These 10 stories about children overcoming horrible odds, with the help of our partners and you, provide inspiration and, ultimately, motivation. This is why our mission is to protect and empower our world’s young, and our vision is to create a rising generation free to thrive and create positive change. It’s because our youth can do amazing things, if only given the opportunity.

Enock’s childhood was marred by the abandonment of his father because of a condition in Enock’s eye, poverty, the abuse of a stepfather, and homelessness. With the help he received at a Hope for Justice lighthouse, though, his life is now completely different.

Trauma-informed care and counseling helped her form the aspiration to become a doctor.

She was isolated and unable to attend school because of the pain and stigma. Now she’s going to school and helping others.

Because of her testimony, her trafficker was sentenced to two years in prison. She is now going through vocational training and preparing for an independent life.

Because of the help she received at Hope for Justice’s Mary Lighthouse, she’s moving past not only the trauma inflicted by the sexual exploitation she endured, but also the drug addiction she acquired to cope with it.

This, after she was tricked by a girl pretending to be her friend into a situation where she was repeatedly raped and forced to prostitute herself. 

Despite a rocky beginning when YLA classes moved online because her family had no internet service or computers, Raquel was determined to continue her studies.

Currently, because of the Foundation and our YLA sponsors, she and her siblings have the equipment and internet service they need to excel in school.

Once she realized, though, that she could sell the bracelets she made and donate part of the proceeds to the Foundation, her little business took off.

Now, he’s heading to a university to study Information Technology and Computer Science/Engineering.

Once Gloria Emilia graduates from Escalera, she plans to study nursing so that fewer people in her community die from the lack of doctors. 

She’s 15 years old and lives in the town of Benito Juárez, Chiapas, Mexico, Mexico’s poorest state. Her father works on a farm and her mother works in their home, raising her and five siblings. 

Despite the challenges of poverty, crime, and COVID-19 restrictions—challenges which daunt many of us to the point of exhaustion—these children persist. To those donors who have helped us provide the tools and resources they need to thrive and become self-sufficient, we add our gratitude to the childrens’: they couldn’t have done it without you.

And to anyone of any age who wonders if they too can overcome seemingly insurmountable odds, please draw inspiration from these children’s stories and know that you too—with diligence, charity, and the help of others—can succeed.