Optimistic Voices

Send us Fan Mail Sixteen-year-old Musu Sangu faced a devastating diagnosis in Sierra Leone—a life-threatening heart condition requiring specialized surgery unavailable anywhere in her country. With her heart functioning at just 20% capacity and given only a 40% chance of survival, Musu's future looked grim. But what followed was an extraordinary demonstration of global compassion that would s...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to a transformative episode that dives deep into saving lives through improved maternal health in Sierra Leone. We share inspiring stories from a recent training conference in Kenema, focusing on the critical role midwives play in reducing maternal and infant mortality rates. You'll hear from Matron Mary Augusta Fuller, Chief Nursing and Midwifery Officer, who shares...

Send us Fan Mail Join us for a deeply inspiring episode that follows the miraculous journey of baby Joseph, born against all odds in a rural clinic in Sierra Leone. This episode highlights the intense realities faced by healthcare workers like midwife Hawa Zoker, caught in a life-or-death situation while managing multiple deliveries. Tune in to hear about the pivotal moment when help arrived in th...

Send us Fan Mail The episode shares Ishmael's inspiring journey from pain to healing through the compassionate care provided by Mercy UMC Hospital. Listeners learn how community support and dedicated healthcare professionals can create incredible transformations in children's lives. • Ishmael's broken body and his mother's desperate journey for help • Dr. Morie Vandi’s commitme...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to the first episode of Season of the Optimistic Voices podcast of Helping Children Worldwide. This is a REBROADCAST of Episode 1, Season 3, because we are once again heading to West Africa on this collaborative mission to save the lives of mothers and infants - and going upstream in our mission to prevent unnecessary orphanhoods from occurring. We help children worldwide...

Send us Fan Mail Curious about how sustainable development models can transform entire communities? Our latest episode promises to unravel this by sitting down with Melody Curtis, the inspiring Executive Director of Helping Children Worldwide. Discover how her organization transitioned from temporary relief to an empowerment approach, fostering resilient communities and strong families. Melody sha...

Send us Fan Mail Explore the power of transformation and empowerment in this special retrospective episode of Optimistic Voices. Join Dr. Laura Horvath, Emmanuel Nabeu, and Yasmin Vaughn as we promise to uncover the compelling journey of Helping Children Worldwide (HCW) through 2024, celebrating remarkable milestones and visionary shifts in global leadership. We reflect on standout episodes that s...

Send us Fan Mail Join us on a transformative journey as we explore the profound shift from orphanage care to family-based support in Sierra Leone and beyond. Featuring insights from George Kulanda, the case management supervisor at the Child Reintegration Center, and David Titus Musa, a senior consultant at the Center, this episode promises a deep dive into the complexities and triumphs of reinteg...

Send us Fan Mail Ever wonder what it truly means to be a part of the Peace Corps, especially in a country with such a rich history like Sierra Leone? Our guests, Nat Kofi Abu-Bonsrah, a current volunteer, and Michael Lee, a returned volunteer and president of Friends of Sierra Leone, share their inspiring journeys. Nat provides a unique perspective on his role in sustainable development, while Mic...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when five remarkable young adults transition from the regimented life of an orphanage to the uncharted reality of post-orphanage life? Join us on Optimistic Voices as we welcome these inspirational individuals who grew up at the Child Rescue Center Orphanage in Sierra Leone and now stand as influential care leaders. From navigating transportation challenges and irregu...

Send us Fan Mail What if your church could transform lives across the globe while strengthening your local community? Discover how two Virginia pastors, Reverend Gina Anderson-Cloud and Reverend Jason Duley, have achieved this through enduring partnerships with NonProfits such as She Believes in Me, CornerStone, Backpack Buddies, and Helping Children Worldwide. Hosted by Emmanuel Nabieu, this epis...

Send us Fan Mail Why do African social workers believe that it is essential that local governments, foreign donors, and parents understand that children living in orphanages should be returned to family homes? Join us as we explore the profound journey and epic revelations of two social workers devoting their careers to making this change across the continent of Africa, starting with orphanages in...

