Children & Youth
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Photo: Sean Sheridan for Mercy Corps
Teaching the next generation and keeping them healthy are essential to tomorrow's strong, vibrant societies. Mercy Corps works with communities to shelter and nurture children and youth through innovative education, sports and job training programmes.
Through the power of sports, community service and vocational training, we empower young people to make smart life choices and find a productive place in the changing global economy.
Our signature Comfort for Kids programme focuses on helping children process trauma after natural disasters and conflict. See our expert's recommendations for how parents and caregivers can help children through times of crisis ▸
All stories about Children & Youth
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Iraq: 'Nothing equals education' May 23, 2011
Forty-four-year-old Kareem Kateh has been a farmer in southern Iraq his entire life. He didn’t have many other options: the nearest school was too far away to complete his primary school education. Still he made a good living, and was able to buy a large plot of land for his family.
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Japan: Keeping a space safe May 15, 2011
I was really excited about today's possibilities for stories here in Japan; we were going to see Comfort for Kids activities in the city of Kesennuma. But, as soon as we arrived at our destination, everything changed.
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Haiti: Finding peace and serenity in Haiti May 4, 2011
After warming up outside with a name game, the children return to the classroom for their next activity. The mentor asks them to close their eyes and focus on their breathing. They have just had an outdoor activity and it’s time to slow down — it’s time for meditation.
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Haiti: In Haiti, children giggle with delight May 2, 2011
I met Guivens Cemervil for the first time when he traveled to Mercy Corps headquarters in Portland, Oregon last January on the anniversary of Haiti’s earthquake. His story is remarkable: he was the only survivor in his university’s classroom of 60 to be unharmed.
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Guatemala: The different sparks of a cooking recipe April 29, 2011
Part of the health and nutrition strengthening strategies used by Mercy Corps' PROCOMIDA programme with Guatemalan communities consists of recipe demonstrations to beneficiary mothers.
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Iraq: Arazu's dream April 27, 2011
One of the participants in the Mercy Corps Iraq-sponsored Creating Murals For Kalar Kindergarten project — in which art students paint murals on local school walls — is 22-year-old Arazu Hassan Salih.
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Guatemala: PROCOMIDA meeting in an Alta Verapaz village April 26, 2011
Women and their children attend a workshop put on by Mercy Corps' PROCOMIDA programme, which helps improve the nutritional status and health of women and children in some of Guatemala's poorest areas.
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Guatemala: Traveling the roads of resilient children April 26, 2011
I recently went to visit the communities of Yalchactic I and Salvador Chizol, near the city of Cobán in Guatemala's mountainous Alta Verapaz region. A large portion of the access roads to these communities are in very bad shape.
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Japan: Back to school again! April 23, 2011
This week brought an important step in the attempt to return to some sort of normalcy in the tsunami-affected area of Japan. School started again.
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Iraq: "Disability does not stand between a man and his aspirations" April 19, 2011
"Disability does not stand as obstacle between a man and his aspirations. The real disability is the disability of will and determination," 21-year-old Hassan told me.