From AMECEA Social Communications:

"A Regional Portrait of Catholic Care for Children in Eastern Africa was officially launched on Tuesday, May 16 and it is designated as the first significant study of its kind that describes Catholic-sponsored care for children in the region using data collected from Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, and Zambia.

The launch served as a watershed moment for the three-day Catholic Care for Children International Conference, which was organized to discuss child protection and safeguarding and ways to fortify families for better child care from the perspective of the Catholic church’s consortium and its partners.

In a speech preceding the actual launch, Sr. Niluka Perera, RGS, CCCI Coordinator of the Union of International Superiors General (UISG) in Rome, said, 'We women religious are at the forefront of taking care of children and therefore UISG felt the need to take up the area of care of children by the women religious as one of their main responsibility.'"

​Download and read the report here. 

From May 16-18, 2023, UISG Catholic Care for Children International and GHR convened episcopal leaders, government representatives and Catholic sisters from east Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. Highlights from the convening from Global Sisters Report:

"Catholic Care for Children International's mission is to support institutes of consecrated life ministering on child care to read the signs of the times, reduce the need for care in institutions, prevent family separation, and provide alternatives to enable children to grow up in a safe and loving family environment.

Religious sisters in four African nations — Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and Kenya — have been at the forefront of this effort.

Sr. Niluka Perera, the coordinator of Catholic Care for Children International, said the gathering has brought together episcopal leaders, government representatives, Catholic sisters, advocacy groups and policymakers from East Africa to "reflect upon and discern the Catholic Church's growing commitment to ensure all children are safe."

'We have converged here as stakeholders because we realized that the work of taking care of children is the responsibility of everyone,' Perera told Global Sisters Report in an interview at Boma Hotel in Nairobi. 'All the children belong to God. Therefore, everyone from parents, relatives, society, the church and the government is responsible for caring for them. Once children are born, they become our responsibility to bring them up in a loving environment.'

Perera, a member of the Congregation of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, applauded the efforts by the sisters from the East African region for the past few years since the Catholic Care for Children initiative launched in the region and urged other stakeholders to join the sisters and ensure every child grows up in a nurturing family environment. A Sri Lankan nun who is also a social worker, Perera said the initiative had decided to change the strategy and involve other stakeholders, including government representatives, civil society organizations, the community and parents, to ensure more children are placed in families instead of institutions.

'CCCI realized that the sisters were working alone and decided to bring other stakeholders so that sisters could share with them their ideas, experiences and challenges of bringing up children in a safe environment," said Perera, who was appointed by Pope Francis to the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors in September 2022. "We also wanted to bring together sisters from various congregations and countries under one roof to exchange ideas and improve their pursuit of bringing up children in a loving environment.'

Kathleen Mahoney, a program officer of GHR Foundation, applauded the sisters from the four African countries for reintegrating nearly 4,000 children since 2019 from more than 70 charitable institutions. GHR provides funding in the four African countries for the training of sisters in social work, case management and child care programs and assisting in the transition from institutional to family care. (GHR Foundation and the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation also fund Global Sisters Report.)"

Read more. 

From the Association for Catholic Information in Africa: 

"The moral requirement to safeguard children is not new, the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors has said. In his Tuesday, May 16 address at the convention of stakeholders of the Catholic Care for Children International (CCCI) in the region of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa (AMECEA) in Nairobi, Fr. Andrew Small also cautioned against the tendency to point fingers at others as perpetrators of child abuse.

'It was always wrong to abuse children; this is not a new moral requirement,' Fr. Small said. 

He added, 'The Ministry of Service, Ministry of Safeguarding is a core mission to respect and protect the dignity of human persons and proclaim the truth of God's love for us.'"

Read more.

From Association for Catholic Information in Africa: 

"'The Church is called upon to ensure all children are well taken care of and are exploiting their full potential,' Archbishop Kivuva said during the CCCI event that has been realized by the collaboration of the Association of Religious Sisters in Kenya (AOSK), Gerald and Henrietta Rauenhorst (GHR)  Foundation, and AMECEA.'"

Read more. 

Catholic sisters are champions of care reform. Working with governmental, civic, and church leaders, and within their local communities, they are leading efforts to transition from institutional care toward family- and community-based care. Their leadership, service and spiritual witness have advanced the common good through a profound commitment to working on behalf of the vulnerable and marginalized. 

From May 16-18, 2023, UISG Catholic Care for Children International and GHR are convening episcopal leaders, government representatives and Catholic sisters from east Africa in Nairobi, Kenya. The convening marks the launch of a collaborative effort between Catholic Care for Children International (CCCI), the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA), and GHR Foundation on the regional portrait, a first-of-its-kind foundational study on Catholic care. Focused on east Africa, the regional portrait offers data and information on care reform and the significant shifts and progress led by Catholic sisters in the region. It promises to have a significant impact on the sector writ large.

