Our Vision | A world where every child has a loving and secure home.
Phil Littleton, Holt’s president and CEO, shares a message with child sponsors about the holistic care and services their monthly gifts make possible for children in need.
I want to tell you a story about a girl named Ju who was left at the gates of an orphanage in China.
Continue reading “How Sponsors Help Care for Every Child in Need”
Holt families and donors share about the impact that Molly Holt had on them and their children — and how her legacy continues on in their service to children with special needs.
The daughter of Holt’s founders, Harry and Bertha Holt, Molly Holt dedicated her life to children.
Continue reading “Continuing Molly Holt’s Legacy”
Nine-year-old Wilder needs an adoptive family!
Wilder’s caregivers describe him as a quiet and shy boy, but they say he is more talkative with his close friends. His caregiver says that he can be silly and cheerful with the people he is most comfortable around.
Continue reading “Wilder Needs an Adoptive Family!”See what a day is like in the life of one sponsored child and her family in rural Uganda. This story originally appeared in Holt’s fall 2016 sponsorship magazine.
Meet Sophia. Sophia lives with her grandmother and four of her cousins in a small farming community recovering from both the spread of HIV and years of brutal conflict in central Uganda. Sophia has lived with her grandmother since she lost her mother when she was 10 years old.
Now 13, Sophia is in the sixth grade and she aspires to be a nurse. With the support of sponsors, Sophia and her cousins have everything they need to stay in school and thrive in the loving care of their grandmother. View the slideshow above to learn what daily life is like for Sophia and her cousins and how Holt sponsorship supports them every step of the way.
Not yet a sponsor? Your monthly support can help provide everything a child needs to thrive, from nourishing food and safe shelter to the love of a devoted family or caregiver. Visit Holt’s sponsorship webpage to learn about a child who needs you.
Prisha was afraid. Weeks before, their neighborhood was declared a “COVID containment zone” due to the rapid spread of COVID-19 in India. She worried about what would happen to her and her community. Then Prisha and her mom got the news they feared most: they had tested positive.
Continue reading “You Went Into the COVID ‘Containment Zone’”
Foster parenting can be challenging, but parents who welcome children with compassion, empathy and no expectations will have the most success.
Parenting a child is a challenging task. And when it comes to parenting a foster youth, that challenge increases — but not because of the child. As one former foster youth observed, the increased challenge comes from what this child has endured, and the survival techniques they have developed to adapt to living in the system.
“Everyone thinks that we’re such bad people,” Dawna Hovenier shared in the 2016 Casey Family Programs video, “Former Foster Youth Share Their Stories.” “We are not bad people. We just had terrible circumstances in which we were brought up …There’s so much more to a child than just their behaviors. I mean, I felt like my life was on hold and I didn’t learn a lot of skills I needed to for when I turned 18.”
Continue reading “Perspectives All Foster Parents Should Embrace”
Happy Father’s Day 2021!
This one is for all the fathers out there. The dads who encourage and uplift. The dads who challenge us to fly and have our backs when we fall. The ones who run alongside us, take us on adventures and keep us safe. From guiding our first steps to seeing us succeed, fathers offer constant support and unconditional love.
On Father’s Day, we honor and celebrate all the men who helped us grow into the people who we are meant to be. Whether you call yourself a biological, foster or adoptive father, you’re a dad, and we appreciate you today and every day.
To the hardworking, strong and loving dads out there, this day is for you.
From all of us at Holt, Happy Father’s Day 2021!
In China, children living with HIV face intense stigma and discrimination. But through the kindness and generosity of Holt donors, they find love, care and compassion in Holt’s HIV group homes. This story originally appeared in Holt’s fall 2017 sponsorship magazine.
Most of the children here don’t know they are HIV+. It’s too risky.
Their teachers don’t know. Their neighbors definitely don’t know because if they did, they would have to move again. They’ve moved eight times in ten years, all 28 children. If their teachers knew, they would be isolated and discriminated against or even kicked out of their pricey private school — a school they attend because they don’t have to inform the principal of their disease.
Most of these children don’t even know about the disease in their blood — the disease that killed many of their parents, robbed them of their life in their villages and that was likely passed to them at birth.
They just know that they have strict rules to follow.
Absolutely no fighting. No rough housing. If they get a cut or a scratch, they have their own first aid kit. And they have Mr. Huang.
“The kids are happy now,” Mr. Huang says, his face worn and tired, his spiky, graying hair hinting at his age.
When children pass through the living room of the apartment, they stop to grab his hands or talk to him and his eyes soften as he greets them lovingly.
“They are too young,” Mr. Huang says. “They don’t understand their fate. But as they get older, they will learn. The discrimination will start. They will always have to keep their secret.”
This Father’s Day, honor a dad in your life with a gift to a struggling dad and his family in Holt’s programs across the world! Take this quiz to find out which Gift of Hope is best to give in his name…
Ash needs an adoptive family! He is a happy and friendly three-year-old boy waiting for a loving, permanent family.
Continue reading “Ash Needs an Adoptive Family!”