About
Operation Rescue was founded in the year 2000, and works in Ethiopia, Brazil and India for the well-being and development of orphaned and extremely poor children, using a non-institutionalized ”Community Based“ care approach.
The organization’s objective is to take orphans, street children and extremely poor children from their vulnerable situation and to help them to achieve their maximum potential – academically, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
The ”Community Based“ approach means that such children live with their extended family or relatives, or with members of the community. They attend local schools for half a day and spend the other half day at the project center, where they receive a hot meal, tutorial classes, sports, computer classes, swimming, music, dance, help with homework etc. When necessary they also receive medical help in the center’s clinic, school materials, shoes, clothes and any other basic needs they may have.
At the centers, they also have the opportunity to play and interact with other children.
vision & values
VISION
To see vulnerable children cared for and empowered trough a community based and holistic approach which uses the best model of a child care program demonstrating charity.
MISSION
To care for and empower vulnerable children, enabling them to achieve their maximum potential.
VALUES
Sustainability – our engagement with local communities is long term, seeking to reduce poverty: We aim to empower the children in our care and also local women to become self-reliant as well as aiming to generate income to develop the work of each project.
founders
When Christina and Marciano Teixeira first went to Ethiopia in 1997 to help poor children, Marciano worked in a home for boys and Christina was busy with their own two boys at home. Marciano often did not agree with the concept of the childrens’ home and Christina was confronted daily with the poverty of the street children who came begging at her window or whom she met at the garbage dump where they were searching for food. They started looking after these children by giving them food, finding new clothes for them, washing them, cutting their hair etc.
What started with helping a handful of children at home grew and grew until, in 2000, ORE Ethiopia was founded. The Ethiopian government acknowledged the childcare project in 2001. Today the project, which is situated in Mekelle, northeastern Ethiopia, has 500 children. Another two project centers with almost 200 children were opened in Adigrat and Adwa, cities in the north of Mekelle in the border region of Eritrea.
The Texeiras always planned that the project would be led by an Ethiopian one day, and wanted it to be an Ethiopian project rather than some sort of Swiss center in the middle if Ethiopia. Of course there are signs of western influence, like raising the standard of hygiene etc. but from the beginning they worked together with locals like Getachew Tesfay (one of the first members of staff who soon became Marciano’s right-hand man) and the local social security office. In 2003 Getachew became manager of ORE Ethiopia. He and his staff continue to run the project, which is now in its sixteenth year. Marciano Texeira continues to support the work and visits the project regularly.
In 2004 the charitable organization “ORE Switzerland” was founded. Its members are volunteers who administer sponsorship, finances and fundraising.
In 2005, the Teixeiras family moved to Brazil, Marciano’s home country. Three years later they founded “Operation Rescue Brazil” and opened a new project in Patos in August 2008, helping now 300 children. Christina and Marciano then moved back to Switzerland in 2011 and Nilma, a Brazilian lady, became manager of the project in Patos. She is being supported by her employees and some volunteers.