Recent updates from Holt-supported family strengthening and orphan care programs around the world!
China
Holt China’s project staff recently attended a training entitled “Protection of Minors and Professional Construction of Children’s Social Work.” This training covered the history and construction of China‘s protection system for minors. Project staff gained a deep understanding of the training contents and how they may apply it to projects they oversee.
Colombia
In Colombia, Holt works alongside local partner organization Bambi to help strengthen families at risk of separation. One way they help strengthen families is by helping them start a small business to generate income. Among the current group of families in this program, parents and caregivers have completed their entrepreneurship training and are now preparing to launch their micro-enterprises. Many of the participants at this stage have invested in bakery and confection professions.
Haiti
In recent months, we’ve seen a gradual return to school for children in four of the five schools in Haiti that Holt sponsors and donors support with nutrition and educational resources. Elementary-grade children have been receiving tutoring from three teachers at the school until all schools reopen. Attendance is low at the reopened schools due to the fuel shortage and low access to transportation. However, children are gradually returning to class and the schools are starting to welcome their full numbers back to classrooms.
The Philippines
Kaisahang Buhay Foundation (KBF), Holt’s partner organization in the Philippines, has been busy distributing school supplies to 637 children and other school needs to 436 students in Holt’s educational sponsorship program. KBF also held a parenting training session on stress management for 234 parents, and conducted field visits to distribute food to children and monitor the Supplemental Feeding Services (SFS) — a program that aims to improve the nutrition in a child’s first 120 days, a critical time of physical and cognitive development.
South Korea
Holt International and our longstanding partner organization, Holt Children’s Services of Korea, held events in Korea to celebrate the Christmas season and deliver gifts to the residents and children at the Holt Ilsan Center for individuals with special needs, Jeonju Babies’ Home care center for children, and mother and child shelters in Daejeon.
Thailand
Holt’s longstanding partner in Thailand, Holt Sahathai Foundation (HSF), continues to give timely responses to all individuals and families who express a need for emergency food supplies or counseling for unplanned pregnancies. HSF has also held many activity sessions over the last months. Some of these activities included teen group meetings and a children and families club, where the participants learned about child rights, the importance of child nutrition in the first three years, and how to be a capable and confident teen parent.
Vietnam
As Holt’s previous country director, Hang Dam, joined Holt’s staff in the U.S., Holt’s Vietnam team has now completed the recruitment of a new country director to oversee all family strengthening and adoption programs in Vietnam! We were excited to welcome Ms. Huong Nguyen to the full-time role in January 2023.
Learn more about Holt’s work and history!
At Holt International, we help children thrive in the love and stability of a family. But our services extend far beyond the adoption work we are known for.
