Child Impact
International is an organization
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that gives hope
and fosters permanent,
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positive change in the
lives of disadvantaged children
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and their communities.
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Countries include
Zambia, Kenya, India, Nepal,
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Bangladesh, Sri
Lanka, and Myanmar.
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Child impacts
investment in the lives
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of more than 3,500 children
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continues to
yield infinite returns.
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Outreach spans from child
rescue operations to providing
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an education and a home
for deaf and blind children
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and orphans.
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Above all, Child Impacts
sponsors give hope to the ones
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who need it the most.
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Hi. I'm Jim Rennie from
Child Impact International.
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And I just wanted to
take a moment to update
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you on the field in regards
to the challenges that we faced
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with COVID.
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In India,
Bangladesh, and Myanmar,
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unfortunately,
it's been pretty bad.
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And it's still is.
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Many of our staff and teachers
in the schools that we serve
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and also church
pastors and church workers
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have caught the virus.
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And sadly, some are passed away.
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To be honest, it's
been a real challenge.
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Most of the
schools are still closed.
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But I'm excited to announce
that in the next two weeks,
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the schools in India
are starting to reopen.
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Your ongoing support
during this crisis has made
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a real difference.
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It's made a difference in
the lives of the children.
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It's made a difference in
the lives of the teachers.
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But your ongoing support
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is really going to ensure
that some of these mission
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schools do remain open.
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Your contribution
to the Rice, Health,
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and Education appeal
has had a big impact.
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It has enabled us to
distribute over 20,000 sacks
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of rice to our
children, to the teaching staff,
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and to the pastors.
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Many of these workers have not
been paid or are on half wages.
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So your generous giving
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has had a real
impact on their lives.
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During this time,
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the where needed most fund
has been very well supported.
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And it's enabled us to
keep working in these difficult
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areas during the virus crisis.
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And just at our last meeting,
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last Sunday,
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we voted $90,000 to
help some urgently needed
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projects for our
mission schools in Bangladesh,
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we will implement
these when the schools open.
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And we're now
seeing the side effects
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or the downside of COVID.
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And in India,
there are thousands
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of COVID orphans.
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These are children
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who have lost both
parents or one parent,
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and they're
unable to cope anymore.
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These kids are
often rejected by the rest
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of the society or the village.
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And we're just so excited
that we've been able to take
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40 of these COVID orphans
into our home at Sunrise,
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and we're looking
at ways of working
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with the government to
support many more of them.
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We see it as a big opportunity
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and a new project for
Operation Child Rescue,
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and we're just so
excited about this.
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Some of you may know
that I'm stepping down as CEO,
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and I'll be returning to my
home country in New Zealand.
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And I just want to thank
you each one for the support
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that you have given me and
Child Impact over 14 years,
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you've seen the
organization grow,
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and we simply couldn't
have done it without you,
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the donor, you the sponsor.
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And I'm just so proud
of what we've achieved.
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But I'm just so
grateful to your generosity,
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and the blessings of the Lord.
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Well, today, I'm very
excited that I can introduce
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the new Child Impact
international CEO, Tom Evans.
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Tom, welcome to Child Impact.
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Thank you, Jim.
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I just want to
clarify something though.
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You said that
you're stepping down,
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but you're
actually not stepping away.
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We have met as a board
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and we would
really like to have you
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continue in a
role in particularly
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with India and Bangladesh.
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Can you share a
little bit about that?
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Yes, in these countries,
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we are facing a lot of
change a lot of challenges.
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And so we want to
conduct a full review
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of our education program
of our sponsorship program.
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There are challenges
with government regulation,
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with standards of
education, political issues.
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And so my job will
be to conduct a review
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and to make recommendations
to the Child Impact board.
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I've been operating in
those fields now for 14 years.
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And so I'm excited to
take on this challenge
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because it's really
needed at this time.
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And, Jim, I'm looking
forward to journeying with
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you in that and
having the benefit
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of all of your knowledge
of each of these projects.
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Thanks, Tom, and I can
continue to support you
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and your role as well.
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So tell us about Tom Evans.
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Sure.
