In May this year Latvia joined the European Union and sometimes we are asked if we have noticed any differences yet. Three of our children who were able to stay with families in England during the summer and two who visited Sweden in October were happy to be able to skip the long queue at passport control for non-Europeans and be able to go through the 'fast' channel. We are happy too that gifts sent to our charity from other European countries are now free from tax but apart from that the situation for families in Latvia is still pretty bleak.

Taxes on poor earnings are still very high (income tax is paid on any earnings above LS21 - approx. $40 - per month) and just this week one of our former boys came in to say he'd fallen into the hands of one of the many employers here who don't pay their workers for the work they've done. Another former boy seriously damaged his hand at work but no work contract (employer keeps promising to give him one!) means he now has weeks with no pay or compensation.

We have a wonderful new administrator called Solvita who was sharing how her family had been without water in their apartment block for the past ten days - even when they do have water it's no more than a trickle. Good water supply, bathrooms and indoor toilets are still lacking in many buildings in Latvia and although conditions are gradually improving, Europe for most here it seems means just increased food prices!

In the field of child protection the new ministry in Latvia established to handle matters concerning the child and family, and headed by a former church minister, is trying to gradually empty the large children's homes where from 60 children upwards live. However although many of these children are now being made legally free for adoption and a really concerted effort to find foster families has been made a call recently to one of the homes for infants in Riga revealed that the number of children there was still high at around a hundred.

We know from our own experience that the flow of children needing a home never lets up and our work in providing homes and supporting poor families and children is going to be still essential for many more years to come. Thank you for supporting us in this mission, we really need your support to keep going and we are truly making a difference for many. May God richly bless you this Christmas and through 2005!

Helen M. Vipass, Director

Family Support

Lasma is our new team member working at the head of the family support centre. She is trained in social work and has been doing a grand job helping support the many families and former children that turn to us in crisis. Their troubles are many and varied but mainly arise because of simply not having enough money to live on.

One lady came saying she couldn't go into hospital for treatment since she doesn't have anyone to leave her two small children with but she also couldn't afford to buy the medicine that she needed to treat her illness at home. Another mother with five children came to say she had lost her job and had had practically no income for the past three months.

Homelessness is also an issue, one of our former girls came back to see us recently distressed that she had lost her home because of debt and consequently had had to give up her two young children.

As much as the gifts given of money, clothes and food - the seminars organised for the mums were of great encouragement to them and covered a wide range of subjects from childcare to even a question and answer session with a government minister.

Our new day centre in Bolderaja opened in February with the purpose of helping protect children at risk, relieve their suffering and help them prepare for independent adult life. When the locals heard about the centre a group of twelve ladies turned up at our door begging us to open another day centre for kids in the next district!

From this September onwards the centre has had to stay open for even longer hours since a local school closed for repairs and the children were accommodated for studies in another school in shifts. Normally the centre would work from noon until 8pm but now it's more like 10pm when the staff can finally go home.

Coupled with this are the group of little children who have found their own way to our door. Four and five year olds don't have much idea of what time it is but wander over sometimes in the morning hungry and blue with cold to knock on our door and ask for breakfast.

It's hard to describe how bad the homes of these children are and what big burdens they carry on their young shoulders. The work of the day centre is so vital to so many kids who not only miss having the basics they need to thrive but also often face abuse. We really must get our newly renovated centre in the centre of town running as soon as possible but for this we really need extra regular support and are praying that God will prompt many hearts to give.

How quickly our children grow up! Some of the young street kids we took in years ago are now getting ready to leave us and start an independent life, in fact 7 of our 24 resident kids will be 18 yrs old or more by next summer.

That's caused us to think a lot about how we are going to keep in touch with our precious little treasures and help guide them through their first years of adulthood, but it's also caused us to realise how very important it is to find adoptive or foster families for the children as far as possible.

Not just one or two of our teenagers haven't a soul in the world who cares for them apart from us, and although our assistant director Helen Grimshaw has established a base for our children to visit after they leave us, we are aware that having a family to call your own, having your own special people to love you long into your adult life
too, is so much better.

This is why we were so glad to see off two more of the children we have become so close to over the years who were adopted into a wonderful Christian family in the USA. There were tears and heartache as we said goodbye but such joy to think of these girls having a real family to call their own.

• Salvation and healing in every respect for the children; that they would also become charitable towards others
• The staff at Hope for Children who work such long hours with such compassion and dedication - for much blessing and provision in their personal life as well as the wisdom, courage, patience, strength and unconditional love they need to deal with traumatised and attention-starved children they serve.
• Financial provision to open a second day centre and a good team to staff it
• The further development of Hope for Children, for vision to see the way forward
• The restoration of families in Latvia
• Local people to come forward to foster and adopt children
• The Latvian government to tax the poor significantly less
• Increased involvement and support in our ministry from local churches

We were saddened to hear that in Britain charities to save animals easily raise even more funds than they need whilst charities which help children are struggling; it is our hope and prayer that more will realise the importance of investing in children who are our future.

Hope for Children has known so much of God's grace financially over the past ten years we could never complain that he has not provided for our needs - he is truly the father of the fatherless! But God needs you to be faithful in giving. Know that he will richly reward all those who give to the poor, as his word promises!

To send contributions, please see "how to give."