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Welcome to the first episode of Season of the Optimistic Voices podcast of Helping Children Worldwide. This is a REBROADCAST of Episode 1, Season 3, because we are once again heading to West Africa on this collaborative mission to save the lives of mothers and infants - and going upstream in our mission to prevent unnecessary orphanhoods from occurring.

We help children worldwide by strengthening and Empowering Families and communities. This podcast is for people interested in deep conversations with thought leaders in the field of child welfare, global health and international missions to the global South.

Our special host for this episode is Kathleen Pfohl, the maternal health mission graduate intern with Helping Children Worldwide., along with guests Josephine Garnem, Executive Director of Healy International Relief Foundation and Dr. Mariama Massaquoi, co-founder of Tenki for Born, which she runs together with her siblings as a way for members of the diaspora to recognize and give back to the communities where their families and ancestors were born. Dr. Masaquoi is a family medicine doctor based in Virginia. Mariama, and a guest on a prior episode of Optimistic Voices, where she discussed the Mission of Tenki for Born. Tenki for Born is dedicated to alleviating maternal mortality. Helping Children Worldwide, Healy International and Tenki are members of Together for Global Health, a professional Network convened by Helping Children Worldwide and managed by Yasmine Vaughan, Helping Children Worldwide's Technical Advisor for Global Health and Missions.

During January 2024, the together for Global health network members are hosting a maternal health conference in Sierra Leone, West Africa, training midwives and nurses and focused on creating a cadre of well-trained practitioners who can train others locally in order to sustain the educational impact of the conference, improve continuity of care and capacity of local providers.

The training builds on training provided by CHASL in 2023 and is the first collaboration of a long term plan for training missions to Sierra Leone to bring the educational efforts to every community and region in the country.

The conference outcomes will inform future collaborative endeavors, through monitoring, evaluation and collaborative research on long term impacts of the training.

together4globalhealth.org

Maternal Health Mission Report from 2024

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Curious about how sustainable development models can transform entire communities? Our latest episode promises to unravel this by sitting down with Melody Curtis, the inspiring Executive Director of Helping Children Worldwide. Discover how her organization transitioned from temporary relief to an empowerment approach, fostering resilient communities and strong families. Melody shares uplifting success stories of families gaining independence, and our program strategist Laura emphasizes the value of local expertise, highlighting the key role communities play in driving long-term change.

Rethinking mission work? We definitely are, and this episode challenges the traditional models of short-term missions. We move beyond task completion to embrace relationship-building and mutual learning. Join us as we recount the experiences of mission teams in Sierra Leone, where medical training and simulations offered deep insights into the challenges faced by local communities. Learn how this shift towards understanding and collaboration leads to a richer, more reciprocal mission experience that empowers both participants and the communities they engage with.

Finally, we dive into the nuances of cross-cultural collaboration and the push towards localization in international development. Our conversation with Melody illuminates the Rising Tide initiative's success in empowering local leaders in Sierra Leone and celebrates 25 years of impactful collaboration. As we look towards 2025, we share our ambitious goals to expand our network and support vulnerable communities even further. With a commitment to justice, mercy, and humility, this episode is a testament to the power of global partnerships and the dedication of everyone involved in this important mission.

together4globalhealth.org

Maternal Health Mission Report from 2024

Support the Maternal Health Mission to West Africa!

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Helpingchildrenworldwide.org

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Explore the power of transformation and empowerment in this special retrospective episode of Optimistic Voices. Join Dr. Laura Horvath, Emmanuel Nabeu, and Yasmin Vaughn as we promise to uncover the compelling journey of Helping Children Worldwide (HCW) through 2024, celebrating remarkable milestones and visionary shifts in global leadership. We reflect on standout episodes that shed light on crucial topics like maternal and child health improvements in Sierra Leone, transitioning care leavers to adulthood, and fostering dynamic partnerships between NGOs and churches. Our discussions dive deep into the empowerment model, highlighting a pivotal movement from immediate relief to sustainable growth, with a closer look at our fruitful collaboration with the Sierra Leone Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Journey with us as we recount our global adventures and pioneering initiatives throughout 2023. Our visits to Kenya and Mozambique, and participation in significant international conferences like the CAFO Summit and the ICAR 8 conference, have deeply informed our focus on transitioning orphanages to family care models across Africa. Yasmin Vaughn offers insights from the Rising Tides Conference, revealing how intimate collaborations among global health professionals are crucial to empowering communities and strengthening family bonds. Learn how these experiences have shaped our collective mission to create lasting impacts in child welfare and global health.

Celebrate the growth of Helping Children Worldwide as we approach our 25th anniversary in 2025, emphasizing our commitment to shifting power and decision-making to local leaders in the Global South. This transformative journey is highlighted by empowering local solutions, exemplified by the successful training of 98 midwives in emergency procedures for maternal and child health. Through stories of local leadership driving innovative solutions, such as self-sustainability initiatives at Mercy Hospital, we underscore our dedication to fostering local insights and collaborative global alliances for meaningful, enduring change.

together4globalhealth.org

Maternal Health Mission Report from 2024

Support the Maternal Health Mission to West Africa!

Support the show

Helpingchildrenworldwide.org