Tag Archives: child poverty

Children Incorporated | March 3, 2025En Español

After leaving India, our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, traveled to Sri Lanka to visit our two affiliated sites in the country. His first stop was the Touch a Life with Hope Center in Colombo, the capital. Here, girls from low-income families are pursuing higher education thanks to support from their sponsors.

“They indicated that without those benefits from Children Incorporated sponsors, they would have a hard time completing their education, let alone thinking about higher education,” said Luis.

Luis’ Visit

“The Touch a Life with Hope Center is a home for girls in Colombo. The Ceylon Association supports the home, but Children Incorporated sponsorship provides additional support for other needs for the girls such as food, school supplies, and clothes, which is essential to their well-being since funds from the Ceylon Association are limited,” explained Luis.

“Children from the local neighborhood are enrolled in the Children Incorporated program at the home, and they come to Touch a Life twice a month to collect food, school supplies, clothing, or shoes provided by our sponsors. We have also provided additional funding for mosquito nets and, during the pandemic, hygiene items that were very beneficial to all the girls that lived in the home and others enrolled in the Children Incorporated program.”

Looking ahead to higher education

All of the children enrolled at Touch a Life with Hope Center met with me during my visit and shared information on the benefits they receive. They indicated that without those benefits from Children Incorporated sponsors, they would have a hard time completing their education, let alone thinking about higher education,” said Luis.

“The home is located in a good area of the city, adequate, and provides a nurturing environment for the girls. The building houses two large dorms, an adequate kitchen and dining hall, and a section for administration. In the middle, there is a small landscaped area, and in the back, they have toilets and washrooms. To the side of the administration area, there is another section with trees, flowers, and grass that allows everyone to enjoy some quiet time and relaxation. I very much enjoyed my visit and seeing how well the girls were doing at the home.”

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How do I sponsor a child with Children Incorporated?

You can sponsor a child in one of three ways: call our office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our staff members; email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org; or go online to our sponsorship portal, create an account, and search for a child that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Children Incorporated | March 3, 2025En Español

As he finishes his visit to our affiliated sites in Sri Lanka, our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, meets with our volunteer coordinator, Dr. Rodrigo, at the Chrishanti Lama Sevana in Colombo, which she established many years ago out of her home in order to help some of the most impoverished children in her own neighborhood.

Learning about the Center

“The Chrishanti Center is located in the Kirulapone area of Colombo, in the capital city. This area is strikingly divided between a well-developed area of Colombo and entwined slums for housing for low-income families. The Chrishanti Center is located at the border of both regions in one of the slums. Here, Dr. Nalini Rodrigo, from a well-to-do family, wanted to support those in need many years ago. She was initially serving children from her and her husband’s own home, and then later, a local community provided a small plot of land in a poorly developed area to be used for the center,” said Luis.

“Many other children are also in permanent working positions because of what our sponsorship program support allowed them to do in school and university,” said Luis.

“They started the center very modestly with a makeshift hut to meet the needs of the children and families and provide Children Incorporated support to enrolled children there. A few years ago, we convinced Dr. Rodrigo to upgrade the facility, with intentions to continue providing sponsorship support but also to give more stability to the families, tend to other needs, and increase aid to those who needed more support. As a result, a small two-story building was constructed. Here, they decided to use the first floor as a daycare center to cater to the children of mothers who work during the day. The Children Incorporated sponsored children would use this area to receive monthly benefits as well. The children received mostly food and school supplies. Everyone liked the center, as now it was more of their place.”

The importance of education

“In Sri Lanka, education is of very personal importance, as the literacy rate in this nation is up in the 90th percentile, and everyone wants to graduate from high school, and no one wants to quit education. Most parents of Children Incorporated sponsored children have never had the opportunity to attend high school. Still, every child in our program has finished high school, and many have participated in a university or a technical school. A child named Gayan went to school to study for a Systems Engineering career, and he now works in a big IT company in Colombo; he still helps his parents, and he is very involved with the Chrishanti Center as an advocate and teacher in his spare time. He was our guide during the visit. Many other children are also in permanent working positions because of what our sponsorship program support allowed them to do in school and university,” said Luis.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the center and felt, as always, that Dr. Rodrigo was doing an excellent job of providing for the children in our program through sponsorship support.”

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How do I sponsor a child with Children Incorporated?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | February 25, 2025

Our volunteer coordinator, Casey, at Huguenot High School in Virginia recently wrote to us to thank you, our amazing sponsors, for your dedication to helping children at her school find value in themselves and their education:

Casey’s Letter

“This is a huge thank you to all our donors and you all at Children Incorporated. Here at Huguenot High School, we have so many students in need. We have many students dealing with anxiety and social issues on a regular basis, and you have helped them so much.

