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I am delighted to provide this foreword to an account of the journey of Mick and Brenda Pease. They have run their remarkable UK-registered child protection charity with passion and dedication over the last two decades and told me several times how our unexpected encounter in Brazil provided the catalyst for all that followed. If my advice during that brief lunchtime conversation triggered so much, I count it a privilege to have played a part. Over twenty years ago Mick and Brenda were virtually lone voices in what has now become a global movement to support safe, family-based care for abandoned or vulnerable children. I am thrilled to see the values they embody spreading across other organizations and helping to shape practice and policies around the world.

When Mick first set up his charity he called it Substitute Families for Abandoned Children (SFAC). I am pleased to hear that it is now Strengthening Families for Abandoned Children. The subtle change of name reflects development toward capacity-building for families, communities, and organizations. Family-based care can flourish in all communities with encouragement and support. SFAC and like-minded individuals and organizations provide that training and support. It need not stop there. These developments can be transmitted and passed on.

My own work previously through Christian Solidarity International (CSI) and now with the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust (HART) has touched on the kind of areas that SFAC address. When I visited the Soviet Union in 1989 and 1990 I saw the shocking conditions endured by children in orphanages. At that time there were some 750,000 abandoned children across Russia. In St. Petersburg alone there were 19,000 children in special institutions and another 10,000 who were homeless. Perhaps the most shocking statistic of all was that only 6 percent of children in institutions were fully orphaned, without either parent. The others had been abandoned.1

One of the first humanitarian initiatives we undertook through CSI was a return visit to Russia with a team of psychologists and pediatricians. Our reports and recommendations were hard-hitting but nevertheless well received. They helped to pave the way for extensive reforms as the Soviet Union gave way to the Russian Federation.2

There are other parallels between my work and Mick and Brenda’s. I have lobbied in the UK House of Lords on behalf of oppressed minorities or those caught up in “forgotten conflicts” such as in the Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, in the jungles of Myanmar, and in war-torn Sudan.

Mick and his team speak for the voiceless, in their case, abandoned children with no say or influence on the care or support they receive. They demonstrate how family-based solutions, foster care, kinship care, and other forms of relational care can and do work in even the most challenging settings.

All too often I have seen that well-meaning efforts are not always accompanied by sound professional practice. Not so with Mick and those with whom he works and whom he has influenced. The work of his charity and that of others with whom he collaborates is supported by solid research and sound practice. Passion will only get you so far. From the outset, Mick’s enthusiasm was matched by the highest levels of professionalism and integrity. Mick is able to inspire others and, equally importantly, set measures and procedures in place to ensure compliance with professional standards.

To read Mick and Brenda’s story is to discover how ordinary people can do extraordinary things. It is a story of grit and determination to keep going against the odds. The challenge is enormous: some 150 million children around the world do not live with their natural families. The shocking reality is that this is preventable. Many children in residential care have one or other parent living or close relatives who could care for them. As the tide continues to turn toward family-based care as an alternative to residential solutions, there is an urgent need for training, information, and support. The initial impetus came through UNICEF, Save the Children, and other international charities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Today it is a global grassroots movement. Mick was an early pioneer of this movement and SFAC has provided training, advice and support in some thirty countries. Mick works with people of all faiths and none, just as I have in my humanitarian and advocacy work. He works with both secular and faith-based aid and development agencies, with government social services and the judiciary.

The principles he works with are universal, the challenges global. Mick is motivated by his strong Christian faith, but his work crosses boundaries of creed and culture. He is not promoting a Western approach but a relational one that can be adapted for very different societies, cultures, and circumstances. It is a holistic vision and an integrated approach. It takes account of indigenous cultures and the features of particular societies. Most importantly of all, it focuses on the needs of the child. This has always been center stage in the work of SFAC. In Mick’s words, “our work is never about us, our faith, our organization, it is always about the child who should be at the center of everything we do.”

I am delighted to hear how, in the UK, the US, Australia, and elsewhere, Christian churches and denominations have adjusted their approach to childcare and child protection. In Africa there are indigenous movements and initiatives with similar aims. They work with churches, community groups, elders, and tribal leaders to find, support, and strengthen safe family-based homes for abandoned children.

Sadly, in some parts of the world inappropriate residential care is part of the problem. Christian, other faith-based, and secular organizations have all done very important work, but some perpetuate the issues SFAC seeks to redress. Children in residential care can become institutionalized, cut off from their cultures and communities, isolated from their ethnic origins and heritage. Evidence shows that children are happier, perform better educationally, and flourish in secure and safe families. It sounds so obvious, but it needs to be said. Children belong in families.

It is important for our societies and vitally important to each child. Thanks to the work of organizations like SFAC, this is increasingly becoming a possibility for abandoned children in many parts of the world. The rest of us can help by aligning ourselves with that ethos and vision, as individuals, as organizations, and as societies. As you read this account, I hope you will be encouraged, inspired, and informed and, however you can, support their work and promote their vision.

Baroness Cox

1 . Cox, Trajectories of Despair, 8.

2 . Boyd, A Voice for the Voiceless, 94–113.