane, en route to her new life working for Holt in the U.S.

“’I just want you to know that without you and the sacrifice back in the day, there’s no way I could be where I am today,’” Thoa says she wrote. “I really wanted her to know that I knew it was a tremendous amount of sacrifice and undertaking and I wanted her to know that I was very grateful.”

Years later, at her daughter’s college graduation, Thoa again thought of her mother and the sacrifice she made. “I thought, ‘This is so profound. … At one point, I wanted to give up on my education because of thinking there was not enough money … And now, another generation of women — my daughter — can finish their college education. And it all traces back to her.”

Still today, Thoa always thinks of her mom whenever she visits families who have benefited from Holt’s income-generating programs — especially the single and widowed mothers who are caring for children on their own. 

“We visited this woman who was 76 years old, a grandma who was part of the income-generating program … I looked at her,” Thoa shares, “and I felt like, that’s my mother. And all these grandmothers and these mothers around the world who are struggling every day, but who are trying their best — every day — to provide for the basic needs of their children. They all hope and work hard for a better life for their children.”

Help a Mom in Cambodia Build a Brighter Future

With programs at risk, your gift of chickens, a garden or a sewing machine could be the only opportunity a mom has to lift her family out of poverty.

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The post Why I Believe in Holt 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.

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.

With a family of five and one income, each day brought struggle. Grandma Samnang, her daughter Dara and three grandchildren lived under one roof. There were many mouths to feed.

At 72, Grandma Samnang could not work. Her daughter, Dara, was a widow and the sole income earner for the family. Her job as a waitress brought home $50/month to go towards the family’s needs. But despite her hard work, Dara’s meager salary meant the family scraped by. They often sacrificed meals to continue paying rent.

But they quickly fell two to three months behind on rent. And the children still didn’t have enough to eat. Grandma Samnang knew they needed a miracle.

After hearing about Holt Cambodia, Grandma Samnang sought help. And because of your gifts to provide emergency food to families in need, the miracle they needed came through!

Grandma Samnang and her family received emergency rations, including rice, fish sauce, soy sauce, dried fish, duck eggs, cooking oil and milk. For the first time, there was enough food for the household!

Because of your Gifts of Hope donations, the children have grown healthier and have the energy they need to focus at school. And they’re earning good grades! Dara also found a new job that pays $200/month plus tips!

The family is now out of debt and has a sustainable source of income for daily needs. Your support has lifted this family of five to their feet and given them hope for a better future.

Grandma Samnang shares, “I am deeply grateful to Holt Cambodia for making a positive difference [for] my family. I am so [over]joyed that [it] [cannot] be described by words!”

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The post Giving Malnourished Children a Future appeared first on Holt International.

Kunthong is a friendly little boy who lives with his parents, grandparents and older sister in Cambodia. His parents and grandparents are farmers and are able to grow enough rice and vegetables to feed the family. They also raise some animals.

But Kunthong’s parents did not have the extra funds needed to send him to preschool — until his Holt sponsors stepped in! Now, thanks to your support, Kunthong wakes up early each day and attends school from 7 a.m. to 10:30 am. While at school, Kunthong is learning to count up to 25 and write a few numerals, and he enjoys listening to the fairy tales his teacher reads to the class. He also loves to sing.

Kunthong is said to be a happy and smiling child, who gets along well with his classmates and shares his snacks with them. Outside of school, he and his friends like to play with toy cars and engage in imaginary games, where Kunthong pretends to be a police officer. He enjoys eating porridge and milk and rice with palm sugar. His favorite color is blue!

Kunthong is grateful to his sponsors for providing him with the support he needs to attend school. To thank them, he created this drawing of a beautiful landscape near his home!

Become a Child Sponsor

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The post Kunthong Goes to Preschool! 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.

From Cambodia to Thailand, Uganda to the Philippines and beyond, children in Holt sponsor and donor-supported programs experienced pure joy as they celebrated Christmas and the end of the year with gifts, delicious meals and festive fun. For those living in poverty or orphanages, these moments are especially precious — bringing joy and warmth where celebrations are often rare.

