This week we’ve got Kim de Blecourt from Nourished Hearts back on the show to talk with us about their ministry in Ukraine, the effects of the war on vulnerable children and the importance of coming alongside indigenous churches. Nourished Hearts is a ministry that encourages, inspires, and creates community around those who are involved with adoption, foster care, or orphan care internationally.

Continue reading →

Kimberly Quinley, a pioneer of family-based care, has spent nearly 40 years serving in Thailand. She is the co-founder and Executive Director of Step Ahead, an organization committed to see all children in Thailand grow up in safe and nurturing families. Kimberly is a founding leader for Strong Families Alliance Thailand (SFAT), a Christian alliance with the same vision and goals as World Without Orphans. In episode 220, we cover everything from the core pillars of family strengthening, to collective impact, creating national roadmaps, and more.

Continue reading →

In episode 219, Lindsay Hadley is on to discuss the upcoming release of the documentary “Uncharitable”. After many years in the nonprofit sector, Lindsay has become one of the most sought-after consultants and producers. This conversation challenges us to envision an unconstrained nonprofit sector. What if the charities could attract the best leaders, talents, and ideas? What if smaller operations with less impact stopped and those resources went to the best organization solving the problem? We get into these questions and more in this episode of Think Orphan.

Continue reading →

In episode 218, we hear from lawyer and professor, Elizabeth Kirk. Elizabeth is the Director of the Center for Law and the Human Person, as well as a research associate at The Catholic University of America. Her work spans a variety of law in child welfare, parental rights, and adoption policy. In addition to her career, her lived experiences as an adoptee and an adoptive parent, give her a unique perspective and voice to speak into the conversation happening around adoption today. She talks with Brandon about the role that infant adoption could play following last year’s Dobbs decision at the Supreme Court, misconceptions around adoption, as well as insight on the decision making process for women that have an unplanned pregnancy.

Continue reading →

In episode 217, we have a special on the ground episode to share how one organization’s journey and commitment to reunifying families has inspired others. Trust for Africa’s work in Lesotho has gone beyond their own organization and now supports other organizations to transition to family-based care. Naomi Schalm, Mafusi Semethe, Mbele Horoto, and Bokang Lipholo all join us in this conversation to celebrate the movement underway in Africa’s “Kingdom of the Sky.”

Continue reading →

In episode 216, we hear from US care reform leader, Sarah Winograd from Together for Families. Sarah speaks passionately about the complexities in child welfare and foster care as a system, how poverty contributes to family separation, and the problematic ways we’ve seen and judged birth families. She asks the hard questions- if most children aren’t coming into foster care because of abuse, what resources and systems are we investing in to keep those families together? What are we doing to intervene and stabilize families in order to prevent separation and keep children in families? Can the church do better?

Continue reading →