Project
Arms of Love deliver a range of community development to support people living in poverty to develop new skills and knowledge, we work with individuals, families and communities over long periods to support them to build their capacity to participate in their community and the workforce.
‘It’s not enough to take the person out of the slum, you need to take the slum out of the person’ ~ Allan Toole, Director Living Water Development
Breaking the cycle of poverty requires a change in mindset and attitude, the poverty mindset can be a cultural mindset that is passed down from generation to generation , in response to this we take a long term relational approach to Community Development, supporting families and communities in an area over a number of years.
There is no one size fits all approach to community development, instead we work alongside individuals, families and communities to support them to identify their own goals and then look for opportunities to help them achieve those goals, development looks different from community to community and so we are flexible in our approach and delivery of development activities. While we focus on activities that will build capacity of the individual over time we acknowledge that it can be difficult to focus on learning and development when you’re not sure of where you may sleep or when you will eat, and so Arms of Love also provides practical assistance to individuals and families including the provision of meals and food packs, clothing and other goods as required.
Arms of Love is currently focusing on Project Hope, where we support a small community of approximately ten families living in a slum area near to the foundation. We have been providing the families with education on water sanitation and hygiene and have installed rubbish bins that are emptied on a regular basis. We are also supporting the families by working with them to maintain and fix their homes and providing mattresses and bedding.
Arms of Love are also active deliverers of disaster relief activities and were quick to respond to the needs of individuals and families evacuating their homes during the 2017 Mt Agung eruptions.
Over 185,865 people, from 54,788 families evacuated their villages in the 12km exclusion zone around Mt Agung in September 2017, due to the imminent threat of Mt Agung erupting. Evacues left their homes, possessions and livelihoods behind and took up residence in refugee camps in neighbouring areas. Arms of Love visited the camps regularly during the crisis and distributed hygiene packs, food parcels, face masks (to reduce ash inhalation) and also generators.
Arms of Love also provided basic health checks to the evacuees, through the health checks one young girl Sinta was identified as having an unusual growth on her head, Arms of Love connected her family with specialist medical services who diagnosed Sinta with a brain tumour, Sinta has since been admitted for chemotherapy at Sanglah Children’s Cancer Ward and is now doing well.
Arms of Love are continuing to support Sinta and her family with regular visits and prayer.
HELP SUPPORT OUR WORK BY DONATING
