Local Family Grew Suddenly, Lost Jobs Due to COVID
Your Gifts Made New Partnership Possible That Gave Relief
Chris Burgin | Founder and CEO
Allies provided clothing for this woman’s family through a new partnership with the HIM Center, a local food bank.
There’s a quote in the movie “Jurassic Park” where Jeff Goldblum’s character says, “Life... finds a way.” Here at Allies, we see this reality in all the areas where we are working. Even when an orphan’s future looks dismal, that life ends up on a successful path...thanks to people like you! What once was dark and gloomy, is now bright and joyful. What once looked near death, is now alive --- and your support helps life find a way!
We sometimes come across people who question the purpose of helping those on the other side of the world when there are people in need right here in the U.S. It’s not that we haven’t wanted to help, it just hadn’t worked out --- until recently. One of our donors is a volunteer at the HIM Center, a local food bank serving area families in need.
He asked if there was any way we could assist some local single moms and foster families. We began a discussion with the HIM Center to figure out how Allies could be of service. We came up with Allies for Him, a program that provides items from the Allies warehouse to families in need. Lisa Richardson, CEO of the HIM Center, shared just one story of a family we were able to bless with your support. This family relocated to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in 2013 for new job opportunities, but between that time and the pandemic, they were unexpectedly given custody of three children - a grandchild, a great-niece, and a great-nephew. One of those children was the result of a gang rape. They were able to adopt the children and give them a stable, permanent family in addition to already having three of their own children...but then the pandemic hit. Both the husband and wife lost their jobs, they had to move twice, and they were down to one vehicle. “Their household grew and their income was depleted to nothing,” Lisa said. “This family’s need was extremely great.”
The HIM Center connected with the family and wanted to do what they could to offer support, but didn’t have the means to provide for their needs aside from food. This is where your support of Allies came in and made this new partnership possible. Allies gave clothing for their six children which was a huge help to the family. We have two warehouses stocked with shoes, clothing, toys, school supplies, and many other items thanks to generous donors like you. Now, the HIM Center is able to give needed items like these to families as they pick up their food. YOU made this growth possible. Thank you for trusting us as we expand and try to reach more people in need and develop new partnerships. We couldn’t stop the pandemic or the results of it, but thankfully the pandemic couldn’t stop people like you from rising to the occasion and being a hero to others!
Orphan Crisis is Unstoppable But YOU are Unstoppable in Caring
Dr.Tatiana Baeva | Director of International Operations
In Bryansk, a mother visited her daughter through a window at an orphanage during the pandemic. This is just one of the many families you helped reunite.
Life finding a way includes when new lives are born. Babies will continue to be born and, sadly, many of them orphaned for different reasons. Not all children are orphans because both their parents died. In some cases, orphans are those deserted or abandoned by one or both parents. In other cases, a parent is unable to care for a child due to mental illness, addiction, or lack of resources. There are children from all these circumstances at orphanages around the world, so there is much work to be done when it comes to the orphan crisis. But just as life always finds a way, Allies is unstoppable in finding a way to help and you are unstoppable in partnering with us. We often share how you provide orphans with mentoring, tutoring, and relationships through Allies leaders and volunteers, but your support also goes toward orphan prevention. Some of our outreach focuses on assisting single moms, parents, and relatives to be able to keep children in the home rather than be sent to an orphanage, like little Sasha in Bryansk.
Her parents struggled with addiction, so Sasha’s older siblings were sent to live with their grandparents, and she was placed in an orphanage. We came across this family after seeing an ad for needed baby items. We connected them with a pastor and have all been working with them and praying with them. Both the husband and wife turned their lives around and have changed their ways. Sasha’s father has a job, but only receiving a small monthly income has made it hard to afford necessary repairs in their home and pay for the family’s other physical needs. Your support provided diapers and other items when Natasha would visit Sasha at the orphanage. You helped this family get on its feet so they could have a better environment for their children to come back home. Thank you for reuniting this family.
There are many families on the brink of poverty in these areas, which can lead to children being taken from their homes when they cannot receive proper care. The more families we support in difficult situations, the less children will be in orphanages. There will be less children with broken lives if their families could just receive a little assistance and guidance. Orphanage life is hard, and we want to spare as many children as we can from that environment. We will also continue to do what we can for those children who are in the orphanages. Our leaders and volunteers couldn’t always visit orphans this past year, but that didn’t stop us from thinking up new ways to reach them and you didn’t stop giving. Together, we will always find a way to help those in need. Thank you for always partnering with us and not wavering when storms hit. Your dedication to caring for orphans and others is unstoppable and our gratitude to you is unstoppable --- THANK YOU!