Download and read the regional portrait here.

Via our Global domain, GHR supports Catholic sisters and other key faith actors who are championing care reform. Learn more about our work here. 

UISG Catholic Care for Children International and GHR will host a convening in Nairobi, Kenya, from May 16-18, 2023, entitled "Reading the Signs of the Times Together: Catholic Care for Children.” This gathering will bring together episcopal leaders, government representatives and Catholic sisters from east Africa to reflect upon and discern the Catholic church’s growing commitment to ensure all children are safe. The centerpiece of the convening will be Catholic Care for Children, a sister-led, charism-driven movement to see that all children can grow up in safe, nurturing families. This will offer an opportunity to consider and collectively reflect upon the progress made in advancing family-based care, and the implications of national legal frameworks and policies in east Africa that now favor family-based care over institutionalization.
 
Grounded in GHR’s Catholic roots, with deepening appreciation for the role of faith in animating and shaping care, GHR partners with Catholic sisters—women whose leadership, service and spiritual witness have advanced the common good through a profound commitment to working on behalf of the vulnerable and marginalized. With the support of the Rome-based International Union of Superiors General and national associations of women religious, Catholic sisters are emerging as champions of care reform. Working with governmental, civic, and church leaders, and within their local communities, they are leading efforts to transition from institutional care toward family- and community-based care. 

From L to R: Yende Anderson, Pa Lor, Tarra McNally

As we strive to deepen the impact of Global programs, and build capacity to best to support our partners, we are thrilled to welcome some exceptional talent to the newly expanded GHR Global team.

Yende Anderson, Program Officer, joins us from the Minnesota Department of Health. She has a background in state and national policy, stakeholder engagement, program design and implementation, aimed at integrating immigrant international medical graduates into Minnesota’s healthcare delivery system and other strategies to increase access to primary care. She has also designed health programming for women in West Africa and her home country of Liberia. 

Pa Lor, Program Associate, joins us from Habitat for Humanity, where she oversaw operations for the Homeowner Development Team. She has a background in administration, planning, data management, and client service. Pa will operate as the central coordinator and grants administrator for the GHR Global team.

Tarra McNally, Program Officer, joins us from the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture. She has a background in research and community-centered program design and evaluation with a focus on global public health and faith, and experience working in Catholic and international spaces. She was a member of the external team that evaluated GHR’s Inter-religious Action initiative.

​As a signatory of the Joint Statement on the Forcible Transfer, Deportation, and Adoption of Children from Ukraine by Russia, GHR joins several of our partners and others in the care sector in condemning the forcible transfer, deportation and adoption of children from Ukraine, resulting in permanently separating children from their families, communities and culture.

We call upon the Russian authorities, including Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, to immediately cease these practices. Urgent efforts must be made to ensure these children are reunited with their families and can be raised by their own relatives in their own culture and communities, speaking their own language.

Read the full statement here.

GHR partner Catholic Care for Children International (CCCI) has launched a new website that will enable sisters and religious institutes to easily share resources with each other, the public, and the variety of organizations involved in the global care movement.
More from CCCI:

"Catholic Care for Children International (CCCI) has launched its first website, reflecting the deep commitment of Catholic Sisters worldwide to transforming the care of children. The commitment is rooted in the Gospel imperative to care for the most vulnerable and in Catholic social teaching, especially the dignity of the person.

​It is informed by the latest research in the social sciences and is aligned with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recognizes a child’s right to grow up in a nurturing family environment. "

Download the full press release here.

In late November 2022, Catholic sisters representing Catholic Care for Children in six countries will gather in Rome to further their efforts to see all children growing up in safe, nurturing families.  

From Global Sisters Report: 

“Millions of children worldwide live in institutions. Catholic Care for Children (CCCI) officials say 80 percent of them have a parent or close relative, but are placed there because of poverty.
‘No child should live in an institution because the family is poor or overwhelmed by the difficulty of accessing basic health services, social protection, or education for their child,”' says Sister Niluka Perera, CCCI coordinator.  Perera made comments in a statement announcing CCCI's new website, adding that the site will enable sisters and religious institutes to easily share resources with each other, the public, and the variety of organizations involved in the global care movement. 

According to the website, the initiative involves 116 communities of women religious who have already transitioned 2544 children living in institutions to family or family-like environments."

Read more on GHR partner Catholic Care for Children International, a global initiative to reform the way women and men religious care for children who are outside of family care. 

Through our Children in Families (CIF) initiative, GHR supports Catholic sisters and other key faith actors who are championing care reform. Learn more about our work.