We have also observed many individual students helped by the generous donations of Children Incorporated. Just as one example, we have a student who both works and goes to school and doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on herself. She has to help pay rent where she lives and often wore the same clothes over and over again. Due to your donations, I was able to get her necessary hair products, clothes, and even a few extra gifts for herself that she would never get if it weren’t for you all.

There is no way any of the students could help support themselves without the funds of Children Incorporated. Our children are able to feel special and loved by people they don’t even know or get to meet, and that is something amazing. You all help build self-confidence and self-worth, and help children see the world from a different perspective and create graduates where there may not have been one. Thank you and your donors for their continued support. You are changing the world one gift at a time!”

With gratitude and appreciation,

Casey

your impact through hope in action

Sponsorship is one of many ways you help impoverished children every month. Additionally, thanks to contributions to our Hope In Action Fund in the last month, we have been able to:

– Provide funds to purchase desks for students at the Bethel School in Guatemala
– Provide funds to purchase mattresses for children in our sponsorship program at the Recanto Esperanca Center in Brazil
– Provide funds to purchase bakery equipment for a skills training program at CARITAS-Novo Milenio Center in Brazil
– Provide funds to purchase water storage tanks for the Santa Rosa School in Bolivia so students have access to potable water
– Provide funds to purchase meals for 30 students for a month at Santa Isabel Seton in Guatemala
– Provide funding for ongoing Hurricane Helene emergency relief supplies for students and families at Mitchell High School in North Carolina
– Provide funds for an evening literacy program for students and their parents at Bevins Elementary School in Kentucky
– Provide funds to purchase educational tablets for students at Whitesburg Middle School in Kentucky
– Provide funds to purchase hygiene items for students at Phillis Wheatley Community School in New Orleans, Louisiana
– Provide funding to purchase meals for 100 children at the St. John’s Community Center in Kenya

…and so much more! Thank you to our supporters for all that you do! We couldn’t do our life-changing work without you.

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How do I sponsor a child with Children Incorporated?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Children Incorporated | February 24, 2025En Español

Our volunteer coordinator, Tonia, at Sparta Elementary School in North Carolina, recently wrote to us to express how awesome she thinks you, our loyal sponsors and donors, are for the support you provide for children at her school.

Tonia’s Letter

“Because of the financial support our students have received from their sponsors, I have been able to purchase clothes, book bags, school supplies, and toiletries throughout the school year. It is so exciting and rewarding to see the Children Incorporated students’ smiling faces as they come to school with new outfits. The students make sure to come by and show us. It is also so important that I am able to buy the students much-needed soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, and toothpaste that they would otherwise not have.

Thanks to you, we have been able to provide funding for ongoing Hurricane Helene emergency relief supplies for students and families — and so much more!

We are so fortunate to have such loving and caring sponsors who correspond with our students and encourage them in a positive way. The sponsors write letters and send coloring sheets, stickers, and cards, which are such fun surprises for the kids! Some of our sponsors even send special gifts for holidays, and seeing the excitement from the children is so awesome. The kids get very excited when they receive mail from their sponsors and are always ready and willing to write their sponsors a nice thank you note.

Thanks to sponsors, students were also able to purchase books at the book fair and go on a field trip to the Outer Banks this past year! The look on their faces when they were told they didn’t have to pay the fee for the trip was priceless. We very much appreciate the Children Incorporated program!”

your impact through hope in action

Sponsorship is one of many ways you help impoverished children every month. Additionally, thanks to contributions to our Hope In Action Fund in the last month, we have been able to:

…and so much more! Thank you to our supporters for all that you do! We couldn’t do our life-changing work without you.

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How do I sponsor a child with Children Incorporated?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Children Incorporated | February 11, 2025

In the fall of 2024, our Director of Inernational Programs, Lius Bourdet, and our Internatonal Programs Specialist, Yefiny Mena, visited our affiliated sites in Guatemala and El Salvador to meet with our volunteer coordinators and sponsored children, and hear more about how our sponsors are change the lives of children and families in need in Central America. Today, we hear from Luis about their visit to Santa Isabel Ana Seton in Guatemala City, where Sister Ana Juilia Herndandez welcomed them warmly and spoke with them about how our Feeding Program Fund is helping kids she is looking over.

Visiting with Sister Julia

“Santa Isabel Ana Seton is located in Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala. It opened its doors to children in 2006, and since then, Sor Ana Julia Hernandez has been our coordinator,” said Luis.

