INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS
As a Christian community at Riverview Church, we believe we have a responsibility to act justly and to show mercy to the most vulnerable members of society – to both our local and international neighbours.
Riverview Children’s Foundation (RCF) was established in 2003 in response to the global issue of the exploitation of young people. Millions of children and youth around the world have been orphaned and abandoned, and are innocent victims of poverty, violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking.
RCF exists to make a significant difference in the lives of these young and desperate people. We do this by supporting best practice organisations that are giving special attention to the most vulnerable children and youth.
CAMBODIA
Cambodia is a country still recovering from its violent and traumatic history. Decades of civil war have left much of the country without an economic and social infrastructure. During the 1970's around one third of the population died during the infamous 'killing fields' of the Khmer Rouge regime, which has left the next generation struggling to rebuild. In particular, poverty and lack of education contribute to a large number of social problems in Cambodia.
More recently, the number of people infected with HIV/AIDS is increasing at an alarming rate throughout the country. Many children have been abandoned or orphaned by AIDS and are then easy prey for the traffickers of drugs, forced labour and prostitution.
Child prostitution is a serious problem in Cambodia. Lured from their homes in the provinces with promises of reputable jobs or sold by unscrupulous relatives, many young children end up working in brothels under slave-like conditions. UNICEF estimates that 30 to 35% of all prostitutes are children between the ages of 12 and 17 years.
In Cambodia, we support and partner with:
Empowering Cambodia
Flame Cambodia
Transform Cambodia
Cambodian Care
Stitches of Hope
AFRICA
Rwanda is a small, densely populated country located in central Africa. Between April and July 1994 the deliberate and systematic killing of one of the country's major ethnic groups left over 1 million people massacred. The country was left grief-stricken and devastated. Thirty years later, Rwanda has made remarkable progress with one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. Yet there is still much work to be done, with many rural communities struggling to pull themselves out of crippling poverty.
In Rwanda, we support and partner with:
Tanzania is a country in eastern Africa, approximately 68 percent of Tanzania's 44.9 million citizens live below the poverty line of $1.25 a day. 32 percent of the population are malnourished. The most prominent challenges Tanzania faces in poverty reduction are unsustainable harvesting of its natural resources, unchecked cultivation, climate change and water- source encroachment, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
46,000,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania do not have access to clean drinking water. That's the approximately 2 times the population of Australia! Over 4000 children die every year from diarrhoea from drinking contaminated water in Tanzania and 70% of households in Tanzania are without clean drinking water. Women and children, especially girls, carry the burden to collect water each day in Tanzania, resulting in walking for many kilometres, often leaving them in vulnerable situations and not allowing them to attend school to receive an education.
In Tanzania, we support and partner with:
INDIA
India is the 7th largest country by area and the 2nd most populous country with over 1.2 billion people. The human sex ratio is 940 females per 1000 males due to female infanticide and female foeticide. There are a total of 50 million more males than females in the nation. The payment of a dowry, although illegal, remains widespread across class lines. Deaths resulting from dowry disputes, mostly bride-burning, is on the rise. Child marriages are common, especially in rural areas with many Indian women marrying before the age of 18, which is the legal marriageable age.
It's estimated that millions of children in India live as modern-day slaves. They work in the fields, in factories, brothels and private households – often without pay and usually with no realistic chance of escaping. The majority of them are sold or hired out by their own families.
According to an Indian government census from 2001, this country of over 1 billion people has 12.6 million minors between the ages of 5 and 14 who are working. The real number is undoubtedly significantly higher because many children are not officially registered at birth and the owners of course do their best to keep the existence of child slaves a secret. Aid organizations estimate that three-quarters of all domestic servants in India are children, and 90 percent of those are girls. Although both child labor and child trafficking are illegal, police rarely intervene and the courts seldom convict child traffickers and slaveholders.
In India, we support and partner with:
TIMoR-LESTE
Timor-Leste is a small country in South-East Asia, located approximately 610 km’s northwest of the Australian City of Darwin. In 2002, Timor-Leste became the world’s newest nation when it achieved independence after several centuries as a Portuguese colony, 24 years of Indonesian rule and a brief period under the United Nations administration.
The East Timorese finally gained their freedom, but many paid with their lives. It’s estimated that one third of the population died as a result of the 24 year Indonesian occupation. In 1999, the violence that immediately followed the vote for independence, left over three quarters of the population displaced and the majority of the country’s infrastructure destroyed. What’s left is a young country trying to recover from its violent and traumatic history.
Timor-Leste is one of the world’s poorest nations, ranking 158th out of 179 countries according to the United Nations. With a population of just over a million people, two thirds are under the age of 25 years and an estimated 49.9 per cent live on less than US$1 a day.
The people have all suffered, but none more so than the children. During the violence, many children witnessed family members killed and mutilated and their homes burnt to the ground. Many children were left orphaned and vulnerable.
UNICEF and government statistics estimate that over 65% of children in Timor-Leste experience some form of abuse. Child sexual abuse is a serious problem within families and the majority of victims are girls. These girls are often labelled ‘damaged’ and are disowned by their families and communities.
There is a great need for places of refuge, protection and care for these children.
In Timor-Leste, we support and partner with: