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Stories written by Shelley Callahan

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Visiting the Pearl of the Orient Seas

Our Director of Development travels to the Philippines

For many years, I have looked forward to the time when I would be able to visit our affiliated sites in the Philippines. My knowledge of the country has been limited to what I would hear on global new stations relating to politics or natural disasters, and without ever having visited, I knew little else about this nation consisting of over 7,000 islands. But as with all the other countries I have had the privilege […]

Home Sweet Home in Manila

A Housing Project in Marikina is Helping Generations of Families

Before I left the Children Incorporated office for the Philippines in mid-January, our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, made sure to mention to me that I should visit the housing project in Marikina while I was in Manila. In 2009, when our former volunteer coordinator, Polly Johnson, had yet to retire from her position running our affiliated site, Fortune’s Children Center, she proposed to Luis the idea of constructing homes for families of our […]

A Caring Home for Abused, Neglected, and Orphaned Children

At the Maria Reyna Home, students are offered support after graduation

Children living in poverty are enrolled in our sponsorship program for many different reasons directly related to their situations at home — or in some instances, their lack of a home. At the Maria Reyna Home in Honduras, girls from the local community who have been abandoned or are orphaned live full-time at the home, attend public and private schools, and thanks to their caring sponsors, are supported up until graduation from high school. But, […]

Reaching Their Potential in Marikina

Our Sponsors Help Students at Fortune’s Children Center in Manila Excel

My flight to Manila from Washington, D.C. arrived in the late evening, so I didn’t have a chance to see much of the city before our volunteer coordinator from the Fortune’s Children Center, Joy, picked me up the following morning. It was a beautiful day in mid-January in the Philippines, and as Joy and I made the 45-minute journey from the Makati district to the Marikina neighborhood of Metro Manila, we excitedly talked about how […]

A Shelter for the Poor in Honduras

El Refugio Welfare Center is crucial for survival in El Progreso

In 1998, the deadliest storm in Central America’s recorded history caused nearly 12,000 deaths in Honduras and Nicaragua and devastated the small town of El Progreso. Because of the destruction, the local community created the El Refugio (which means “the shelter” in Spanish) Welfare Center to help children and families in need receive resources in the aftermath of the storm. Last year, our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, visited El Refugio, and found that […]

Giving Children Space to Learn

La Recolección School helps with overcrowded schools in Nicaragua

After leaving Costa Rica in the fall of 2022, our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, traveled to Nicaragua to visit the two affiliated sites that we work with in the country. Today, we hear from Luis about his trip to the La Recolección School, where sponsored children are provided with a safe and spacious place to get an education. Learning about our affiliated site “La Recolección is a semi-private school run by the Sisters […]