For the Children Sake Foundation celebrates 14 years

Jun 12, 2016 News

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by Jacquey Bourne
Linden’s only NGO which is community-based For The Children Sake Foundation, celebrated 14

years of existence last Wednesday with a week of activities.
It started with a Church service and ended with a concert and award presentation at the Linden Concert Hall and School (LICHAS) under the theme “Unity is Strength. When there is teamwork and collaboration wonderful things can be achieved.”
According to Executive Director, Vernon Todd, the Foundation decided to award some notable people during their anniversary celebrations because of their outstanding contribution to the Community and Region as a whole.
“We would just hold our anniversary but this year we decided to honour some people in eight categories who we believe have made sterling contributions to the Region in their field.”
Todd said that the Foundation was formed by Selwyn Glasgow and that the mantle was passed to him to lead. He said that it is the desire to give hope to children and families around the community by giving them the nourishment they need and by helping children with basic education.
The Executive Director said that some children who visit the centres have experienced the nightmare of neglect and abuse. Others are loved but are forced to work due to extreme poverty.
Still others come from homes with parents who are physically disabled or who make their

living by prostitution. He noted for many young girls, the care and education they receive at the feeding centres are the only things that stand between them and a similar fate.
“Children are the focus of our work and are important participants. We invite children to tell us about the problems they see in their communities and we help improve systems and structures to make their world a better and safer place to live.
“Sponsor a child is at the foundation of our work. On a long term basis it provides relationships with children and sponsors, a funding base that we leverage to secure from Linden Fund USA, Food For The Poor, Corporate gifts, resources from local businesses, one time donations and more.
“This variety of funding sources creates synergy and amazing transformation for the Children in the communities where we work.” Todd also noted that the children are the future of today and not tomorrow.
Community-based
Todd said that over the years Volunteers begin working in a community by asking a lot of questions and finding out what problems the community sees especially the children.
He noted that they address the root causes of poverty and injustice, designing integrated sustainable solutions and together they come up with a plan, decide on ways to evaluate and measure success and get to work.

He said the community is also involved, empowered and trained and its members take ownership in the programmes and progress.
“Every six to nine months we look at the original plan to assess and evaluate our success. If we are not meeting our goals we make adjustments and then keep working. When we work together we can draw on each other strengths making our work more sustainable. So we bring together local churches, businesses, community organizations and other non profitable organizations. “Our goal is that this network will keep looking out for the well being of children even after we transition out the community.” Todd outlined.
Todd said that as an organization they serve all people regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or creed and their hope is to reflect the unconditional and transformative love of Jesus in culturally appropriate ways.
“We love the way Jesus cared for the poor and oppressed and the way he showed us how to listen to children and look out for widows and orphans. Where possible we partner with churches and equip them to meet the needs of their communities.”
Accountability
According to Todd measuring the progress of their work is an essential part of their accountability to the communities they serve, their partners and their donors.
“We do a baseline survey before we begin work. We design each programme to measure our progress toward specific child well being indicators. After three to five months we remeasure those indicators to compare with the baseline.
All along the way we measure and share our results with community members so that they can be aware of the reported changes and validate them. The community also provides feedback through qualitative interviews and focus group discussions.”
Among the Awardees were Dr. Gregory Harris for Outstanding Contribution in Community Building in and around Region Ten, Vladimir Glasgow for Youth Development, Commander E Division Calvin Brutus received the Award for Civic Responsibility and Utamu Belle of Guyana Times and Jacquey Bourne of Kaieteur News copped the Journalism Award.
The other categories awarded were Outstanding Service to the Region, Award of Excellence, Leadership Award and Volunteer Service.

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