This page highlights pictures from projects supported by Acts of Grace within the most recent five years.
Society & Community
Photos are listed in alphabetical order by charity name. Click on the charity's name to be redirected to its website. Click on the Grant Description link to learn more about each grant. These pictures are used with the express permission of the organization that provided them and are not to be reproduced for any other purpose.
Erdenet Lifeskills Values Education Branch Furnishings & Equipment (Mongolia)
Grant Year: 2021
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Over the next three years, Asian Outreach Mongolia plans to reach 1200 children with Lifeskills Programs in Erdenet. This initiative assists Mongolian children in developing good character and strengthens families through building understanding of good values in children. It also helps to benefit the wider Mongolian society through developing a generation of good citizens who will contribute to the development of their country and the establishment of a functioning and prosperous society. This project also allows AO Mongolia to supplement the Mongolian national education curriculum through providing ethics education.
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Asian Outreach has purchased a building in Erdenet, Mongolia that it is renovating for its use to deliver Lifeskills Values Education programs in the area. This building has been successfully remodelled into offices and a classroom for AO Mongolia with >32 sq m of teaching space designed to accommodate 20 children and separate the office room next to the classroom for teachers. To finish preparing the building for effective use and ministry, Asian Outreach needs to purchase interior furnishings and equipment.
Pictured here: Ongoing renovations in the new Lifeskills Values Education Branch building in Erdenet, Mongolia.
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The new building has been designed to create a welcoming and friendly atmosphere for students, parents and AO Mongolia staff. Once final furnishings and equipment have been installed, the building will be used to enhance, expand and support ongoing Lifeskills Values Education and other programs in Erdenet such as after school VBS-style programs to further the spiritual impact as well as parent-focused programs covering topics such as understanding children, age-specific development, parent-child communication, and other critical areas currently lacking in Mongolian families.
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Although the Lao government has made some progress in providing rural communities access to clean water and latrines, the percentage of households with access to a clean water source and latrines is still very low in rural communities. Many access water from a stream, or small pond - most have contaminated runoff (animal and human waste); many dry up in hot season. Open defecation in fields is a nationally recognized issue and is a significant contributor to ongoing issues like dysentery, diarrhea, parasites, and water borne diseases. Lack of access of clean water directly impacts education, income and food security, health costs and quality of life. Women, girls, and young children face the greatest challenges. They often have to defecate in the forest or rice fields, making them vulnerable - especially at night - to snakes, physical attacks, and rape.
Pictured here: a new community hand-pump well and base in rural Laos will bring clean water and prevent water-born illness
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Home-based water and sanitation addresses these risks directly. Wells and ceramic filters give families access to clean water; latrines keep families healthy and reduce economic loss.
Asian Outreach will continue to address a need for clean water and sanitation in rural Southern Laos by:
- drilling community hand-pump wells (or electric wells in communities with electricity) and establishing a Water Advisory Committee in each community to oversee the use and maintenance of the well;
- providing ceramic water filters (where well water is not potable); and,
- providing proper latrine systems for at risk families.
Pictured here: household ceramic water filters are essential where community well water is tested and found not potable
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Asian Outreach teams will also bring evangelistic outreach support for the Lao church to these rural communities. Being one of the most marginalized groups in Laos, Christian's face hurdles and persecutions above and beyond the mainstream population. Because Christians are the main source of these WASH projects in the country, this has significantly risen the status of the Christians in those areas, allowing church meetings and celebrations to happen with greater ease and at larger scale. Christians leaders are now even being recognized in local government meetings. Alongside bringing clean water and sanitation, the inclusion and acceptance of Christians in these communities has significant positive ripple effects in each family and in each village.
Pictured here: a typical latrine base and enclosure which will bring not only convenience but safety for women and girls as well as increased community health by addressing open defecation
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Under construction - Stay tuned for more details soon.
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Medellín, Colombia is a city dominated by drug culture and organized crime. The community of Guayubal is particularly a centre of local drug trafficking, abuse, violence, sexual abuse, prostitution and poverty. In this neighbourhood, more than 1/3 of homes face food insecurity and many families are led by single mothers who struggle to find sufficient employment especially because children ages 5-12 are only in school for 1/2 days. In this area, many children are left to roam the streets when not in school, leaving them particularly vulnerable to malnutrition, sexual abuse, violence, poor academic performance, mental health problems, and spiritual poverty.
Pictured here: After-school care centres run by Tiempo de Paz are a place of refuge for children ages 5-12.
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Hope Story seeks to help vulnerable children access education, health, and discipleship in strong communities through their local church. In Medellín, Hope Story partners with Tiempo de Paz (TdP), which operates as an extension of local churches in the city. TdP currently operates two after-school care centres in the city and will open a third centre in Guayubal later this year. These centres offer the opportunity for children to enter into a safe, protective and loving environment during the four hours each day they are out of the classroom. In the centres, children will receive 2 daily meals, tutoring and help with school homework, music classes, psychological support, recreational activities such as dance and sports, lessons on how to prevent sexual abuse and Bible based teaching and discipleship activities.
Pictured here: A child receives music lessons at a TdP after-school care centre.
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With their children in attendance at these centres, single mothers will be able to find additional employment. The centre will offer parents training in the areas of role management, healthy boundaries, and vocational skills to increase employability. This new centre will also run community programs, including sexual abuse prevention programs in nearby schools as well as periodic food distributions and support programs. The Centre will support 50 families, impacting more than 250 beneficiaries with the hopeful anticipation of long-term transformation of this community and ultimately the entire city of Medellín. This grant provides funds for the initial start-up and operating costs for the first year of the new after-school care centre.
Pictured here: TdP after-school care centres welcome children into a safe, supportive and loving environment when they are not in school.
