Imagining a New Life

By Stefan Lako, Programs Director Imagine a world in which you need to choose between starving with your children or selling one of them in order to survive. This is exactly the dilemma facing the majority of families living in rural Benin. According to a recent survey that our field team conducted, 53% of families sell at least one of …

Giving Tuesday

By Stefan Lako, Programs Director Giving Tuesday started 5 years ago as a way to counteract the patterns of consumerism that follow Black Friday and the post-Thanksgiving shopping tilt so many of us experience. The Christmas season for so many people is a time of stress and anxiety, filled with checking off gift lists. For most of us, we don’t …

Creating Opportunity

By Rebecca Pratt, President and Co-Founder This week I got a phone call from our Anti-Trafficking team in Benin saying that the two girls whom we rescued from slavery in January will be ready to attend school in October. This is an incredible miracle. Evie and Anna who are 10 and 11 years old have spent the last 5 years …

Creating an Identity

By Rebecca Pratt, President and Co-Founder Claude is a little boy who we recently prevented from being sold as a slave in rural Benin, West Africa.  Upon rescuing Claude and attempting to get him enrolled into school and on our feeding program, we realized he had no birth certificate. This is a necessary piece of paperwork for a child to …

Financial Accountability

What does it mean to utilize every dollar and remain financially transparent? Our Office Administrator shares her thoughts in this video about Financial Accountability.

A Mother’s Heart

By Rebecca Pratt, President and Co-Founder As Mother’s Day is approaching I am reflecting on the many conversations I have had with mother’s recently in Benin, West Africa. Conversations I never imagined I would be having in the course of my lifetime. Mother’s who have sold their children into slavery, mother’s who are contemplating selling a child, and mother’s who are …

#EndItMovement Red X

End It: Today and Every Day

By Genae Lako, Donor Relations and Communications Yesterday some of you may have noticed the red X plastered across your Facebook and Twitter news feed with a #EnditMovement hash tag. Or perhaps some of you may have sported your own X for the day. Vibrantly painted on the back of your hand, the X was a symbol that represented your …

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month

When the Impossible is Possible

By Genae Lako, Donor Relations and Communications January is Human Trafficking Awareness month, a time that is meant to bring about awareness of the current crisis facing our world in the form of slavery. This issue, particularly the trafficking of children, has grown dramatically over the last decade. Several years ago, Orphan Relief and Rescue was working to provide rescue …

Christmas Celebration

As a child, I remember Christmas morning as a time that was filled with anticipation and excitement. Before the sun would peak over the horizon, my siblings and I would bound out of our rooms, jumping on my still sleeping parents bed exclaiming that Christmas had come. Of course all the while jumping up and down with exuberance that only …