Helping Children in Crisis Around the World
Samaritan’s Purse provides education, shelter, daily necessities, loving care, and more to children at risk worldwide. Read and watch stories from Liberia and Vietnam.
Millions of boys and girls are living in poverty, facing daily dangers from hunger, violence, and exploitation. That’s why Samaritan's Purse is hard at work in difficult places meeting the needs of these children in crisis.
We have projects to serve suffering families and vulnerable youngsters around the world, always helping in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who reminds us in His own words to "'Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God'" (Marcos 10:14).
This year we’re highlighting our work with children in Vietnam and Liberia. In Vietnam, we are providing for orphaned and abandoned children at social service centers. We also support a culinary school providing young people from remote areas opportunities to learn life-changing skills. Many of these students are orphans or otherwise at risk of exploitation.
In Liberia, we bring education and training to children with special needs, creating safe spaces where these young people can learn and flourish. If not cared for by our church partners, these boys and girls may be abandoned, ostracized, or abused.
Love Goes a Long Way
At a social work center in northern Vietnam, the sound of laughter fills the halls as dozens of children rush up the stairs to attend an English class hosted by Samaritan’s Purse. It’s not always this jubilant at the center, where dozens of orphans and vulnerable children call home, but today their excitement is palpable as the teachers set up for class.
No child is more excited than Manh.
As an infant, Manh was dropped off at the gate of the center, weighing only 5 pounds. He’s never known his parents, his birthday, or even his real name. Throughout his childhood, he faced persistent health challenges due to his premature birth. He also often felt overlooked by his peers.
Manh, now 15, has seen many of his friends adopted into loving homes while he remains at the center. He's seen many organizations come and go, too, but none have influenced his life like Samaritan’s Purse.
“The changes in me and in my friends do not just come from the training methods or activities; I think a crucial part comes from the love and care of the Samaritan's Purse staff,” Manh said. “For orphaned kids like us, we are very sensitive to love. We can tell right away when someone comes to us with a genuine heart, and I can feel that from Samaritan’s Purse staff.”
We provide essential education and emotional support to nearly 70 at-risk children at Manh’s center and others across Vietnam. Without such centers, children often must work instead of going to school. Our teams teach English, important soft skills such as public speaking and emotional management, and provide scholarship opportunities for older students transitioning to university life.
Tua, 18, received a scholarship from Samaritan’s Purse to attend university in Hanoi. Although he now lives in the capital, he often returns to the center to see his old friends and participate in the English club.
“Being admitted to the protection center and receiving a scholarship has given me opportunities for a better life,” Tua said. “The skills I learned there have also been very helpful for me in the university environment.” He arrived to the center at just 5 years old after losing both his parents—his father to a car accident and his mother to a lightning strike.
Beyond education, our teams also provide several support programs for these children as they are often confused, frustrated, or traumatized by their past. Our team of trained teachers and counselors guides them through important issues through one-on-one discussions and group activities. In the process, each child is reminded that their identity is not found in what has happened to them, but in their God-given value.
“The greatest thing I have learned here is love,” Tua continued. “I learned this through the care and affection shown by Samaritan’s Purse.”
Lieu, 17, was also brought to the center at a young age. After her parents died when she was 7 years old, Lieu started to miss school in order to work in her grandma’s terraced rice fields instead. Now, Lieu can learn and grow while looking to the future with hope, thanks to the support of enrichment programs.
Through the “Buddy Club,” a Samaritan’s Purse curriculum, Lieu is now more confident in who she is and how she communicates.
“Before coming here, my life was difficult. But since moving here, my life has improved significantly,” Lieu said. “The Samaritan’s Purse project staff have taught me many necessary skills, like how to show care and compassion toward others.”
Signs of Love for the Hearing Impaired
Sally is focused like a laser on the garment feeding through her machine. She's making a dress, she says, explaining to an interpreter with the sign for "dress." Then she makes quick work of a straight stitch using her foot-operated sewing machine.
