Rural community development

The Ukraine is one of Europe’s poorest nations and has particularly struggled in
recent years with a recession and conflict. When it comes to funding and
upgrading hospitals and schools in Ukraine, the smaller rural towns and villages
are often left behind.

Crossroads has partnered with an organisation in the Ukraine with projects in
health, education and care for people with special needs, particularly those in
villages that might otherwise miss out on essential services. When their local
government area was expanded to include three more townships and the
surrounding villages, the work they had already done was quickly noticed, new
requests for assistance flooded in and our partners once again reached out to
Crossroads for help.

This shipment will include household, school and hospital furniture, medical
equipment, flooring for bare concrete floors, musical instruments, sporting
goods, computers, electrical appliances and more

One district music school needed to provide tuition for all local children but they did not have enough instruments. Musical instruments and other items from Crossroads’ shipments help fill the gap, giving opportunities to underprivileged students.

Children in a village kindergarten get a preview of some of the educational toys sent in a previous shipment from Crossroads.  The parents and teachers also appreciate all the clean, sturdy furniture. This shipment will include more school furniture to upgrade under-resourced village schools.

Computers and peripherals like printers sent in our previous shipments to these partners have enabled the clinics and hospitals that received them to streamline and improve treatment as staff no longer need to search and write up card files and can also do research online instead of going to a university library.

Ukraine’s doctors and other medical staff are known for being well-trained and working devotedly even in severely under-resourced conditions.

Funds were provided to upgrade the buildings in the region where our partner works, but nothing for furniture or equipment. Much of their furniture was decades old and very run down (pictured above). So, when Crossroads sent a shipment full of hospital beds like those below, they were greeted with overwhelming gratitude.  Our partners said, “There are no such beds made or available locally!”  The fully adjustable beds have already benefited hundreds of patients.

This shipment will include more goods to give urgently-needed upgrades to health and educational facilities, as well as other institutions.

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Youth empowerment and job creation

Zambia has faced an unsteady economy in recent years, and nowhere is that more visible than in the nation’s rural areas. Here, the poverty rate is almost triple that of people living in urban areas. HIV/AIDS is still endemic, affecting over 11% of the population.

Our partners in Zambia understand that for their communities to grow it is important to focus on the youth as they will be the generation to make big changes. They face a challenge as, according to UNESCO, Zambia ranks 168^th out of 197 countries in secondary school education.

These struggles are felt more in rural areas, with even higher dropout rates amongst girls. Our partners said, “It was found that some girls fail to continue with their education due to domestic chores, early marriages or them becoming pregnant”. Our partners have been working to help their communities by establishing firm foundations of education, vocational programmes and medical centres.

This shipment will allow our partners to provide these services and give them the opportunity to increase the number of people they can help. In this shipment we are hoping to include office and school furniture, household goods, tools, and medical supplies and equipment.

E’s story

E’s father was killed in an armed robbery when E was young; his mother later also passed away. As the oldest, E struggled to provide for his younger siblings, and due to sickness, he failed his secondary school exams. Without completing his education, E worried that his chance of employment was low. Our partners met with E and enrolled him in their construction training program. Today, E builds houses for a living and can financially support his siblings.

This shipment will include equipment so that our partner can offer this and other training schemes to more people in the community.

K’s story

After her father become unable to provide for his family due to alcoholism, K was forced to drop out of school and find work so that the household had an income.

When our partners heard of her situation, they enabled her to return to school. Once she left secondary school, she enrolled with a university to study medicine. K has recently graduated and is now waiting to start work for the government practicing medicine.

Goods from this shipment will help our partners to better equip their community’s schools and universities so that they can continue to reach out to people like K and give them a solid foundation for a bright future.

This building was damaged after a local environmental disaster. Graduates from our partners’ construction training programs can help rebuild this and other damaged buildings, providing them with income and helping the community recover and grow.

Graduation day: Graduates from schools assisted by our partner NGO celebrate their success. These graduates include those from medical school, training courses in plumbing and construction and students of agriculture This shipment will help our partners better equip these schools.

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Rescue and rehabilitation for survivors of trafficking

It is tragic but true that Mali is a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children subjected to forced labour and sex trafficking. Children and young people from both local minority groups and from nearby countries are targeted for trafficking, some as young as seven years old.

Crossroads’ partner on this shipment works together with international partners and local law enforcement in rescuing, rehabilitating, tracing families and returning victims to their homes  when is safe to do so.  They run shelters which are constantly bursting at the seams and are in the process of setting up vocational training courses for adult survivors of trafficking that will give them employable skills. We will be shipping household furniture, appliances and supplies for these hostels, office equipment and computers, school supplies and vocational training equipment and clothing. The shipment will also include toys for children who have been rescued, some of whom are young. We’re grateful to all who are contributing to this shipment, helping reclaim lives and childhoods.

