Children in Families (CIF) is a nonprofit Christian organization established by Dale and Cathleen Jones in Cambodia. Initially, the Joneses ran an orphanage in the 1990s. They soon realized that it could not provide as efficient care as families would and founded CIF to help Cambodian children grow up in an environment that is best for their development. Cathleen Jones said that

“Our role at CIF is to help Cambodian parents fulfill their God-given responsibility to children, not to take their kids away.”

The organization’s goal is to place as many orphans in loving foster families as possible and to support impoverished families in raising their own children or becoming foster parents and taking a child into their home and family instead of sending them to orphanages. CIF provides $40 to $150 per month, depending on the child’s age, medical need, and disability.

The CIF vision is based on the belief that children develop best in families in a community where multiple foster families help each other raise the children, who in many cases need special help. The first of these communities was in a village near Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where the children had access to school and medical facilities, and CIF could closely monitor the development of the foster program.

Initially, Christian families were the ones taking children into their care. Still, after witnessing the success of the program and the joy that the children bring to the families, more and more Buddhist families overcame the belief that disabled children bring bad karma to the house and joined the program as well.

Overall, CIF helped to find foster families for more than 160 children in orphanages. They are present in three provinces, as well as Phnom Penh. In each community, there are at least three foster families near each other for support and help raising the children. Besides financial support, CIF provides training to foster parents on hygiene and parenting.

Sadly, due to financial problems caused by COVID-19 and the following economic crisis, CIF had to stop accepting children into the program temporarily. Despite all of the issues, CIF is doing its best to help children grow up in the best environment possible.

Source: Christianity Today