So much has been happening in LUV’s anti-trafficking network! Over the next weeks I’ll be posting location specific news so you can feel more connected to the children you help us protect and empower at Our Father’s Cleft, New Life Ministry, and Hope for South Sudan. Remember, you can also find even more updates on social media:
News from Nuba | August 2020
First and foremost, thank you to all who sent prayers, notes, and donations to support Ezekiel Ayub—our indigenous director at Our Father’s Cleft—as he requires medical attention in Kenya. If you missed his story from last week you can find it here.
Your generosity and support, as always, was overwhelming and we’ll be able to bring Ezekiel to the Kenya Safe House as soon as the rainy season has ended and the dirt roadways are possible to traverse.
Currently, Ezekiel and all of the children at OFC are simply unreachable by land or air—making the Nuba Mountains one of the most isolated and most difficult places to reach in the world.
School Resumes
Through LUV’s education program we increase the capacity for children and adults to grow academically and spiritually. It is our goal to see bodies protected, minds expanded, and hearts transformed.
After a several month break, school has started once again for the students at OFC. Although, the governments have kept most of the schools closed in Sudan and South Sudan, our students have been given permission to resume classes.
To do so safely, staff have reduced the size of classes, maintained hand washing stations, and the students have made their own masks.
Children in extreme poverty locations face too much hardship when not allowed to be in school. Heightened cases of hunger, child labor, trafficking, forced marriage and gender-based violence have been documented in both Sudan and South Sudan this year. Vulnerable children—and especially girls—are becoming victims of the pandemic in ways most of the world cannot imagine.
In the Nuba Mountains, Ezekiel shared that he and other community leaders have noted a significant increase of teenage pregnancies and children being used for mining of gold. On top of this, an increase in violent clashes from militia groups and between Arab vs African soldiers are sending more on the run.
LUV has adapted to meet the demands imposed by COVID-19, but we need your support to make sure we can protect and empower more children and women seeking survival amidst the worst crisis of our generation. Your monthly gift will equip us to protect and empower more lives.
The OFC Farm is Growing!
Through LUV’s economic empowerment program, we support local income generation, agribusiness innovation, and other initiatives to ensure self-sustainability. Investing in children and women to be independent and innovative is a key requirement to help transform communities and reduce vulnerabilities.
OFC’s Deputy Director, David Elgadim, is helping one of his student’s collect some of the excess vegetables from this years vegetable garden to sell in the market. She is experiencing much success—raising nearly 7,000SSP (~$50) in sales thus far—and is eager to receive more seeds to keep the project going! You can also click here to watch the video: https://youtu.be/hq8Bjq1fpQU
During the early days of the pandemic, the innovative staff at OFC engaged students outdoors to prepare and farm small vegetable gardens and eight acres of land that they had allocated for food sustainability initiatives this year.
These efforts are helping OFC take preliminary steps toward food independence and preparing our students with agriculture skills and livelihood training!
The staff are eager to see the harvest of both empowered lives and food security for their region!
We envision a world where vulnerable children and women are empowered and, through them, war-torn communities are transformed.
Join the movement of LUV today. Your monthly gift will equip us to protect and empower more lives.
With LUV,
Audrey Moore
Chief Executive Officer