Fifteen years ago this fall, AFFEO was founded on a simple but powerful idea: if vulnerable families were given tangible support — food, clothing, firewood — children could remain safely in the love of their own homes, not in orphanages or institutions. That vision, to see children in families, remains the same today — and it’s your generosity that makes it possible.
As the cold sets in soon, something as simple as a warm blanket or firewood can be the difference between a child staying safely at home or facing separation.
For families living in deep poverty, winter threatens more than comfort — it threatens family unity itself. When parents cannot provide warmth, children are at risk of being removed and placed in orphanages. Parents want nothing more than to protect their children, but poverty often puts obstacles in the way of keeping them safe under their own roof.
Across the globe, children will face life-threatening cold in the months ahead. In Ukraine, with forests destroyed or mined during the war, firewood is harder to come by for families. Our partners are already needing to secure firewood and transport it from further distances. Without warmth, parents struggle to keep their children safe from freezing temperatures.
Meanwhile in India, children often huddle under thin sheets as nighttime temperatures drop near freezing. A single blanket can mean the difference between shivering through the night or sleeping safe and warm.
Your gift can help change this.
In Ukraine, 80 families are in urgent need of firewood for five cold months from October to March. $75 can provide one family one month of firewood, offering stability in the midst of war.
In India, just $50 supplies five warm blankets that can protect children’s lives. Hundreds of families are in need.
When parents are equipped with the essentials to care for their children, poverty does not have the final word. Families stay together. Children are safe, warm, and deeply loved.
As one mother shared, “With firewood, I don’t have to choose between buying groceries or keeping my children warm.”
Will you prayerfully consider giving to provide warmth for children at risk?
Every blanket, every bundle of firewood is more than material support — it is a shield that protects children from the cold and from the heartbreak of separation.
Together, we are carrying forward the vision that launched AFFEO 15 years ago — keeping children where they belong: in families. Thank you for your generosity and living out Psalm 82:3 by “defending the weak and the fatherless, and upholding the cause of the poor and oppressed.”