Each year, on a certain day, we are showered by joyous choruses of “Happy Birthday”, we may get to blow out some candles, eat some cake, and maybe even unwrap some gifts. For our kids in Colombia, a birthday celebration means so much more.

We rescued Vung from child labour after she tragically lost both her parents before she was 10. She thrived at our Sophia Home and is now employed as a Medicaine Assistant at Pathay Hospital. She may have moved out of our Sophia Home, but she’ll always be one of our kids.

The Casa Monte Plata Children’s Homes in the Dominican Republic care for orphaned and at risk children in a safe and loving environment. The family has been added to since it welcomed two brothers; Franklin and Josue. 

Our work to help the victims of the Burma floods has stretched out into the wider areas of Chin State where 40 villages were destroyed by landslides as a result of the floods. Stand by Me’s team has reached 25 villages and over 6,000 people with essential supplies.

Stand by Me has two schools in Ethiopia, one situated in Bekoji and the other in Dembi Dollo. We are planning to take an educational team to Ethiopia, leaving around the 19^th March 2016 to help the two schools move towards more child-centred teaching approach.

Students and teachers alike at Immanuel School, suited up in their ‘onesies’ on Wednesday 16^th December not because they were cold, but because they were raising donations to buy shoes for the kids in our care.

The Abdi Academy in Dembi Dollo has had the addition of 40 bright smiling faces as we welcomed new students into Kindergarten 1. All of them have come from very disadvantaged families and were extremely excited to receive their new uniforms.

Our children’s faces were beaming with pride last year when we handed every child in our care a brand new pair of shoes! This year let's do it again!