April 4, 2010 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Rob Hoskins has dedicated his life to helping youngsters like Maria, a 13-year-old girl he met in Nicaragua.
Her father had left to go to America, and when he didn’t return, her mother moved away with another man. That left Maria to provide for herself and her three younger brothers, a challenge so stressful she considered becoming a prostitute or killing herself and her brothers. Then a local church sent volunteers to the school that one of Maria’s brothers attended. Mr. Hoskins says the biblical books and other support the church provided helped Maria find a way to cope.
Providing youngsters with education and support that can change their lives is why OneHope was founded in 1987 by Mr. Hoskins’s father, Bob, a missionary and former publisher who saw a need for simple, relevant materials for the troubled children, including child soldiers, he encountered in his work around the world.
The charity’s first program began in El Salvador, and the organization has since spread to 124 other countries. Its strongest presence is in Africa and Latin America.
OneHope creates a series of activities and instructional materials designed for different age groups and cultures that use Bible parables and real-life stories to deter youngsters from prostitution and drug abuse and help them cope with loneliness, rejection, low self-esteem, and bullying.
The group conducts research on the needs of children in regions it serves and shares its findings and resources online with other ministries.
It also uses the research to shape the materials it distributes so they will be culturally relevant. In Swaziland, for example, it recruited older female volunteers to teach children how to build self-esteem and value other people, lessons that it hoped would cause youngsters to stay away from activities that lead to HIV/AIDS, a major problem in the country.
The charity measures its success by examining how children’s attitudes and values shift after completing the curriculum. OneHope relies not just on books but also on techniques such as short animated films, and it is now experimenting with ways to deliver its messages through cellphones.
OneHope works with local governments and churches that seek its assistance. Mr. Hoskins says the group reached 82 million children last year.
The group’s budget in 2009 was about $24-million, raised mostly from corporations and individuals.
“I believe a small ray of hope can transform a child’s destiny,” Rob Hoskins says. “Through that hope, we address the systemic issues that our children in the world face today.”
Here, children in Benin show their enthusiasm for a French-language version of a OneHope book.