Orphans Go Without Basic Hygiene Products
Your Support During Christmas in July Makes a Difference
Margie Brooks | Volunteer Coordinator and Office Manager
“Your greatness is not what you have, it’s what you give.” - Alice Hocker
Summertime is around the corner, and it’s time to soak up some sun. It’s also the time of year where advocates just like you help to restock the Allies warehouses with needed hygiene items like soap, toothpaste, shampoo, and deodorant. It’s Christmas in July time at Allies in Youth Development!
A local volunteer helps pack hygiene kits in the Allies warehouse in Mansfield, Texas.
Orphans go without many basic hygiene items you and I take for granted. Whatever items they may have in orphanages are often shared by many so even having a bar of soap or toothbrush to themselves is a luxury to these orphans. Receiving a hygiene kit is truly like Christmas to an orphan! And thanks to donors like you, orphans in many countries will receive this simple blessing this summer.
How You Can Help
Collect hygiene items as a group or as an individual. Christmas in July is a great opportunity to include children in purchasing items and filling the bags together as a family. See list above for specific items to donate that will change the life of an orphan. Now through the month of July, donations can be dropped off in the red collection boxes at participating churches, the Mansfield Chamber of Commerce, or at the Allies office located at 1315 Hwy 1187, Suite 115, Mansfield, Texas. You can also purchase items from AmazonSmile that can be delivered directly to the Allies office.
We accept hygiene kit donations all year, so your family or group is welcome to do a collection at any time. Thank you for supplying such necessary items to orphans and showing them someone from the other side of the world cares!
Send an Orphan to Camp
It’s not too late to send an orphan to summer camp for $100! What a special blessing for children to experience fun in nature and to learn about God’s love for them especially after a year of restrictions due to the pandemic. Camp is a break from orphanage life or a tough home situation and a time that these children anticipate all year long. Thanks to donors like you, over 500 children are going to camp this summer, but there will be more camps through August. Visit www.alliesyouth.org to make this a reality for another child. Thank you for providing this relief for more children!
Abandoned Babies Suffer From Lack of Attention
Your Support Sends Volunteers to Show Them Love
Heather Dunnaville | Staff Writer
Your gifts enhance the lives of so many including orphaned babies in need of necessary nurturing. We can’t stop the situations that cause the tragedy of unwanted babies, but we can step in and help these precious little lives, thanks to you.
Allies volunteers visit and care for these orphaned babies in a Belarus hospital.
In Belarus, Allies volunteers visit hospitals with rooms where babies have been abandoned by their parents. These rooms exist in every area hospital, and sometimes these babies are there for a long time. In one case, a child stayed in the hospital for a whole year! Beginning their lives in this setting, instead of a home environment with constant love and attention, is not good for these children. Everyone knows that the first three years of a child’s life is very important. Receiving love and affection on a daily basis is crucial to development and has an effect on a child’s future. How important it is to see the first smile of a loving person...to touch a mother’s sweet and tender cheek...to be fed by mama to have daddy cheer you on when you take your first steps or say your first words. You think of these things and how very important they are when you see a child who was left behind and abandoned. The effects on children who do not have such love and nurturing is heartbreaking.
U.S. volunteers Steve Cox and Jerry Whitt packed boxes with baby items that were shipped to Belarus.
These children become unemotional -- no happiness or sadness -- they are numb to the world around them. They are stuck in their cribs most of the day, so they lack proper physical and psychological development and do not look their age. This reality is often an influence when they meet potential parents who are looking for a developed child for his age. Thanks to donors like you, these babies in Belarus are not forgotten and are given hope for a better future. Allies volunteers saw this need and organized a group to go to hospitals and give them love and care. They bathe them, change them, take them for walks, read to them, and give them a chance to get out of their cribs so they can exercise. They talk to them, sing songs to them,hug them, carry them, and pray for them.
Of course, this is no replacement for a family, but what these women and girls do for these babies nudges their emotional and physical development in the right direction. And because of generous in-kind donations from advocates like you, boxes with formula, diapers, and clothing are shipped from our U.S. warehouse to meet the physical needs of these babies. Thank you for serving all orphans, including the tiniest ones!