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Stories written by Shelley Callahan

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Home Is Where the Heart Is

Why families in Kentucky don’t just leave and start over

Since I first started visiting our affiliated projects in Eastern Kentucky in April of 2015, I have been reporting on the burden of poverty that our sponsored children and their families face every day. With a lack of jobs and scarcity of resources for people in need in this region of the United States, I often get asked when I return home: Why don’t people in need just move somewhere else? It is a question […]

A Lack of Transportation in Kentucky

In Lawrence County, many children and adults don’t have the means to leave their homes

In late August, Shelley Oxenham, U.S. Projects Specialist for Children Incorporated, and I traveled to Lawrence County, Kentucky to visit Louisa Middle School and Lawrence County High School. The two schools are located in the Eastern Kentucky Coal Field region in a very rural part of the state. The county is one of the largest in the state, meaning the distances between stores, homes, schools, and businesses are vast. There is no quick trip to […]

Starting Over After the Tsunami

The Dadella Children’s Center helps families recover

The tsunami that hit Sri Lanka in 2004, caused by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the island country’s coast, was one of the most devastating disasters ever recorded in the country’s history. The tidal wave left tens of thousands dead, and many more, homeless, as well as had widespread effects on the country’s environment and ecosystems. The eastern shore of Sri Lanka faced the hardest impact because it was facing the epicenter of earthquake.

A Haven in Colombo

The Chrishanti Lama Sevana Center is a refuge for poor children in Sri Lanka

The country of Sri Lanka has always valued the importance of learning, and even more so after gaining their independence from Britain in 1948. Since then, the government has made education a high priority, and it has paid off. The literacy rate is over ninety percent — the highest in all of South Asia – and enrollment in school for both boys and girls is just as high. This is in large part due to […]

Touching the Lives of Children in Sri Lanka

The Touch a Life with Hope Center offers children a chance at a better life

Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, just below India, that is known for its natural beauty, wildlife, and tea and cinnamon exports. Its heritage rich in Buddhism, Sri Lanka is the oldest democracy in Asia. And although thriving with regard to tourism and commerce, many people in the country live in poverty — especially children who have been removed from their homes by the government because of abuse and neglect, like those […]

A Drop in the Bucket: Our Partnership with Wine To Water

Providing clean water to children in India and Sri Lanka

Earlier in the summer, as Luis Bourdet, Children Incorporated’s Director of International Programs, and I discussed our upcoming trip in August to India and Sri Lanka to visit twelve of our affiliated projects, I asked Luis what the children living in this particular region of the world could benefit from most outside of what sponsorship already provides for them. He said he would reach out to our volunteer coordinators to find out.