Send us Fan Mail Discover the unforeseen ripple effects of child sponsorship programs with Dr. Laura Horvath, Jared Scheppman, and Kelly Strong as we dissect the challenges and triumphs in philanthropy's evolving landscape. As we navigate this complex terrain, our guests reveal how well-intentioned aid can sometimes miss the mark, inadvertently creating dependencies that hobble the very commu...

Send us Fan Mail Part One: Discover the transformative power of reimagined humanitarian aid in our latest episode of Optimistic Voices. Join me, Dr. Melody Curtis, along with experts Dr. Laura Horvath, Jared Scheppman, and Kelly Strong, as we share our journey from traditional child sponsorship models to a new paradigm that champions community empowerment. We're peeling back the curtain to re...

Send us Fan Mail When Barbara Sprout accompanied her daughter Kim to Sierra Leone on a mission trip with their church,  little did she know it would mark the beginning of an incredible journey, not just for Kimberly, but also for her and her husband Rick, filled with deep connections and life-altering experiences. Rick joined a volunteer crew at the church to pack a container filled with hospital...

Send us Fan Mail Step into the heart of Sierra Leone with us on Optimistic Voices, where Carrie Jo Cain from CHAMPS imparts her wisdom on neonatal mortality and the life-saving power of evidence-based training. Through our conversation, we celebrate a major leap in maternal and child health, with 80 trainees now armed with the expertise to tackle challenges like bleeding after birth and birth asph...

Send us Fan Mail When Americans and others living in the global north (aka Westerners) think about trafficking, they tend to have an image of a child being kidnapped by a bad guy, and then sexually exploited.  While that is certainly a trafficking issue, there are all kinds of child trafficking.  You may not have heard of orphanage trafficking before today, but it is real and real life horror stor...

Send us Fan Mail Host Dr. Laura Horvath is joined by Short Term Mission Leader for the Teachers' Learning Collaborative,  Sharon Gardner from Grapevine, Texas Sharon is the project lead teacher. She has traveled six time to participate in Short Term Mission  in Sierra Leone, every year since 2016 with the exception of HCW's Covid restricted travel period.  Sharon is also a 2018 recipient...

Send us Fan Mail Your Optimistic Voices Podcast Host, Yasmine Vaughan, discusses appropriate training for Short Term Mission (STM) Teams to ensure ethical missions with Guest, Andrea Kroeze. Helping Children Worldwide engages with individuals interested in short and long term missions overseas and provides training for STM deployment. In our Season One episode with Eli Oswald of Faith to Action &q...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Carol McIntosh was born in Brooklyn, NY although her family roots are based in Carriacou, Grenada. She graduated from Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction and obtained her medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical School in 1987. Dr. McIntosh is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and is a Fellow of...

Send us Fan Mail  At our Rising Tides conference in March, Dr. Carol McIntosh presented on being a giver and a receiver of medical missions.  Dr. Carol McIntosh was born in Brooklyn, NY although her family roots are based in Carriacou, Grenada. She graduated from Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction and obtained her medical degree...

Send us Fan Mail Jennifer Suma Tharmu and Emmanuel “Nabs” M. Nabieu reflect on their shared and individual experiences of being rescued orphans living in a good orphanage, and the good and bad legacies of that childhood. Certified Nursing Assistant at Medstar Hospital . One of the first 40 children recruited and taken to live in the Child Rescue Centre Orphanage at the end of the Sierra Leone Civi...

Send us Fan Mail Yasmine Vaughan shares another incredible breakout session from HCW’s Rising Tides 2023 Together for Global Health. This informative session on the practice of midwifery in low to middle income countries was conducted by Jennifer Stevens. Midwifery centers are a community-based approach to addressing maternal mortality by increasing access to quality care that strengthens health s...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode host Yasmine Vaughan  will be following up on our 2023 Rising Tides Conference, held in Washington, DC in early March. The attendees voted on a session they would like to do a deeper dive into, and this is the session that was chosen from the conference was "localization." So today we are going to talk about localization with Doug Fountain.  Doug Fountain...

Send us Fan Mail Host Yasmine Vaughan is joined by the Rising Tides Global Health conference support Intern, Tanatswa Sambana to share tidbits of interest they gleaned from the expert presentations at the Rising Tides 2023: Together for Global Health conference, which was held in Washington, DC on March 3-4 2023.  Over the course of a day and a half, conference speakers shared a wealth of informat...