Many of the foreign women and children rescued in Interpol raids in human trafficking hotspots around Mali will be cared for in our partners’ projects

Left: This teenager had help establishing her official identity after being trafficked, so she could return to her family in Nigeria.

Right: Our partners helped this young local woman set up her own small business after she was rescued.

The Djenne mosque, the largest mud brick building in the world, is the symbol of Mali.

In a land where the majority of the population are rural agricultural workers, cattle are wealth.

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Poverty relief and development

The combined ravages of conflict, HIV/AIDS, a yellow fever epidemic, increasing concentration of wealth in certain regions and now Covid-19 are exacerbating poverty in Nigeria, affecting those struggling to live on small farms and in city slums.  According to UN statistics, the rates of food insecurity and malnutrition have doubled in the past 2 years.

Crossroads is shipping to a group who had already been working with fringe urban and rural communities when local conditions started deteriorating.  Demands on their programmes in child nutrition & health, disability support & training, gender equity, and enterprise development have increased dramatically during this time.  They have reached out to Crossroads for help in meeting these increasing needs.

This shipment will include clothing and basic household furniture and textiles for meeting immediate needs as well as school and office furniture, tools and machinery for vocational training, computers, electrical appliances and stationery supplies.

Bicycles and tents will be used to enable workers to reach more remote areas, while toys and musical instruments will be used to invest in local children’s homes and schools.

Crossroads’ partner group runs free literacy & numeracy classes for young people unable to attend school for economic reasons. They also provide vocational & business skills training for the many unemployed young people in slums and farming communities.

The challenge of clean water access means that many people in rural areas are at constant risk of intestinal troubles and diseases caused by mosquitoes and water-borne parasites.

Cassava is a staple food crop in the area where our partners work.  It requires intensive preparation which is done by women and children.

Both Mary  and Jane  have similar backgrounds.  They had married in their early teens, quickly become pregnant and been deserted by their husbands when their babies were born.

Far away from their home village support networks and with no experience or training in childcare or nutrition, Mary and Jane’s babies did not thrive and the desperate young mothers considered simply abandoning the children.

Volunteer mentors working with our partner were able to come alongside Mary and Jane with the practical and emotional support they needed.

Now the children’s health has improved greatly and both mothers are now undergoing vocational and business training that will enable them to continue caring for and supporting the children as they grow up.

This shipment will include goods to support young mothers and their children to help them thrive.

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WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING?

This shipment has arrived. Click here to read more!

While Israel is a developed nation, with high literacy, the gap between
rich and poor is significant. The region’s most vulnerable, such as those
with disabilities, single-parent families, new immigrants and people
injured through terrorism and conflict are often living below the poverty
line and struggling to afford the basics of life.

Covid-19 has created even more challenges for those already in poverty in
Israel, increasing unemployment and decimating small businesses and
day labour jobs that rely on tourism.

Our partners in Israel are acutely aware of the needs around them, and
for more than 16 years, they have been supplying humanitarian aid
stations all over Israel with needed goods. The projects they serve include
new immigrants, the homeless, unemployed people, children’s welfare
villages, Holocaust Survivor centres, facilities for the disabled and other
institutions.

Crossroads is well-placed to ship containers of valuable aid goods to our
partners in Israel, where their channels of distribution are efficient and
effective, bringing much-needed relief to thousands each year. They have
requested Crossroads’ help with goods like clothing, bedding, toys and
household goods for their centres.

Helping new immigrants battling poverty

Omida, a single mother from Uzbekistan,
moved to Israel hoping to escape the poverty
she had known all her life, but when she
resettled, she found it very difficult to move
beyond that poverty. Our partners have
helped her with clothing, baby goods and
other things to relieve some of the burden on
Omida as she seeks to create a better life for
her little one. This shipment will include goods
to help provide relief and support for single
parent families and immigrants like Omida,
while they establish a new home

Vulnerable groups like holocaust survivors (below), elderly, those with disabilities
and new immigrant all appreciate the relief that donations of material goods
through our partners’ network of centres can bring.

During recent lockdown in Israel due to Covid-19, Crossroads’ partners brought containers of much-needed aid to projects serving people who were already poor, and now struggling further.

One centre in Nazareth who received essentials like furniture, clothing, shoes and bedding, said, “I can’t even express how happy they were, how they hugged these shoes, how it’s very important to them. Some have never received a gift like this in all their life, because it’s very expensive. One guy wanted to kiss the shoes, to put them under his pillow.”

The words show how much it means to those in need to know that there are others who care enough to help.

This shipment will include goods that can bring hope and relief to those living without basic necessities