Help Abandoned Children Find Their Fathers

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This fundraiser is organised by Mia Pedersen, Managing Director of Hear Their Cries UK, on behalf of Edward Flaherty, Founder of Hear Their Cries, a Swiss-based NGO.

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It is far too common for men from wealthy countries to travel overseas, and use their position of relative wealth or power to abuse women and children. Sometimes these men, through intentional unprotected sex, leave a child behind.

The child is often born into poverty and stigma, and rarely knows who their father is. They cannot get child support, have limited education opportunities, and lose out on the benefits that can come with citizenship in their father’s home country.

They are also left wondering about their identity. About who they are.

Hear Their Cries, uses ‘genetic genealogy’ technology to trace the father of these children. Using only a DNA swab test from a child and commercially available databases, we track the extended paternal genetic relatives and triangulate those relatives to find the father.

Through our work in the Philippines, we have been able to help some of these children learn who their father is. In many cases we have achieved a good result. The fathers, scattered across countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA, have agreed to acknowledge their child, and help support them.

This is not always the case, and sometimes, we have to turn to the courts for help. Last year, we were able to set a legal precedent for our work, helping to pave the way for a successful outcome, not just for the child at the center of the court case, but for future children we may need to fight for in court: https://www.heartheircries.org/ground-breaking-international-ruling-for-non-profit-gives-hope-to-abandoned-children/

Our work was featured on an episode of the Australian TV show, Four Corners, on the 8th of July 2024. Here you can see one of our founders, Andrew MacLeod, speak passionately about the need to help these abandoned children.

Donations to this fundraising campaign will help us pay for DNA tests, tracing the fathers, lawyers to fight for the children's rights in court, and other running costs, and will allow us to help more children.

While we are proud of the work we have done, there are tens of thousands of children still living in poverty and missing a piece of their identity.

Your support will help us reach these children, so they can learn who they are and gain access to a brighter future.