Stories

Angella never expected to become a widow, divorcée, and single mom to five children and four grandchildren, all within a few years. Her husband died in 2006, leaving her to raise three children on her own. She remarried in an effort to secure financial stability for her children and two new step daughters, but the new marriage quickly ended, leaving her alone, again. She knows first-hand how mental health can affect every aspect of one’s life.

How are you doing—really doing?

On World Children’s Day, we’re highlighting the need to start strong!

When Deborah was just 12 years old, she was kidnapped and held captive with a group of young girls for two months. By the time she escaped and returned home, the damage was done. Her harrowing ordeal haunted her into her teens and adulthood. Fearing social stigma, she told no one the truth about what had happened, except for her mother and sister. She had been a victim of human trafficking, but she didn’t feel like a survivor. She felt restless, fearful, and depressed. She isolated herself from friends and community. She couldn’t work—she could barely brush her own hair.

When Irene's husband left for Kenya to seek employment, Irene became a single mother solely responsible to provide for five children.

Ashrayan, a government-built project housing over 48 families, had no local water supply. Residents spent hours traversing a steep hill to collect unsafe water that made them sick. Ashrayan had no preschools and only one primary school a kilometre away. “Being far away from the [primary] school, we were not very interested in education. If we have that interest to involve our children with school, it’s quite tough to go to school regularly for our children by walking that distance from our house,” one mother shared.

How health education empowered a community to shed superstition and find true healing - for body and mind.

Good mental health is critical to the fight to end poverty - both here, and abroad! Elaine learned the hard way, but God was faithful to lift her up.

One... two… three… Rosa softly counts out her Guatemalan quetzales, her earnings for the day. Her small vegetable stand in the Rio Azul community is one of a kind. Instead of looking to make a fortune, Rosa is selling fresh, high quality cabbage, chard, and cauliflower at a reasonable price for Rio Azul community members to take home and feed their families. Around the community, she’s known for her delicious and yet inexpensive vegetables. And one thing is for certain–she’s not cutting back her prices out of naivety. It is a purposeful decision grounded in her care for the community and reflective of her trusting relationship with God.

It’s often said that the day a woman gives birth is the most dangerous day of her life. Sylvia Namakoye knows all too well the dangers of pregnancy and birth. Living in the rural village of Nabukhoma, Bukiende, Sylvia’s home was too far from the closest health centre to walk to her antenatal appointments.

“I thank FH for supporting my community, for the ideas they have shared with mothers, families, children, and young students and for the training developed with the leaders. They have been a great blessing for [the families] now they are putting into practice what they have learned.” — José

I feel it is necessary to contribute for the development of my community. In the past there was no opportunity [for women] to participate in leadership due to cultural issues, but thanks to FH training there has been a great change in the community and in the integration of leadership.

Josephine and Francois weren’t doing well. Even though they were happily married, it seemed like life’s problems were endless. There wasn’t enough money, there wasn’t enough food, and their three young kids seemed to always be sick and underweight. Even the land their garden was on didn’t belong to them—they were renting it for a monthly fee.

My family and I recently arrived in the Cape Town area of South Africa at the tale end of a severe three year drought. We quickly adopted new routines when it came to showering, washing dishes, brushing teeth, and flushing toilets (“If it’s yellow let it mellow; if it’s brown flush it down”). At first, our three-year-old daughter struggled perhaps more than my husband and me.

Shahida Yeasmin was an anomaly in Char Borobila. Instead of dropping out of school between the ages of seven and 10 like most other girls, she managed to stay in school, pass her exams, and actually graduate from secondary school! While her peers were working at home or being forced into early child marriage, Shahida was excelling in a predominately boys’ world.

elena, a 27 year old mom with two boys – Shawon (9) and Tamim (6) – shares how poor their family health used to be. Her sons were often sick and, to be totally honest, so were she and her husband. They didn’t have running water in their home or a proper toilet.

No one expected that Peg Peters—the five-year-old Peg Peters, kicking a soccer ball around with Ethiopian neighborhood kids and eating injera with his hands—would one day be raising millions of dollars of support for Ethiopia alongside thousands of volunteers through the Run for Water campaign.

Fuel-efficient stoves rescue moms and kids from toxic smoke rising out of wood-burning cook fires.