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Look, I always start out
by saying I was born in Texas,
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you know, because everything's
bigger in Texas, right?
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But grew up in the Northwest.
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So that's where
the accent is from
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and had an opportunity
to attend Adventist schools.
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What a blessing.
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I remember, I went to
public school for one day, Jim,
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and I got kicked out
the first day of school.
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So they called my
parents to come pick him up.
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So that's when I
started my Adventist education.
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It's a big story,
but I won't go there.
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But in any
case, it's a blessing.
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And we're so blessed to
have those opportunities.
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I was able to
attend Newbold College
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over in England as well,
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and graduated from
Walla Walla University,
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and then also a couple
times from Andrews University.
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Right.
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And tell us about your family.
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Sure. That's the
most important part.
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I have three grown
daughters. And we have...
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They live in
Texas, and I have two boys
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that are both in
high school in academy.
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But that wasn't enough.
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We just adopted two boys
from an orphanage in Latvia.
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Wow. Yeah.
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And we really went out
because they're both...
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One is 13 and one is 12.
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So we get to enjoy them
for their whole teenage years.
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We've known the
boys for a while,
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they visited during
Christmas and summers.
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And we finally been able to get
that adoption pulled together.
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Tom, tell us about
the roles that you've held
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before coming
into this new position.
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Sure.
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I've been a pastor,
local church pastor,
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church planting has
been a big passion of mine,
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starting new churches.
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And during our time in Texas,
there as a departmental leader,
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we planted 114
churches in nine years.
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So that was quite an
adventure and exciting.
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But I went from there
to teach at the seminary
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at Andrews University.
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The interesting thing though,
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and how does that all
relate to Child Impact
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is whatever role
that I've been in,
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I've really, my desire, my heart
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is to look for those individuals
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that are
marginalized, neglected.
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And so working with
refugees or single moms
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or sponsoring
children, whatever that may be.
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That's always
been part of my heart
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and part of the
ministry I've been involved in.
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Wow.
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And what do you
see is the future?
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What excites you
about Child Impact?
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And what do you
see as the future?
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First of all, I think
Child Impact is a great name.
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I also like the name Operation
Child Rescue because I think
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in the name Child
Impact, it really encapsulates
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what is being done,
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it's making a difference
in the life of a child.
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And that difference begins,
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you know, with their Adventist
Mission School experience,
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but it extends to their family,
and it gives them a whole
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different
direction for their life.
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So I'm very
excited about the mission,
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what Child Impact
represents in terms
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of coming to this role.
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For me, it's exciting
to see an alignment between
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my personal passion, my
personal life, and my family
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and what we
represent and believe in,
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and the professional experience
of working with Child Impact.
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So that alignment is very
exciting to be able to spend
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time doing
ministry in a way that makes
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a difference for children.
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I'm excited about that. And
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Operation Child Rescue
is going to be a key part
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of our growth moving forward.
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Just tell us
about what do you think
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of Operation Child
Rescue and where it will go?
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Well, it was very interesting
because as I took on this role,
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people will be asking me,
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"Well, what does
Child Impact do?"
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And I would talk
about sponsorship
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and the schools in
different countries.
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But as soon as I
mentioned, human trafficking,
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the Child Impact is
involved in helping to stop
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these injustices,
this blight on our planet
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of human trafficking.
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The level of interest
in that is extremely high.
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And I find even young
adults, college students,
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this is something that
they want to make a difference
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with this particular area.
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And so the fact
that Child Impact
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is involved in human
trafficking in various ways,
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whether it be slave
labor or abandoned babies
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or vulnerable children,
due to being COVID orphans
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or even more
specifically, sex trafficking.
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The fact that we're
involved in those areas,
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I think, really is a
chance to raise public
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awareness to this
need, and to begin to see it
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and make a difference
for these kids that really
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have been
imprisoned against their will
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and to bring them freedom.
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I mean, what a
biblical responsibility,
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we have to look out for
these kinds of children.
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That's right.
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Well, the board
are very excited,
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the staff are very excited,
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the field are very excited
that Tom's come on board.
