Bringing Hope to Marginalized Children in Africa
For the last nine years, the Freie Evangelische Gemeinde Rebland church in Eimeldingen, Germany, has organized an annual run to raise money and awareness for Open Schools Worldwide, and other human trafficking related ministries. However, the emergence of the COVID-19 virus shut down all physical support-raising drives, like this run, due to lockdowns and social distancing.
“There was a huge need to generate funds to support the children that Open Schools works with. Many of these children live at garbage dumps or informal settlements and many don’t have parents. They are vulnerable to neglect, abuse, and even starvation. They don’t have access to formal schooling. The food packets that some of our tutors (a staff/partner staff who runs the Open Schools education program) give them, is often the main source of food for their family that day.
All this weighed heavily on our hearts. We asked ourselves what can we do, to raise support during this season? We wanted to invite people to be part of something that was bigger than each of us, something that they could participate in wherever they were in the world, even in the midst of social distancing,” said Phil Peters, Director of Development, Open Schools Worldwide.
The Kilometers for Kids (#KM4K) event was held on the 27th & 28th of June 2020. It encouraged people to run, walk, or bike as many kilometers as they could, and to find sponsors who would pay towards every kilometer that they covered. The event had wide participation from across four continents. It also helped raise awareness about the work of Open Schools through radio interviews, newspaper articles, online posts, and word of mouth.
“It has been encouraging to see the many people who gave generously to support the children that Open Schools serves, and also to hear the stories of those who participated in the event,” he said.
One couple in Germany, who live in a village 21 kms from a larger town, managed to get a number of people to support their run. They encouraged others to join them at 2 pm at the finish line in town. They met their supporters there, talked about the work of Open Schools, celebrated their run together, and treated everyone to ice cream sundaes. This helped raise a lot of awareness for Open Schools and also over €2,000.
Phil’s son Alexander, who works evening shifts at a hardware store, took posters and pamphlets of the event to work. His boss encouraged other employees to join him in cycling for this cause. “On Saturday night, a friend of ours invited us to a BBQ dinner with some of the people from my son’s store, who had taken part in the event. As we were enjoying our meal, people started to walk up to us and give us envelopes with cash and checks towards the work that we do. We received over $6,000 that evening!” shared Phil.
Open Schools hopes to use the money raised to meet some of their immediate critical needs. “One of the immediate needs is workbooks for many of the children. There are over 2,300 children at our projects in Malawi and Zambia who still need these workbooks. Another possible need is to support our 300-400 tutors with backpacks to carry their teaching supplies. This would allow them to continue to run our highly adaptable “school-in-a-bag” program from any place at any time, whether under a tree, in the shade of a shack, or a spare room,” he said. Open Schools has also received requests to expand their operations to new countries on other continents. This support will also go a long way in developing and expanding their work, to support more vulnerable children in these countries.
“We are thankful to all those who made the effort, sacrificing time and money to set things up, get the word out, and participate. But God was the designer and orchestrator of it all. This is His work. He loves these children far more than any one of us can. That is why we as a team are passionate about it. That is why I get out of bed in the morning,” said Phil.
“Our desire is that through all this, we can continue to bring hope to these kids, to not just provide education to break the vicious cycle of poverty, but that they would discover true life with the Lord Jesus.”