Hope Unlimited

in addition to LOVING compassion international, i also want to blog about another amazing ministry that has recently come to my attention. my incredible sister-in-law Erin is doing some work for them and she passed this info along to me and now i want to pass it along to you! She'll be visiting Brazil Jan. 30th, so stay tuned for more info on Hope Unlimited.

her message is below:

I am contacting you to let you know about an amazing ministry called Hope Unlimited for Children. The heart of this ministry for the past 17 years has been to rescue and transform the lives of thousands of homeless, orphaned street children in Brazil.

Just to give you a little background, it is estimated that there are up to 7 million children currently living on the streets of Brazil where their life expectancy is only 3 years. I was amazed by the testimony of one boy who said he lived on gum he picked off the sidewalk during his time on the streets. He and many others have been rescued from sure death when they were taken to one of Hope’s three facilities in the country that house up to 500 children per facility. These kids go through educational, emotional and relational rehabilitation that includes everything from marriage counseling to job training before they graduate. An astounding 70% of kids who go through the program are now in a home with a stable job, and attending church in their community.

Hope’s President, David Nowell has spent a lot of time in Brazil getting to know the kids and hearing their stories and testimonies of God’s faithfulness.

If you are interested in finding out more about this life-changing ministry, please let me know.


Hope Unlimited Video:




Hope Unlimited Website:

http://www.hopeunlimited.org/


More About Hope Unlimited

In the early 1990’s a growing number of children were living on the streets of Brazilian cities. Members of Brazilian local governments decided to do something about the problem by hiring off-duty law enforcement officers to go out, kill and bury these children by the hundreds. One official was even quoted as saying, “Bury them standing up so we will have enough room for them all.”

In 1991 an American missionary by the name of Jack Smith heard about what was happening to these children, so he and his son Phillip booked a flight to go down to Brazil and see what could be done to help. On their flight they met a man whose father was the CEO of a Brazilian orphanage that had just closed its doors. Before the plane landed, Jack and Phillip had the building where they would begin their project, Hope Unlimited for Children. Now, 17 years later, Hope continues its work with three facilities that house rescued street children, plus a newly donated preschool located near Campinas, Brazil that will become Hope’s Child Development Center.

Today it is estimated that 7 million children are living on the streets in Brazil, and while the problem seems daunting, Hope has begun the work of saving these children and giving them Hope, one life at a time. But removing a child from the street is only the first step on a long road to recovery.

Because the emotional and spiritual challenges these children face are so extreme due to the horrors of living on the streets, Hope takes a very holistic approach in their recovery, dealing with more than simple physical needs. The program is designed specifically for children suffering from Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), as most street children are, and it counters their pain and despair slowly through a system that educates, heals, restores dignity and equips them for the future with things like job training and even marriage counseling. Today, 70% of the kids who have graduated through Hope’s programs are employed, stable and attending church in their communities.