Visiting Counties in Need in Kentucky

Kids in Kentucky face similar challenges with poverty in Martin and Magoffin Counties

In May of this year, Renée Kube, our Director of U.S. Programs, and Shelley Oxenham, U.S. Projects Specialist, traveled to Kentucky together to visit two counties that Children Incorporated serves. Once they arrived in Kentucky, they split up – Renée in the direction of Martin County, and Shelley to Magoffin County. Both counties are close to each other in proximity, east of Lexington, and are two of the poorest counties in our nation. In Martin […]

The Long, Hard Summers

Summertime is more difficult for families who struggle to afford food

I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I looked from the practically empty refrigerator before me to the precious little girl standing by my side. I was on a project visit in Eastern Kentucky with one of our volunteer coordinators, and she had arranged for me to see first-hand the conditions in which many of the youngsters in her school are forced to live. On this particular day, we accompanied a beautiful little […]

Escaping Violence at La Recoleccion

In Nicaragua, La Recolección provides safety for children in the “Land of Lakes and Volcanoes”

Almost as soon as we arrived in Managua after our flight from San Jose, I could tell that Nicaragua was vastly different from Costa Rica. As we drove out of the capital city, the jungle landscape we had seen just one day before had been replaced by flat, open land where cows and horses roamed for miles. Along the road to Leon, the second-largest city in Nicaragua after Managua, we saw cowboys, both young and […]

Finding Friendship Through Sponsorship

Children at the Costa Rica Center grow up together

When we first met our volunteer coordinator, Marta, at the Costa Rica Center in San Jose, I could tell she was full of energy. A small Costa Rican woman, she walked quickly down the sidewalk away from our hotel, as Andreia, our International Site Specialist, and I tried to keep up. When we got to her car, she shuffled us in, having a busy agenda for the day. Ricky, Marta (left), […]

The Trouble with Rain

Families in San Jose worry during the rainy season

In so many countries around the world, drought is a constant worry, causing problems for crop cultivation and keeping impoverished people from having access to drinking water. In San Jose, Costa Rica, in the slum neighborhood that surrounds our affiliate site, La Milagrosa, a welfare center that supports more than seventy sponsored children, families have the opposite problem. Instead of the rainy season bringing relief from arid conditions, it causes those families to fear losing […]

Making a Difference in D.C.

A former program manager with Communities In Schools describes the impact of our program in Washington, D.C.

Jennifer is a former program manager with Communities In Schools of Washington, D.C. During her time in this position, she became very familiar with the Children Incorporated sponsorship program, and the impact that it has on students and their families. We work with Communities In Schools (CIS), a school dropout prevention organization, not only in our nation’s capital, but also in Richmond, Virginia; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Detroit, Michigan. Thanks to our partnership with CIS, […]