Children in Crossfire was founded by Richard Moore In 1972, as a 10-year-old boy, Richard was blinded by a rubber bullet fired by a British soldier during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Amazingly from childhood to the present day, he has accepted the loss of his sight without any feelings of anger, bitterness or resentment.

The story of Children in Crossfire, therefore, has its roots in what began as a tragedy and ended as a triumph of the human spirit to overcome adversity. Just as Richard practised compassion in the face of challenge, Children in Crossfire pursues its vision through and with that same compassion. Specifically, it responds to the rights and needs of children and young people caught in the crossfire of global poverty, injustice and inequality by using a Two-Pronged Approach;

a. We work in partnership with organisations in Tanzania and Ethiopia to address the developmental needs of young children whose lives are caught up in the injustice of poverty.

b. We see development education as an important part of our work in Ireland and the UK to introduce people to the structural causes of poverty and help them find a role in making the world a better place.

Change is dependent on people, communities, and governments all working together to ensure that the right conditions are in place.
 

Interventions:

Our approach is to work in the regions of the country where the needs of young children are the greatest. We work in Mwanza, Morogoro and Dodoma regions to improve early childhood experiences for many thousands of children. We complement this work by engaging with other organisations at the national level to influence policy and advocate for increased resourcing of services to young children such that all children in Tanzania can have the best start in life.

Our approach combines working on the ground in targeted communities in the regions of Mwanza, Morogoro and Dodoma, with engagement at the national level to bring evidence of our work, and the work of others, to decision makers to inform and influence policy. We believe this approach builds strong national policies that recognize the importance of investing in all young children, alongside examples of good practice implementation that ensures every child the best start in life.