Building Your Children's Leadership Skills: Plan an International Family Project
Want to draw your family together in a team effort? Want your children to grow in compassion for others? To dream big and set measurable goals? To experience the wonderful feeling of accomplishment after a lot of hard work? You’ll gain all this and more if your family makes the commitment to take on an international family project.
We live in a global society. Daily news enters our homes via television and other media. Our children learn at an early age there is war, violence and strife in many parts of the world. Most children are horrified when they learn that children around the world suffer from lack of housing, nutritious meals and a safe living environment. The reality cuts right to their hearts, and they want to take action.
The good news is there are tangible ways to involve children in making a difference. Can they change the world and fix all its problems? No, but they can learn the important lesson that each person has the power to make a difference, one act of kindness at a time.
Thousands of organizations are doing good work around the world, and many of them focus on the needs and welfare of children. The three outlined below are just the tip of the iceberg, but each offers practical ways to aid children in other parts of the world. Go to CharityNavigator.org to find out more about selecting reputable organizations with which to link arms.
If you decide on child sponsorships, be certain the organization you select has procedures in place to assure the child actually gets the benefit of the gift. Choose organizations with a high rating in terms of dollars donated and dollars actually given in aid. It’s fair to expect these organizations to have some overhead costs. Some sponsorship programs allow pictures and letters to go back and forth, enabling your family to get to know your adopted friend.
As you work with your family members to select a project, be sure to allow the children to buy in to the choice. Most organizations have excellent websites where you can research their projects and see photos of their work. In this case, pictures actually are worth a thousand words.
Once you’ve selected a project with a specific goal, you’ll need to find a way to meet that goal. Will you choose to do a crowd funding campaign? Will the entire family pitch in to do extra work of some kind to earn money? Will you make flyers, have a bake sale, do a garage sale?
It’s not so much the amount of money you send to meet the needs of others, it’s the journey you’ll take together to work hard to help other human beings. That’s a valuable, educational journey to make together.
Be sure your children:
- Help select the project and make a timeline (beginning and endpoint).
- Help plan the ways to raise the funds.
- Help with advertising and promoting the project.
- Work like crazy on the fundraising days or at the events.
- Help track progress along the way and readjust plans as necessary.
- Help evaluate the success of the project (graphs, charts or reports).
- Share progress reports with those who have an interest in the project.
- Share in the satisfaction of sending the funds to the specific organization along with any appropriate communication.
- You might want to do a family evaluation of the project. Would you want to make it an annual event?
This wonderful organization, founded in 2008 by Karen Osborn, is based in Malawi, Africa. It is dedicated to improving the life of poor children through active and creative play. Kusewera means “to play” in Malawi. The daily lives of poor children, especially those in orphanages, are often devoid of fun and healthy activity. Kusewera has developed a community center that provides sports clinics and guided activities in dance, music and art. As of 2014, they began branching out into the Philippines. In the process of teaching healthy play activities, they also teach life skills such as leadership, discipline, goal-setting, perseverance and team participation.
The board of the Pearl S. Buck foundation founded this organization. Their goal is to foster exploration and appreciation of other cultures around the world and to foster better lives for children. The center is based at Buck’s original family home in Perkasie, PA. Programs include ways to enrich the education, health and well-being of the children. This organization works in Korea, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam and the United States.
The Palestine Relief Fund (PCRF) is a non-political, non-profit organization dedicated to healing the wounds of war, occupation and poverty. It works with adults and children in the Middle East and treats them regardless of race, nationality, religion or gender. They have both medical and humanitarian aid projects ongoing.
Be assured that when you take on a project such as supporting one of these agencies or another like it, your entire family will be forever changed.
Operation Christmas Child
Kids Helping Kids Throughout the World
National Collection Week is Nov. 16-23
1. Choose a Box
Use an empty shoe box (standard size, please) or a small plastic container. You can wrap the box (lid separately), but wrapping is not required. Most importantly, pray for the child who will receive your gift.
2. Boy or Girl?
Determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl, and the child’s age category: 2-4, 5-9 or 10-14. Print out the appropriate boy/girl label by downloading the artwork at www.SamaritansPurse.org. Mark the correct age category on the label and tape the label to the top of your box.
3. Fill with Gifts
Fill the box with a variety of gifts that will bring delight to a child. Ideas include small toys, school supplies, hygiene items, hard candy, ball caps, hair clips, etc. You can even include a personal note to the child receiving the box.
4. Include Your Donation
Please donate $7 or more for each shoe box you prepare to help cover shipping and other project costs. You can give online by using the “Follow Your Box Donation” option, or you can write a check to Samaritan’s Purse (note “OCC” on memo line) and place it in an envelope on top of the gift items inside your box.
5. Drop Off
Place a rubber band around each closed shoe box and drop off at the collection center nearest you during our collection week, Nov. 16-23.
For locations and hours of collection, visit SamaritansPurse.org. There you can find the nearest place to take your shoe box by entering your ZIP code, or you can call 1.800.353.5949.
Jan Pierce, M.Ed., is a retired teacher and author of Homegrown Readers: Simple Ways to Help Your Child Learn to Read. Find Jan at JanPierce.net.
Jan Pierce, M.Ed.