His Safe Haven

when i went to Liberia in July my friend Pam said “hey… my friend christina is on the same flight as you! hook up with her”
i was nervous and tempted to say nothing at all.
but i was more nervous of the navigating the liberian airport by myself.
(if you have never experienced an airport in africa… it’s nearly impossible to describe the chaos)
SO… we texted in the airport in New York and there she was… my new friend.

she helped me survive the airport exit with out losing any bags to “helpers” because she is awesome.

she was in Liberia to check in on the foster homes that she runs with her organization called His Safe Haven.
halfway through the week she came and we visited all of the foster homes and met the kids.
what a blessing!

Later after being home a few months, Talby asked me if there was a way she could help in africa.
ummm…. YES!
we thought of different option & decided that maybe raising money for Christina’s organization would be a good way to help.
Talby wanted to do it on her own so i have put her fully in charge.
without further ado… Talby has the mic

🙂

My name is Talby Duerksen.  I am 13 years old and Megan is my mom.  She is letting me use her blog to tell you about a group this is important to me.  It is called “His Safe Haven“, a group that strives to improve life for abandoned special needs children in Liberia.  Special needs children in Liberia are often abandoned because their families do not think they have any worth. When I learned that I felt very sad.  His Safe Haven finds foster home for the children that are brought to them.  I have enjoyed loving children with special needs, being with them and making them smile.  I realized there so many children who are in need in so many ways.  I have all I need, plus much more, but those kids don’t.  So I asked my mom if we could start a fundraiser to help the kids at His Safe Haven.  I emailed Christina and asked her lots of questions that i had about Liberia and her program.

This is Christina and her family.

T:  Since you live in the US, how do you check in with the foster parents back in Africa?

C:  I travel to Liberia every 3 months to check in with my team and foster moms and evaluated all the children.  I usually do ongoing training every trip and bring much needed supplies.  I also talk on the phone with Josephus in Liberia (he is my Program Coordinator), and text a lot to check in daily!

T:  When you find a child, what is the process that you go through to put them into a foster home? 

C: No matter how a child is placed into our program, we must notify the government, who then sends a social worker out to try and locate and/or document the child’s history.   They interview all our foster moms to make sure the are equipped to care for the children, then we get a ‘Child Placement’ form to make the placement official.  This helps the government keep track of the abandoned children and monitor their care under His Safe Haven.  We try and find a ‘Child Sponsor’ for each Haven Child that will help fund the cost for caring.   Our Sponsorship Coordinator then will send quarterly updates or pictures to each sponsor to keep them updated on ‘their’ sponsored child.   

T:  What are your plans for His Safe Haven in the future?

T: What is one way we can help you at His Safe Haven with donations?

C: We value any donation but if you wanted a specific project…  another big need is house rent.  We rent all our homes at $75/month for 6 months at a time.  We have found that renting our homes gives the kids a safer environment.  Our moms that are willing to be trained are on the extreme poverty level, so they typically have dirt floors and no good access to clean drinking water, and are typically in very dirty areas.  So this is why we must rent our homes.  Raising money to help with this cost would be wonderful.

After hearing about the need for renting homes for the kids, my mom and I set a goal to raise enough money for all the homes for one year.
6 foster homes at $75 a month = $5400

Any amount you donate will make a difference.   🙂

 

Please CLICK HERE to go to my Crowd Rise Fundraising page to Donate.

ALL the money will go directly to His Safe Haven.

 

I am excited to be able to help all the kids at HSH.  I dream about getting to travel to Liberia with my mom and getting to meet Christina & all the kids she helps.  But until I get to go I want to help where I can.  Thanks for reading this and for donating!

Thank you for your support to His Safe Haven!

– Talby
**** this is MEG again… Just wanted to say how inspired i was by Christina’s work in Liberia.  She is a mother of five and didn’t let that stop her from helping in a BIG way.  And many years since she began they are very close to moving their family to Liberia! They will create a beautiful community together with their foster moms, the children they care for and SO MANY other Liberians.  I can not wait to go back and see how their program grows!  They will bring joy to so many special needs kids!! It’s already awesome and it’s just going to get better! ****

 

UPDATE: See the giveaway on THIS POST that is for anyone who donates to HSH.  🙂