News in Brief - Vol 7

News in Brief – Vol 7 (Jan 2022)

10 years on and it’s still relevant

This series of videos interviewing our founder, Mick, is still relevant 10 years later and very much worth a watch. Head over to our new YouTube channel to watch the full From the Archives playlist. We recommend starting with “Mick’s Story”

In one of Mick’s videos, he explains a little bit about why we don’t advocate closing all children’s homes (much to the surprise of many!). This is such an important and nuanced topic that we filmed a follow up video with our CEO, Dan to go into more detail. 

{YouTube Thumbnail Description: A white note reading “Closing all children’s homes would be a mistake!” is taped to a yellow background. Next to that is an image of Dan, a white, 40 something male speaking to the camera. Above him, a question mark and exclamation mark are handwritten in blue.}

Small Change Big Impact

In November we ran a campaign called Small Change, Big Impact, all about how your small change – your pennies and pounds, dollars and cents or any other variety of coin! – and small changes in the way you shop online can add up to a big impact by supporting SFAC’s work.
Hannah outlined all the ways in a series of short videos (as in 30 seconds and under short!) on our YouTube channel.

Dan and Caitlin, two members of the SFAC team, gave it a try and sold some of their unwanted goods after a big post-renovation clear-out. The morning was a success and 25% of their proceeds were donated to SFAC.

A big thank you to everyone who watched, liked and shared the videos. These small actions mean the world to us and those we support.

{Image Description: a small red car parked in a field with its boot open. In front of the car are two rugs full of bits and pieces for people to buy. The car doors are acting as display racks for coats and ties and all around are other cars and vans with similar setups. The weather was perfect-clear blue skies and sunshine!}

Some Recent SFAC Highlights…

In October we had our first in-person trustee meeting in 2 years! We enjoyed an amazing lunch from Dogh Welburn  and delicious baked goods were donated by Cake is the answer – hard work requires good fuel!

It was great to have Ranjit drop in for lunch and Joseph join us for a while from Uganda so the whole team could catch up.

{Image Description: Mick, a white 70-something male wearing his bright blue SFAC T-shirt sits in front of a laptop, willing the Wifi in Uganda to hold out long enough that all the trustees can see Joseph on screen. Joseph’s face is magnified on a projection screen. He’s a 40-something black Ugandan man with a brilliant white smile!}
{Image Description: Seated round a table, trustees and members of our team, watch Joseph on the big screen. They’re relaxed and smiling.}
{Image Description: Mick, an older white man wearing a big grin is standing next to Ranjit, wearing business casual and a dark turban and smiling broadly.}
{Image Description: picture of a slide on a projector screen with a young African person sitting on front edge of a boat looking outwards to sea.}

We love that Mick’s phrase from his book ‘Children Belong in Families’ is the starting point for a national conference in Sierra Leone with our friends at Helping Children Worldwide and 1MILLIONHOME!

The quote resonates with the SFAC vision: Safe + Belong = Thrive.

If children feel and are safe, if children feel a sense of belonging then they have a greater chance to thrive.

Children around the world state that given choices they want to live in a safe family rather than a children’s home/orphanage. Why? Because they want to feel part of a family – they want to feel loved, cared for, valued and be part of a family where they feel important and connected too. The more connected to their identity, culture and community the better.

Can you tell we had fun filming this series with 1MILLIONHOME?!

We are so grateful to their team for making us feel comfortable despite the many cameras pointed our way and hope that our answers to the wonderful questions people sent in are helpful to anyone working to protect and care for children who are vulnerable.

The full series launched December 1st, 2021 and you watch it here.

{Link Image Description: Mick, Dan and Caitlin are seated around a round table in a light-filled cafe space wearing their SFAC tops. The image seems to have captured them all mid-laugh. They’ve embraced product placement strategies so a pile of Mick’s book “Children Belong in Families” sits front and centre on the table.}

Mick, Dan and Caitlin sitting around a table talking and being filmed
{Image Description: Three women chatting over Zoom with huge smiles. Priya is in India and has green patterned wallpaper behind her and a very cute stuffed toy panda. Kristi is rugged up in a hoodie in Australia and Caitlin is in the UK and wearing her SFAC polo shirt}

Who do you wish you could see in person right now instead of on a video call?!

These three would have LOVED  a real, face to face meeting but they had to settle for their monthly three-continent online catch-ups instead!

Our therapeutic trainer, Caitlin, loved working with Priya and Kristi and other members of the Offspring Project team. They discussed how they could implement Protective Behaviors strategies to create a safe place for young trafficking survivors to heal and find community.

Kristi had this to say after one session:

“So great…loved it! A power hour of information that I think is going to be great in helping us move forward with the trainees. THANK YOU!”

Your donations (whether they’re substantial sums or just small change) make work with small organisations like this possible!

Dan and Caitlin finally got to meet Lelani in person!

You might recognise Lelani from some posts earlier in the year when she was completing a placement with us as part of her social work degree. The first part of the placement was completed from her home in Zimbabwe and now she’s here finishing her studies in the UK which meant Dan and Caitlin got to meet her “in real life”! 

We’re excited to have Lelani continuing with us in a volunteer capacity on some projects in Zimbabwe.

{Image Description: Lelani, a brown-skinned, Zimbabwean woman and Dan, a white English man, are standing in a garden smiling at the camera. You can’t tell because there’s no one else for comparison but they’re both short!}

Would you paint the walls of your office the colour of your favourite footie team?!

Dan did!

Interior design choices aside, there are always smiles when our CEO, Dan, and Joseph catch up.

In a 60 minute call, they discussed how to set up systems for how to safely reunite children living in children’s homes in Uganda with their families and how to decide whether it’s safe to do that in the first place.

They also talked about kinship care (care with a biological relative) and how to develop support plans for child-headed households. Not bad for a 60 minute call!

{Image Description: Dan, a white 40 something male, is standing at his desk speaking to Joseph, a black Ugandan, male on Zoom. They both have big smiles and Dan is surrounded by claret coloured walls. Although the light is making them look a bit more terracotta than claret!}


And Two Big Thank Yous to Wrap Things Up!

 What have pumpkin carving, football and swear jars got in common?!

November was Small Change, Big Impact  month here at SFAC in celebration of Universal Children’s Day. To support our fundraising, the fabulous people at Enzygo carved (pumpkins,) donated (to the swear jar) and played (5-aside with @BusinessFives) their way to a wonderful £185 for SFAC.

A warm thank you to Enzygo for their actions and donations that add up to a big impact in supporting SFAC’s work.

Julia,  the Business Development Co-ordinator at Enzygo had this to say:

“The staff here have been great sports – the tournament was a great way of generating team spirit, strengthening relations amongst our offices and enhancing mental and physical health.  We played our hearts out and although  we didn’t bring home any silverware we had loads of fun raising money for a cause we love!”

Maya, our new volunteer, had a very exciting parcel arrive recently and she wants you to know all about it! 😁

A HUGE thank you to the amazing Cake is the answer  who once again donated £2 to SFAC from every box ordered via Work for Good throughout the month of November 🎉

£2 from each order is a BIG donation for a small business but you might be wondering if small donations like this can really have a big impact. We’re here to reassure you that they can!!

Small change adds up!

Our UK friends enjoyed having their cake 🍰, eating it 😋, AND donating to charity at the same time during November

We all had a taste test at the October Trustees Meeting and can highly recommend everything Kathryn bakes!

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