God's church together for children

by Paul Hobson

“Churches around the world all have their part to play in helping vulnerable kids, says Stephen Gaukroger.”

IT is perhaps not surprising that in some of the world’s poorest areas, the local church feels ill equipped to make a difference.

A lack of finance, expertise and, in many places, not being the country’s main religion, can combine to make the situation feel hopeless. 

‘The scale of the problem can be simply overwhelming for many,’ says the Revd. Stephen Gaukroger, a former president of the Baptist Union of Great Britain.  ‘They don’t feel they can do anything. They don’t know where to begin.’  

Stephen is the patron of the Oxford-based charity Viva, which works across the world to bring a Christian response to the needs of children at risk worldwide.  He recently returned from a visit to India and Nepal.  
Among his many tasks during this visit was to address pastors about the gospel imperative to get involved.  

‘I was trying to convince them that engagement with organisations that work with the vulnerable is a good thing. 

‘Of course they are aware of it in general terms, and many church leaders want to do something.  But they feel they don’t have the skill or finance, or they feel that it’s simply something for wider society because the problem is so large.  

‘However if they belong to something big enough to make a difference, it gives them confidence.  

‘Through Viva they feel like they can make a difference.’  

Partnerships are the key to Viva’s work.  Statistics show that there are more than 3 million registered charities worldwide. Viva brings together the work that is already going on.  

Its partnerships with citywide networks across the world link hundreds of churches, local governments and international organisations to combine professional training, local knowledge and access to funding. 

In India for instance, Viva has worked with 60 local churches and 55 projects to form the Asha Forum, which is aiming to get the issue of child sexual abuse onto the nation’s agenda.  If you are a child in India, you are more likely than a child anywhere else in the world to experience sexual abuse. 

Although there is some brilliant work being done to care for these children, it is mostly reactive: it focuses on reaching out to and rehabilitating those who have already been traumatised by sexual abuse.
The Asha Forum comes together to teach and implement child protection laws across the country, plan new activities and programmes to keep children safe, and raise awareness through local congregations and communities. 

‘There may be many charitable agencies in an area, and some are working with just three or four children,’ adds Stephen. ‘Viva’s role is to encourage them to work together, so they can be more effective.’
Other projects are maybe smaller in scale, but no less important. As well as witnessing the work with trafficked children, Stephen spoke at a graduation ceremony at a school run by a cluster of churches in a Delhi slum, in a Muslim neighbourhood. 

‘They lived in appalling conditions, among the worst I’ve seen, and I’ve been to a number of slums around the world.  Very close quarters, very unhygienic. It was a very unpleasant environment for a white middle class man like me. 

‘They were thrilled to be getting an education.  They recognised education is a way out of poverty. 

‘And this school provides education to all, regardless of faith background. It was very impressive.’ 

Amid this talk of partnership, there is an important role for UK churches, Stephen says.  Viva offers the opportunity to support its work with one of its networks (as well as India and Nepal there are networks in Bolivia, Uganda and Zimbabwe that are also part of the programme).  Churches who sign up have to pledge a certain amount of financial support – £1,800 a year, or £150 a month – as well as a commitment to pray individually and corporately for Viva’s work, engage with the issues and even visit. 

Martin Thomas, Viva’s global head of mobilisation, who travelled with Stephen in Nepal says, ‘Too often churches in the global South are positioned as poor and churches in the global North as rich, yet we have a joint need to learn from and support one another, working as one church together for children.’ 

Stephen says the support is vital – and not just in the financial sense.  To be thought of, to be prayed for, can make a huge difference to morale.
‘Some pastors have said to me they can feel so isolated, so beleaguered,’ he says.

‘They wonder if Christians have forgotten them.  That’s why the support is so important.’ 

And in return, there is the knowledge that churches are supporting projects that improve the lives of thousands of children. 

‘The brilliant thing for churches who partner with Viva is that they can be sure of its quality.  A whole network is working in collaboration – they are not competing.  In this way, you are linking with far more children. 

‘The church around the world has a part to play in helping children.  I think funding Viva’s work is a far more proactive, more strategic way of making a difference.’ 

(first published in The Baptist Times April 2011)