Every child deserves a chance to celebrate! Thank you for making these unforgettable Christmas and year-end celebrations and gifts possible for children around the world year after year.

Here’s what our partners around the world shared about the joy and impact of their celebrations, thanks to Holt sponsors and donors like you:

Celebrations in Cambodia

In Cambodia, the children’s year-end party was a celebration to remember! Children enjoyed balloon activities, singing and dancing, jumping in sacks and practicing numbers and letters. Delicious food and treats were shared with all who came. The festivities also included a time of community education focusing on child rights and safety, with books and other treasures given as prizes for Q&A sessions.

“We sincerely thank our sponsors for always making the end-of-year party possible for the children. Your support brings joy, hope and cherished memories to their lives every year. Your generosity truly makes a difference, and we are deeply grateful for your commitment to brightening their futures.”

— Holt Cambodia Staff

Christmas in Uganda

“It is always a joy for the children to receive Christmas card[s] from [their] sponsors. They feel how much they are loved. Children say that the cards contain inspiring messages. To most children, they read the messages over and over again throughout the year. Thank you so much, our beloved sponsors, for making this happen. May God richly bless and uphold you.”

— Holt Uganda Staff

Celebrations in Thailand

In Thailand, families were welcomed with an assortment of treats, including doughnuts, cupcakes, buns and milk. Children of all ages took part in a lively music show, spreading festive cheer, and enjoyed playing games. Gifts — including bicycles and scooters — were given to the children to add to the joy of the occasion. To conclude the end-of-year celebration, everyone gathered for a community meal, ending on a sweet note with ice cream and fresh fruits.

“The smiles on everyone’s faces were genuinely heartwarming. Thank you so much for your generous donations. Your support means everything to us and to the children, evidenced by their big smiles of happiness.”

— Holt Thailand Staff

Christmas in Colombia

“All the children had a great time and enjoyed sharing about their Christmas traditions. Thank you for your constant support and generosity. These children have the opportunity to learn, have positive experiences and enjoy great moments with their teachers and friends.”

— Holt Colombia Staff

Christmas in the Philippines

Christmas in the Philippines was filled with joy, special gifts, delicious food, laughter, singing and dancing. One exciting surprise for the children was a face painter who brought the day to life with vibrant colors! The day was truly special for the children, as shown by their big smiles.

“Your generosity plays a crucial role in shaping brighter futures for the children under our care, making a significant and lasting difference in their lives. From the bottom of our hearts, we extend our deepest gratitude for your kindness and generosity. Your thoughtful gifts and special meals bring not just joy but a profound sense of love and care to the children. These moments of surprise and delight remind them that they are cherished, valued, and never alone. 

With bright smiles and grateful hearts, the children say, ‘Thank you, dear donors!’ Your generosity creates lasting memories and gives them hope for a brighter future. In return, they offer something truly special — their prayers. They ask God to bless you and your families abundantly, to keep you safe, and to fill your lives with love and happiness, just as you have done for them.

Your kindness makes a difference far beyond what words can express. Thank you for being a source of light and warmth in their lives. May you always be blessed with joy, health and prosperity.”

— Holt Philippines Staff

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The post Bringing Joy to Every Corner appeared first on Holt International.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, 500 children living in Holt-supported child welfare centers celebrated Tết, thanks to Holt child sponsors and donors who gave gifts for Christmas and New Year holiday celebrations!  Tết Nguyen Dan, commonly referred to as “Tết,” is Vietnam’s most significant and traditional celebration, marking the arrival of the Lunar New Year. Tết is celebrated according to the Vietnamese Lunar Calendar, with the official holiday lasting around seven days.

It was a happy celebration, full of festive foods like bánh chưng (sticky rice cake) and kho (simmered caramel sauce dishes). The children enjoyed singing, dancing and playing games. And in the spirit of celebration, the child welfare centers were decorated with red banners and the vivid colors of kumquat trees and peach blossoms. It was a truly joyous occasion!