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And it will allow me
to focus on a big need
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of the challenges
we face in the field.
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And I will also give you,
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the supporter's confidence
that we're adding resources,
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and then we're
going to continue to grow.
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We live in difficult times,
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and we just ask
for your prayers,
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as we face new
challenges, new leadership,
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and especially for the
appealed and where we operate.
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Jim, I want to say a special
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thank you to you
for your leadership
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with Child Impact.
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I've come to an organization
to be a part of it that is,
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well run, ministry-focused,
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putting resources into the field
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where it matters most.
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I'm so excited for the various
projects that Child Impact
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is involved in helping
blind children, deaf children,
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orphans, COVID
orphans, Operation Child Rescue.
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There's so much happening,
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and there's so much
more that can happen.
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So I want to just
take this moment to say
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thank you to you as donors,
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you have made all this possible.
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There's so much more we can do.
00:11:21.14\00:11:22.94
But it isn't possible
without your support and help.
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So thank you for your
generosity over the years,
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I pray that will continue.
00:11:28.45\00:11:30.05
And we will keep you updated
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as we see many more
opportunities to make
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a difference in
the life of children.
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We just want to share with you
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some work that we're doing
with the COVID crisis in India.
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Unfortunately, one
of the side effects
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of thousands of people
dying in India from the virus
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is that there are now
what's called COVID orphans.
00:11:52.74\00:11:57.28
These children are children
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who have lost both
parents or one parent,
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and that parent is
either old or invalid or simply
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can't cope anymore.
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The Indian government
00:12:09.06\00:12:10.43
reports that there could
be up to 10,000 COVID orphans.
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And the other
problem with these kids
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is that they get
rejected by the family,
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they get
rejected by the society.
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And so we're excited that
we can help with this program.
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And we've taken 40
COVID orphans into Sunrise
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and to Operation Child Rescue.
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And Tom is here, Tom,
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this is an exciting
project that we can do.
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It is.
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And just the fact
that the government said,
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"Can you help?"
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And that we had the
space at this moment in time
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to be able to do that.
00:12:47.20\00:12:48.50
And I believe that
there'll be additional needs
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as this moves forward.
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But, yeah, we've put
that under the umbrella
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of operation child rescue.
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And certainly,
there's a need right
00:12:57.17\00:12:58.61
now to
participate in that program.
00:12:58.64\00:13:02.04
Yes, it's very exciting
that we can help these children.
00:13:02.08\00:13:05.58
And in fact, we're looking
for other ways in which we can
00:13:05.61\00:13:08.35
work with the
government to assist
00:13:08.38\00:13:10.52
these children in the crisis.
00:13:10.59\00:13:13.25
What will happen is that we will
00:13:13.29\00:13:15.96
keep them for at
least three months
00:13:15.99\00:13:18.03
and in that time, we
will assess their real needs
00:13:18.06\00:13:21.16
with their family,
00:13:21.20\00:13:22.53
and they may return to family,
00:13:22.56\00:13:24.63
they may return
to the community,
00:13:24.67\00:13:26.94
or we may accept
them into Sunrise Home
00:13:27.00\00:13:29.97
as full-time residents and
then they can be sponsored.
00:13:30.01\00:13:34.51
We're so excited that Operation
00:13:34.54\00:13:36.51
Child Rescue can
really take a stand,
00:13:36.54\00:13:39.98
take a position in
helping these children in need.
00:13:40.02\00:13:43.45
And we're working
with the Indian government
00:13:43.49\00:13:45.89
and using the resources
00:13:45.92\00:13:47.32
of the Sunrise to
make a difference.
00:13:47.36\00:13:50.69
If you would like to
be involved in helping
00:13:50.73\00:13:52.49
with COVID orphans,
00:13:52.53\00:13:54.23
the way to do
that is to contribute
00:13:54.30\00:13:56.06
to Operation Child Rescue.
00:13:56.10\00:13:57.87
You can find that
at childimpact.org
00:13:57.90\00:14:00.84
and simply donate to
Operation Child Rescue.
00:14:00.87\00:14:03.81
Thank you.
00:14:03.84\00:14:05.17