From Kentucky to Kenya

The universal truth of children

“I don’t know who gave us these bikes, but tell her I love her!” The boy’s words keep echoing in my mind as we make the eight-hour trek from Kentucky back to Richmond, Va. Over the course of the last several weeks, we’ve met with so many children I’ve nearly lost count, but their faces and words stand out in my memory. Kentucky and Bolivia are worlds apart, but there are many similarities between the […]

Virginia Woman Sends Help and Gifts to Young Kentucky Friend

Sponsors have special bonds with their sponsored children

We arrived in Jackson, Kentucky on Wednesday and caught up with some of the kids at LBJ Elementary School. The children here seem like typical kids. Some are shy, some are rambunctious, but each has faced incredible hardship in their short lives. Jackson is one of the poorest cities in the state. Several have lost one or both parents to the rampant drug epidemic in the region and live with a single parent, grandparents or […]

sponsored children in Bolivia

Bolivia: Visions of hope from 30,000 feet

Reflections on time spent visiting our affiliated projects

After more than a week in the mountains of Bolivia, I’m headed home — back to Richmond, Virginia, and my life of comparative ease and comfort. As the ground falls away beneath the plane, I’m staring out the window, trying to compose coherent thoughts, but they are lost amid a thousand mental images of the people and scenes I’ve experienced in the last few days. Our tour guide: An architect rises from poverty Roberto Andrade’s […]

Students at the Montero school in Bolivia

These Kids’ Futures Just Got a Little Brighter

The Montero School in Bolivia has updated classrooms

Roberto Andrade and his wife, Verónica, are waiting for us when we step off the plane in hot, humid Santa Cruz. Roberto is an artist and an architect now, but he was once a little boy with enormous potential and struggling parents who worried about his future. They saw the talent and creativity in their son and knew that a quality education would help him develop into a happy, healthy adult. “Because the happiest people […]

Touchdown in La Paz

Sights and scenes from Bolivia's City in the Sky

Our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, and I flew into La Paz just before sunrise, after an overnight trip from Richmond. I was woozy from fatigue or the elevation — 13,000 feet above sea level — and grateful when a young woman woke up at 4 am to check us into our hotel. A City in the Mountains I woke up as the sun rose, and got my first view of an amazing vertical […]