Today she is learning how to cut and hem. These hour-long training classes are held toward the end of each day, after a day of lessons in reading, writing, math, and other subjects–including lessons from the Bible.
The Gospel is central to the curriculum at the Hope for the Deaf school, which is supported by Samaritan’s Purse. Students like Sally learn how they were created by God in His image. They hear the truth about God’s love shown to them through Jesus Christ.
These lifechanging truths are transforming the hearts and futures of hearing-impaired children who come from Liberia's interior. So many little ones born with blindness, hearing impairment, cleft lips, and other disabilities are treated as cursed. They are alienated and exiled. Schools like Hope for the Deaf, though, are changing young lives and shaping the country’s thinking about disabilities. Without such programs, these young lives are at risk of many forms of exploitation, violence, and abandonment.
Sally wants to be a dressmaker. In context, this is amazing.
"My parents did not have money to help me. And no one cares out there because I'm Deaf," Sally said. "Thank God that the school brought me here and have supported me throughout."
And she wants to help others.
"My life would've been difficult. When I was in the interior…I don't know how life would’ve been for me. But since I came here, my life is progressing and it’s OK," she said. "If I become a good dressmaker, I would like to build a house for the future and help other people too—as God has helped me."
At first, Sally was surprised to be sewing. It was unusual to be taught anything. There aren't many opportunities for Deaf children to go to school in Liberia. A local church had learned of Sally’s situation and offered the opportunity to study. They moved her from her home village, a place where the disabled often stay hidden and stigmatized.
Here she knows her value and she has a community of friends who understand her.
"I have a lot of friends here that help me and I help them," she said. "We teach each other. What they don’t understand, I help; what I don’t understand, they help me. My favorite part I like in school is—I love the things around me, how I am blessed because I see my friends, fellow Deaf who come to school. We joke. We laugh together."
Besides the sound of the sewing machines, a nearby generator, and the shuffling of the teacher's feet, it is the quietest high school anyone might ever visit. Yet, it's boisterous with signing, laughing students. Sally feels at home. She and her fellow students feel loved by God and those who teach and care for them.
Baking with a Purpose
Wearing a tall baker’s hat, Dai proudly stands behind her plate of tiramisu and cream-stuffed pastries as the judges pass by. She and her team of six fellow culinary students hope to win the Hoa Sua Vocational School cooking contest. The judges conclude their tasting, confer, and name Dai as the winner.
For Dai, it’s a dream realized and represents the continuing opportunity to trailblaze a brighter future after a dark past.
Dai gave up on her passion for baking when her mom and dad died before she turned 12 years old. Suddenly, she was working in the terraced rice fields in her hometown in Vietnam’s northern highlands instead of going to school. She and her three siblings lived with their uncle for a time after their mother died of cancer, but eventually they were sent to a social work center. There, Dai came in contact with Samaritan’s Purse and heard about our partnership with a vocational school in the city. Now 16, Dai is learning how to bake high-end desserts to one day make a living and provide for her two younger siblings who are still at the center.
“I want to be able to work for a bakery and then later I want to purchase equipment so I can open my own bakery in my hometown,” Dai said. “I want to support my grandma and the rest of my family.”
Samaritan’s Purse has helped hundreds of children like Dai rise out of poverty and pursue a career through our over two-decade partnership with Hoa Sua Vocational School in Hanoi. Since 2002, Samaritan’s Purse has provided hundreds of vulnerable ethnic minority children across Vietnam with scholarships to attend Hoa Sua and pursue trades such as sewing, cooking, baking, and more. Some students have gone on to work for prestigious restaurants or start their own businesses.
“We want vulnerable and marginalized students to gain a better life by securing employment. We want to help students break free from the cycle of poverty,” said Dave Kletzing, country director for Samaritan’s Purse Vietnam.
As we consistently come alongside children in crisis in Vietnam, Liberia, and other countries around the world, pray that the Lord will reveal Himself to them.
“Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
