We Love Kids: A Brief Introduction
This blog is posted with permission. You can learn more at welovekids.org, or contact Joni Flye here.
Distribution of books and uniforms in Stieng and Cambodian villages, Eastern Cambodia
What is We Love Kids?
We Love Kids began in 2003, as I (Joni Flye) and those working alongside me saw the unmet needs of the children being reached with the gospel message in Vietnam and Cambodia.
We Love Kids aids in the prevention of human trafficking and endemic poverty through education in Vietnam and Cambodia. Working with and through local churches in both countries, We Love Kids provides full or supplemental scholarships for students of all ages, including university. Local churches on the ground reach these children with the two-handed gospel, both with the verbal message of Jesus Christ, and by loving their non-churched neighbours through practical assistance for children in their communities. We Love Kids also provides needed transportation, medical aid and rice subsidies. To date, over 2000 children have received supplemental scholarships. Currently 350 children are being helped in the two nations.
A brief history…
One of the Vietnamese churches in the We Love Kids scholarship program
We Love Kids started in 2003, during the time Joni was living in Vietnam as a missionary. She felt that just offering the gospel message to children living in dire poverty was not really fulfilling the Great Commandment of loving one's neighbors. Beginning very simply with a once-a-week rice box program down in a slum area of Ho Chi Minh city with a group of dedicated local Christians, it slowly expanded. When Joni began working in Eastern Cambodia a few years later, the poverty in the northern provinces bordering Vietnam was even more severe.
Realizing that the only way to permanently solve the problems of endemic poverty, We Love Kids was founded and began sponsoring children. In Vietnam these students went to local schools, but from 2005-2015, Joni and local workers ran their own neighborhood school, teaching basic reading, writing, and arithmetic studies in both Vietnamese and Khmer languages for 70 Vietnamese migrant children. These children are grown today, and many have returned to Vietnam. Some of them have become Christians.
We Love Kids scholarship students from the Katu minority group
Currently…
Today, the focus of We Love Kids is working with 150 students in the southern parts of Vietnam, Cambodian students, as well as the Stieng minority group in Eastern Cambodia in small villages in the province of Kratie. This aid allows for supplemental and full scholarships to students from primary grades through Grade 12.
Several of our Stieng students are about to graduate from high school, which is a first! To our knowledge, no Stieng children in Cambodia have ever been able to achieve a full high school education.
Our Vision: the Salt-and-Light Project for Cambodia
Architect's rendering of the Salt-and-Light Secondary School
We Love Kids will continue helping these 350 children on through high school, and in some cases on the university. However, We Love Kids has an even bigger vision! In Eastern Cambodia, there is only one government school within more than a 50-mile radius. Secondary students must travel long distances on motorbikes (or hired motorbikes). Often students must pay extra "corruption money" to the teachers in order to have access to the lessons needed for their government exams.
Our vision is to build a Christian school in this area, with Christian curriculum a sports field, a dorm for 20 students, and community-based outreach development programs. This is a big vision, and one that needs the help of many partners! We Love Kids is in the process of raising $100,000 and and seeking a team of partners to help us to build a long-term sustainable education institution in this area, which will benefit not only students in the area, but the whole community.
Do you feel a desire to serve the nations, but are unable to live in a cross-cultural setting?
We Love Kids (welovekids.org) is seeking volunteer secretarial and promotions assistants who feel a dedication to missions in Southeast Asia. Those who volunteer long-term may seek to raise individual support, with the backing of We Love Kids. We Love Kids is also seeking a long-term operations director/s who are committed to missions. This position will be based in one’s home country. Please contact: joni@welovekids.org.
Joni with a Vietnamese child selling in the streets of Saigon
Joni Flye is the founder and director of We Love Kids and an AFM missionary. She started We Love Kids in 2003 by buying a pair of glasses for a little girl who was blind in one eye. Over the next 20 years, We Love Kids has grown, now working in 2 countries! You can learn more at welovekids.org, or contact Joni directly by email or by calling 913-499-9864.