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HELPING CHILDREN WORLDWIDE MAGAZINE |HELPING CHILDREN WORLDWIDE MAGAZINE | 2024 IMPACT EDITION2024 IMPACT EDITION
EMPOWER
THETHE
WORLDWORLD
WEWE
WANTWANT
HCW ANNUAL REPORT
2023 IMPACTS AND FINANCIALS
COALITION FOR
FAMILY
IN SIERRA LEONE
FEATURING...
TRANSFORMATIONAL
PARTNERSHIPS IN GLOBAL HEALTH
HELPING CHILDREN WORLDWIDE MAGAZINE |HELPING CHILDREN WORLDWIDE MAGAZINE | 2024 IMPACT EDITION2024 IMPACT EDITION
EMPOWER
THETHE
WORLDWORLD
WEWE
WANTWANT
HCW ANNUAL REPORT
2023 IMPACTS AND FINANCIALS
COALITION FOR
FAMILY
IN SIERRA LEONE
FEATURING...
TRANSFORMATIONAL
PARTNERSHIPS IN GLOBAL HEALTH
Uncharted
Change is king at HCW. Every year, our Director
of Programs and Global Engagement asks for
God to give her a word to sum up the year
ahead. This year, that word was “uncharted.”
Boy, oh, boy, that was definitely the right word
for 2024, and it’s a good thing.
Uncharted means expecting something new all
the time. That is not great if you prefer a calm,
ordinary environment. But that isn’t us. We are
in the business of being world changers, and
ordinary never changed anything. Life is a
trapeze act, and you can’t get to the other side
by standing on the platform, clinging to the rope
you’re holding. You have to push off, let go and
reach for the swing that is coming toward you.
It’s disruptive, but every uncharted change
brought us exponentially closer to the goals we
set for ourselves. We have been catching a lot of
great swings. Some of those swings took us from
work in two country, to active alliances in more
than 30 countries, and collaborations convened
by HCW with dozens of other nonprofits to work
on big problems together. Check out the HCW
presents section to see where we’ve been and
what conversations we’ve started this year.
This magazine is about the difficult shift in our sector to balance
North-South participation. We’ve watched as other organizations
struggle with the realization that people in the Global North will
never get to live in the world we want to wake up in someday
if we don’t relinquish control and transfer power to people in
the Global South. The cover story is about the decision one
organization made to resign the field in order to make room for
progress. They decided the best way to accomplish their mission
was to let folks closer to the problem take over. I don’t disagree.
One core HCW mission anchor is advocacy for local ownership,
means embracing change,
trusting God and letting go of the
rope so you can catch the swing.
Executive Director’s Letter
2 | EMPOWER MAGAZINE 2024 IMPACT EDITION
and we are intentionally building the capacity
of local leaders so they can innovate, and lead
their community out of the poverty and crisis that
plagues their part of the world, at the great cost
of the lives of children.
We know the best practices are developed by
those who are closest to the problem. So we are
engaged in a multi-year listening campaign to
adjust our alliances in the Global South. We are
asking ourselves hard questions, and our friends
are doing the same. We are building ramps and
bridges we will need to get where we all want
to be. I don’t think it’s a matter of relinquishing
the wheel in our own car, or clearing the stage.
I think a rowboat is a better metaphor. It takes a
rower on each side, and one rower cannot be
stronger than the other, or the boat will just be
going in circles.
That’s poetic, but we have a practical plan. We
are in the process of letting go of prior notions
about our role, and we’re catching the swing.
We are convening and bringing the voices of the
experts together, and holding the space for the
voices of the local experts to take center stage in
conversations.
As we become conveners, collaborators and
conversationalists, we are using the strengths
we bring to the table better than we ever have
before. The results of this shift in power-dynamic
is just starting to take shape, but you will see it
reflected in our center section, the annual report
of impacts. It’s a good thing.
CONTENTS
EDITORIAL
PUBLISHER
Dr. Melody Curtiss, J.D.
CONTENT & RESEARCH
Dr. Laura Horvath, Ed. D.
Emmanuel M. Nabieu
Yasmine Vaughan
Dr. Melody Curtiss, J.D.
DESIGN & LAYOUT
Dr. Melody Curtiss, J.D.
PROOFREADING
Linda Reinhard
CONTRIBUTORS
David T. Musa
Interns:
Jessie Zhu
Kathleen Pfohl
Tanatswa Sambana
Mr. Rick Auman
Dr. Alan Larson, Ph.D.
Mr. Frank Conteh
Dr. Carol McIntosh, MD
Internship - Investing in and
trusting young people - 4
Investments in Multinational
Training - by David Musa - 7
The World We Want - by
Yasmine Vaughan- 16
Annual Report [2023]
When We Change - 19
Teachers Learning
Collaborative - by Dr. Laura
Horvath - 25
Engage in Change -27
Transformational Partnership
in Global Health - 32
Sierra Leone Coalition for
Family Care - 36
Strengthening and empowering
families and communities.
