Inside the Backpack Lies Choice, Agency, Style, and Self

Providing children with school supplies makes a world of difference for them and their families

Eastern Kentucky is a hotbed of hand-me-downs. We do a lot of work in the region, and this time, we’re here to drop off school supplies and check on the children as they begin the new school year. The thing I’ve noticed most is that children here have nothing new – unless it’s something we just handed them. When […]

Recanto Esperanca

A brighter future for a neighborhood on the brink

The glamour of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio is a day’s drive away from Uberaba. But, to the children who live in this small neighborhood on the outskirts of Curitiba in dilapidated shacks on unpaved roads, the Olympics might as well be on another planet. Children Incorporated sponsors five separate projects in Brazil, helping 170 kids gain access to necessities and opportunity. While each program has a place in Andreia Beraldo’s heart, it’s Recanto […]

Audacity and Hope in Kenya

Maria Immaculata in Kenya offers hope to children in need

Just when everything feels hopeless, one person can change your entire perspective. For me, it was Sister Martha in Kenya. Luis with Sister Jane Sister Martha and Sister Jane are Children Incorporated volunteer coordinators who run Maria Immaculata School in Nairobi, Kenya. The school hosts almost 400 students from toddlers to teenagers and more than 300 of them board there because they are orphans. Children Incorporated sponsors about 100 of these […]

Msamaria

A Lesson in Self-Sustainability

The average American doesn’t have to think much about how he will provide an education to his children. Our public school system provides many of our children with an education courtesy of tax dollars, and we’ve grown to take it for granted. In Kenya, however, school is a privilege, not a right. If you can pay to send your children to school, they go. If not, then they’re almost certainly looking at a bleak future […]

A Bright Spot in Taraka

The Materi School for Girls

It’s Sunday, and the students of the Materi School for Girls are still in uniform, singing songs in the shade or studying in the grass. Everyone seems to be resting, even the cows and pigs that the school raises for milk and meat, and even the large soccer field nearby. When Brother John Konzka founded the Materi School in a village called Taraka, he envisioned a place where young Kenyan girls could access the world […]

No One Here Wants to Go Home

Children at the Dandora Community Center in Kenya after linger long after school is out

School lets out every day at 4 o’clock at Dandora Community Center, but the kids tend to hang around until long after 6. Luis pointed it out to me when we returned to the school after visiting the Dandora slum — children milled about on the property, still playing games with one another, even though school had been over for quite some time. Sheltering the most vulnerable Dandora provides meals, healthcare, […]