We aim to reach the world's most vulnerable children who have come from some of the most appalling backgrounds having experienced ordeals such as abandonment, loss of parents, sexual abuse, neglect, physical abuse, living on the streets or prostitution.

Some of the children arrive at orphanages or care centres as young as a few weeks old because their families simply cannot afford to raise them, unfortunately not an uncommon occurrence in some parts of the world.

Others have been removed from their families or care givers having found their way through the social welfare system, perhaps as a result of sexual or physical abuse.

Some are street children. Children of all ages can end up living and working on the streets and the experiences that have led them there may be one of many.

Here are just 3 of the lives that we have encountered around the world:

• A father had been sexually abusing his 8 year old daughter for some years - the police asked an NGO children's centre to take her and her younger sister in.


• A 14 year old boy had been living on the streets for the past 2 years. He shared that he ran away because after his mother had died, his alcoholic father's physical abuse worsened and it became unbearable to live with. As they lived in a country where the authorities didn't reach him, he felt his only option for survival was to live on the streets alone.


• An orphanage, founded and run by a local couple, periodically confronted the illegal brothels in their country to find young children living & working there. We encountered a 9 year old girl who had lived and worked at the brothel after losing both parents to AIDS. The couple of the centre rescued her and gave her a new, safe home.

AMARA aims to reach all such children to help deal with their traumatic backgrounds.

We need your help.