Helping Children Grow Up In Loving Families

While we usually share stories about our wonderful families, there have been some recent changes to our leadership that impact all of the work of Children In Families (CIF).

In November, the Board of Directors of Children In Families announced the appointment of our new Executive Director, Sam Ol. Sam Ol has been a vital member of the CIF OSCAR team since 2016 and has 13 years of experience covering a range of senior management roles and responsibilities.

The Board expressed their sincere and heartfelt gratitude to Lynny, who has served as Executive Director for the past 7 years. Lynny took on the challenge of leading CIF in a very critical time of organizational growth, and then navigated CIF through all the unprecedented challenges that came with the COVID-19 years. Lynny is pursuing an advanced degree in Australia and we wish her all the best as she continues her studies throughout next year.

Sam Ol spoke of his new role, “Having experienced being a refugee myself, I understand the significance of a child growing up within a family. To make this a reality, a strong collaboration among all stakeholders is crucial. I firmly believe that through working together, we can address all emerging trends and social problems that could affect the welfare of children and their families. My vision for CIF is to serve as a catalyst for intervention, preventing family separation and ensuring that children, including children with disabilities, can flourish in a loving family environment."

We look forward to the leadership of Sam Ol. Like many organizations, these past few years CIF has experienced a financial strain that has forced us to re-evaluate our programs. Despite the challenges, we have seen seven adoptions legally finalized, 165 children and their families supported through our FOR-1 Project that works to keep children in their family of origin, 91 children in loving foster families, and at least 66 children with disabilities or chronic illnesses supported through our ABLE Project.

We also were able to support 17 of our poorest families through our IGA support packages, which is a tool to assess their strengths and help build on ways to increase their income. This means we either helped increase a family’s earning potential by providing them with more chickens or cows, seeds for a vegetable garden, or helping their already running small business increase capacity. Some examples include buying a small mill to grind soybeans to make cakes or increasing a small store’s inventory.

We could not accomplish this work with you, our donors. Your gifts this year have impacted hundreds of families.

In the words of one of our recent adoptive fathers, “My wife and I decided to foster a child because we love children, and we want to help abandoned children be fulfilled with family life and a good childhood. We don’t have our own child, so the first time we met Kosal, we felt compassion to provide all the best for him…. We have observed changes in our lives since Kosal joined our family. We are a bit busier in taking care of him, but we are happy. And we love to see his sweet smile. We decided to adopt him because we want him to be legally part of our lives and family.”