ChildVoice Blog
This past spring, ChildVoice’s Nigeria team hosted an intern, Luciana Chumacero, a recent postgraduate who recently completed her master’s degree in the UK and is passionate about helping victims of exploitation and human trafficking. This marks the first time ChildVoice has hosted an intern in Nigeria. Luciana spent a month working with staff members, focusing specifically on helping to improve our monitoring and evaluation methods, especially tracking long-term outcomes.
A crisis is unfolding right now in countries rocked by civil conflict and war. A growing number of war-affected and exploited youths desperately in need of hope and healing are being impacted by a massive reduction in global aid. As humanitarian organizations are forced to cut back or shut down altogether, our work is becoming more important than ever.
In July 2024, ChildVoice President Conrad Mandsager and ChildVoice Ukraine program coordinator Haylie Wright sat down with Darina, a 16-year-old Kokhana Krayina House of Youth volunteer, to discuss how the war has affected her and how learning to help war-affected children is in turn giving her hope. The following is an excerpt of Conrad’s interview with Darina.
A team from Lutheran Church of Hope in Des Moines, Iowa, visited the Lukome Center in Uganda in September. While there, they were able to get a glimpse of what life at the center is like for our students, including how they are healing and learning during their 20-month programs as well as how great the need is for our programs.
We’ve only just begun working with our partners in Ukraine to bring hope and healing to young people affected by the ongoing war in Ukraine and we are already beginning to hear encouraging words from some of them who have participated in volunteer-led House of Youth (HofY) summer camps designed to bring relief from the painful and traumatizing challenges they continue to face.
In response some of our Class 16 and Class 17 students wanted to offer messages of support for those here in the US who have been affected by Helene.
We are truly touched by the empathy and loving kindness these adolescent girls who have lost everything have chosen to express.
This past week has brought heartbreaking news from Nigeria and Ukraine, as violent conflict continues to rock civilian populations in both countries.
On September 1, approximately 150 militants belonging to Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP, a Boko Haram splinter group) attacked the village of Mafa in Yobe State in northeastern Nigeria. Riding motorcycles and armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades, they killed as many as 170 people and burned the village to the ground, although our sources on the ground say the number may be over 300.
The Labondo Local Integration Pilot Project is a community development initiative established by UNHCR in collaboration with the Adamawa State government. The idea is to create a safe environment for Nigerian IDPs that is free of the dangers of further violence or ongoing displacement. The challenge now is to give new residents the vital counseling and trade skills training services they need.