Cambodia

In late January, Her Excellency, the Deputy Provincial Governor of Battambang Province — who also serves as the Chairperson of the Provincial Women’s and Children’s Consultative Committee (WCCC) — visited our foster care program in Battambang. This was an honor for Holt’s team in Cambodia, as our programs have been highly recognized by the Cambodian government. Representatives from the Department of Social Affairs (DoSVY) and the District Governor of Sangke District of Battambang Province also visited.

Holt supports programs in four rural provinces of Cambodia, serving some of the country’s most vulnerable communities. Many families in Cambodia live in poverty, particularly in rural areas. With the pause in U.S. federal funding announced in late January, some of Holt’s programs in Cambodia have been directly affected — in particular our foster care, kinship care and family reunification program piloted in partnership with Save the Children. As USAID funding remains uncertain, donor support has become more crucial than ever in helping to ensure children can remain in nurturing foster or kinship families instead of orphanages, and children already living in orphanages can reunite with their birth families in Cambodia.

India

In the bustling city of Bangalore,  Vathsalya Charitable Trust (VCT) remains steadfast in its commitment to empowering the next generation in India.

With the support of Holt sponsors and donors, VCT provides a safe place for children of migrant workers to go during the day. The daycare is free for these families, providing children with a nourishing lunch and a critical early education while they gain the skills needed to transition to a more formal school setting. The migrant daycare program also helps prevent families from separating from one another due to the stresses of rural-to-urban migration.

India is home to 139 million internal migrants, including children. For children living in impoverished communities, VCT child development teams often provide support and guidance as they grow up — keeping them on track with their studies and helping them navigate the different challenges they face.

With donor support, VCT also holds special celebrations for children in the daycare program — children whose families can rarely afford anything extra like a party.  In January, the children celebrated India’s Republic Day with pride and creativity!

Philippines

Kaisahang Buhay Foundation (KBF), our partner agency in the Philippines, was invited by the National Authority for Child Care (NACC) to help develop a new foster care training curriculum. Holt helped found KBF as a local organization in 1976, and in the mid-1980s, KBF introduced a model of foster care that provides a more nurturing, one-on-one care alternative for children growing up in orphanages. Today, KBF is recognized as a leading child welfare organization and a cornerstone of alternative care for children growing up in care systems in the Philippines, providing guidance and insights on best care practices.

Ultimately, Holt and KBF’s goal for children in foster care is to reunite with their birth families or, if that is not an option, to join families through domestic or international adoption. Through family reunification efforts, in recent years, our staff in the Philippines have helped an average of 20 children rejoin their families every year. In some situations, birth families may lack the resources or ability to provide a safe home environment for their children. When this is the case, foster families continue to provide one-on-one care, attention and development that children need while Holt and KBF work to unite them with a permanent adoptive family. In collaboration with the NACC, KBF is providing ‘training for the trainers’ — i.e., empowering trained foster families to train new foster families, which furthers alternative care advocacy and ensures children receive the loving care and support they need.

China

It was a happy Lunar New Year in China! The celebration welcomes both the arrival of spring and the new year and is recognized as the most important holiday in China. Hundreds of millions of people travel within China to reunite with their families in their hometowns or to enjoy sightseeing and festivals. Lunar New Year is celebrated in many of the countries where Holt works — from Seollal in Korea to Tết in Vietnam — and worldwide, 2 billion people celebrate Lunar New Year each year.

In Holt child welfare centers in China, Lunar New Year was a happy occasion! The windows and doors were beautifully decorated with red paper cuttings and festive paintings. It was a lively celebration, filled with vibrant lanterns, firecrackers, delicious food, dancing and performances! Holt sponsors and donors made the occasion even more special by sharing gifts with the children in Holt programs to celebrate Lunar New Year. Thank you for making this a celebration to remember!

Become a Child Sponsor

Connect with a child. Provide for their needs. Share your heart for $43 per month.

sponsor now!

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