“Out of the 390 students attending the school at the moment, 90 of these students are participating in our sponsorship program. Santa Isabel Ana Seton students also benefit from our feeding program every month, where the coordinator selects 25 children out of the 90 participants in Children Incorporated to provide them with nutritious food. The children selected are the most in need, as Sister Julia has conducted home visits and met with all of their parents.”

“This school is located in the center of Guatemala City and absorbs students from the periphery and red zone areas of the city (zones of low-income families, where common crime is always present). The school has a program that goes from Kindergarten to 9th grade. Santa Isabel Ana Seton School is a well-cared-for school, where children feel safe and enjoy a clean environment, conducted for education. They have ample space inside the compound, and it is all enclosed and protected. All children here seem happy and eager to learn in school, and the children on the Children Incorporated program were very polite while we met them. They wanted to present a small program with culture and songs and dances from Guatemala for us, and we truly enjoy it!” said Luis.

“The school has a series of buildings in a rather large plot of land right in the middle of the city, which is very unusual. There is one building dedicated to kindergarten, one for primary education classes, and one for middle school education. They also have other small buildings, one with a kitchen, another with a facility for a food preparation skill program, and a garment-making program, which were implemented with the support of Children Incorporated a few years ago. These two programs are very important as they prepare and provide such skills to older children, as well as their parents and relatives, so that they can increment income with the skill. The skill training programs are a one-year program of learning and on-hands practice for them to be completed, and they are very comprehensive and prepare the participants well.”

Children Incorporated’s monthly support at Santa Isabel Ana Seton covers school fees and other needs, such as school supplies at the beginning of the year and sometimes shoes and clothing, mainly during the holidays and when sponsors send additional gifts. Yefiny and I met with Sister Julia after we toured the school and left very satisfied with all the programs and support the children received, thanks mainly to our sponsors and donors.

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Shelley Callahan | February 10, 2025

Our first day visiting our affiliated sites in New Orleans was a huge success and so much fun, and I woke up on the second and final day of our trip excited for what the day had in store for us. Just as we had done the previous morning, Shayne picked up Renée, Kris, and me at our hotel, and we drove with her to our first school, the Phillis Wheatley Community School, where we met Maria out front before going in to meet with our coordinator.

According to Odina, a lot of the ways she is able to look out for the best interests of the students are largely thanks to Children Incorporated sponsors.

Getting to Know phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley Community School is located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans and has around 750 children enrolled. As a charter school, like the other charter schools in the city, children can come from any area of New Orleans to attend Phillis Wheatley, and the city school buses will offer transportation to students no matter where they are located.

The school is named after Phillis Wheatley, who is considered the first African American author of a published book of poetry in America. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of eight and brought to Boston, where she learned to read and write and eventually became a poet.

After we checked in at the front office, we were greeted by Odina, our volunteer coordinator, who took us to her office to discuss our sponsorship program and hear more about the particular needs of the students at her school. Odina explained to us that even though New Orleans is in the South and bouts of cold weather are limited, the need for warm clothing is still her greatest need and the area in which our sponsors help children the most.

It’s not just that the children don’t have warm clothing, Odina explained, but it is that when the weather does turn cold, the children stay home from school because of the lack of warm coats, long pants, or proper shoes. This exacerbates a problem that is already present with her students, which is with attendance. Living in poverty, as Odina described to us, already creates a lot of obstacles for students attending school regularly, so being able to help children overcome the barrier of not having adequate clothing is such a blessing.

Even though New Orleans is in the South and bouts of cold weather are limited, the need for warm clothing is still her greatest need and the area in which our sponsors help children the most.

Helping Parents in Need

As we continued to talk with Odina, she mentioned that one of the other things she feels she could use help with is getting parents involved in their children’s education, especially for those guardians and caretakers who suddenly become parents in emergencies.

Renée mentioned that our Hope In Action grant program could help with parenting classes. She described a program in Kentucky that we support called “Grandparents As Parents,” which helps older adults cope with taking care of young children and helping them understand positive means of supporting them in school and at home.

After our meeting, Odina took us on a tour of the school, where we met with some of our sponsored children in the hallways between classes. The children were happy to take photos with Odina, and it was apparent they thought a lot of her as not only a staff member at the school but as someone who looked out for them and their best interests. And, according to Odina, a lot of the ways she is able to look out for the best interests of the students are largely thanks to Children Incorporated sponsors.

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How do I sponsor a child with Children Incorporated?

SPONSOR A CHILD