We operate through partnerships with people and organizations interested in
finding solutions to the fundamental causes of child poverty and morbidity.
Executive Director
Melody Curtiss, Esq.
3
www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org |
We would like to introduce you to the most recent interns
at HCW pursing post-graduate degrees. 2024 post-
graduate internships included travel to Sierra Leone,
management of a global conference and workshop in
Africa, hosting two Optimistic Voices podcast episodes
with medical professionals in an international context,
preparing and presenting a major report on training
outcomes, and developing curriculum for use in low
resource and low literacy environments. Our 2023
Global Health intern managed logistics and generally
helped coordinate HCW Rising Tides 2023 where
participants presented and discussed their challenges
and efforts to maintain continuity of care in resource
poor Global South health systems. Immediately
following the conference,“T” was hired by a member
of the network they helped bring together.
“In my second year of graduate school, I
realized that all the research I had been doing
was highly theoretical, which made me want to
find an internship that would allow me to gain
practical experience in this field.”
- Jessie Zhu
I
nterning with Helping Children Worldwide means you will be
involved in world-changing projects, and you will be assigned
primary responsibility for at least one project that will lead you into
the career you are pursuing with real-world exposure, experience in
management, and insight into the way modern nonprofits operate.
HCW is committed to supporting young adults as they pursue
knowledge in humanitarian aid fields, and we are excited to share
that young people are increasingly getting involved in humanitarian
work. Millennials are the most charitable age group in the US today,
and Generation Z is highly motivated by a desire to help others and
make a difference in the world. A recent Forbes magazine article
states “Millennials and Gen-Z are reshaping philanthropy and
ushering in a new era of giving. A report by payment app Zelle found
that nearly 75% of Millennials provided financial support to family,
friends or nonprofits since the Covid-19 pandemic began — the
highest rate among any generation polled.” They are intensely aware
of the challenges facing their generation, such as climate change,
poverty, and conflict. A Case Foundation study of “data and analysis
created by a decade of study, actions, trends and behaviors have led
to a general framework for understanding younger (1980 – 2000)
constituents. Based on careful review of the data from the decade-
long project, including data on the behaviors and preferences of more
than 150,000 millennials, Case has identified 10 traits characterizing
young people’s approaches to cause engagement:
1. see all of their assets as equal,
2. are everyday changemakers
3. believe in the power of activism
4. care about social issues rather than institutions
5. care about using their collective voice
6. care about supporting others and the greater good more
than ineffective partisan politicking
7. engage through a range of sectors and industries,
8. by employing innovative approaches,
9. and through actions both big and small
10. are largely influenced by their peers
4 | EMPOWER MAGAZINE 2024 IMPACT EDITION
A DIFFERENT KIND OF
INTERNSHIP:
Helping Children Worldwide
5
www.helpingchildrenworldwide.org |
Continued on page 10 Continued on page 10
Jessie Zhu from Beijing, China, interned as she completed
her Master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia
University, in developmental psychology. She had previously
completed a double Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology and
economics. Jessie’s research interests include studying parent-child
relationships and understanding the effects of poverty on children’s
education and developmental outcomes.
“I am keenly aware of the impact economic constraints have on
children. Childhood is a crucial period for rapid brain and body
development. Unfortunately, many children who grow up in poverty
experience maltreatment and lack access to high-quality medical
care and education. This motivated me to pursue further education
in developmental psychology, hoping
to provide the support these children
need.”
Jessie designed curriculum for parents
in low literacy environments, completing
a design module to be deployed in
the Firmly Rooted Family Series. She is
passionate about continuing her work
in this field in the future, and interested
in pursuing a Doctoral Degree in the
subject matter of her internship.
Helping Children Worldwide internships have evolved along with our
philosophy changes about nature of empowerment and its impacts.
About them
Kathleen Pfohl was the maternal
Health mission intern with Helping
Children Worldwide, pursuing a
Masters degree in Global Health
Policy at the George Washington
University Milken Institute School of Public Health in
Washington, DC. Through her internship program she was
able to build upon her academic foundation in international
conflict analysis and resolution, for which she obtained a
bachelor’s degree from George Mason University with
real world experience in managing diverse training team
members and their logistics in a low-resource foreign country.
she participated in the conference and training design, and
related research and reporting on conference outcomes. As
a full time manager of training coordination with the National
Coalition of STD directors, she is actively involved in advancing
public health initiatives. Her professional passion lies in
addressing global health challenges, particularly in low and
middle-income countries and conflict settings, with a special
focus on reproductive and maternal health. Read more about
Kathleen’s internship adventures on page 32 and listen to the
podcast episodes she hosted while in Sierra Leone in January
at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1997407/14595398.
6 | EMPOWER MAGAZINE 2024 IMPACT EDITION