Educating Girls Is Critical to Reducing Poverty

Children Incorporated supports women to dive them more opportunities in life

International Women’s Day is coming up next week, on March 8. It’s a time for us to reflect on the contributions women make to society, despite the massive challenges they face here and around the globe. Anyone can see that women and girls are still less valued than men and boys in many cultures. Women – even educated women – still earn significantly less than men in the job market. And in some cultures, young […]

Africa: The Impact of Compassion

Reflections on our work in Ethiopia and Kenya

When I boarded the plane to Africa, I thought I knew at least a little about what to expect. My experiences in Bolivia and Kentucky had shown me how impactful our programs could be on the lives of children in poverty, the poverty in Ethiopia and Kenya far surpassed what I ever could have imagined. I returned knowing so much more about what children need to thrive—not just food and shelter, but education, respect, identity, and […]

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, […]