Tag Archives: Children Incorporated

Shelley Callahan | May 27, 2016En Español

“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 two.

View from La Paz, Bolivia

Eastern Kentucky is one of the poorest regions in the United States. Unemployment is high and children grow up in run-down trailers, far from main roads and more importantly, social services and public facilities like libraries and community centers.

It’s not unlike the mountain towns of Bolivia, which have a much larger population but a similar situation for impoverished children who live in dilapidated homes on the outskirts of town with no transportation and no access to public services.

There are other parallels, including the songs, hobbies and games children play. Separated by 4,000 miles, the children of Bolivia probably never realize that their counterparts in Kentucky are also playing soccer behind the school in the afternoon. Their cartoon-character t-shirts and tennis shoes, gifts from sponsors, are interchangeable — even their pets.

Cats and kittens

Three days ago, I met Allison in Jackson County, Kentucky. The 7-year-old lives down a logging road with her underemployed parents, her sisters and her cats. When her sponsor asked her what kind of gifts she’d like, her main request was for cat food.

Just like Efrain. The Bolivian fourth-grader lives in a one-bedroom home with his mother, two siblings and three kittens. Efrain politely answered our questions about his schoolwork, his home and his new donated shoes, but it was the kittens that he really wanted to talk about; he couldn’t wait to show us the spot where they sleep next to the bed he shares with his brother.

Kentucky and Bolivia are worlds apart, but there are many similarities between the two.

Constructing a better life

The construction projects aren’t that much different either. In Bolivia, Children Incorporated donated materials and volunteers helped renovate an entire school about 25 kilometers outside Montero. In Kentucky, we didn’t have to build the schools but we did build a ramp at the home of 11-year-old Dennis.

The fifth-grader and his two siblings live with their elderly great-grandparents, who are struggling to care for three children while their own health is failing. Gail, Dennis’ great-grandmother, couldn’t climb the front steps anymore so Children Incorporated donated building materials and the local high school vocational students all got together to build her a ramp.

Skipping a generation

That underprivileged children live with aging grandparents is another ubiquitous truth across nations. In Kentucky, it’s largely caused by the rampant drug use that has swept the region, leaving parents dead, incarcerated or incapable of raising children.

In Bolivia, parents often depart for other countries to find work, leaving children with their grandparents. Regardless of the reasons, this missing generation is especially hard on families as the already-impoverished elderly struggle to care for growing, hungry children.

And in both countries, Children Incorporated sponsors send in food, clothes, shoes and school supplies — and cat food.

Next stop: Kenya

As we near Richmond, it’s time to turn our attention to the next trip – it’s 8,000 miles to Kenya and we’ve got several days before we begin. I have no doubt that once we arrive, we’ll find that just like in Bolivia and Kentucky, the children there need clothes and food but love sports and cats.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 26, 2016En Español

Nothing is close in eastern Kentucky. Schools are an hour apart, and each one can easily be an hour away from the children who go there. Walmart – the only place to buy a bike in the entire region – is an even longer drive.

In a rented pickup truck, we trekked out to Walmart on a mission: to pick out and purchase bikes for underprivileged elementary and middle school children. The bikes would be a gift from Claudette Gurley of New Hampshire, who raised money for children’s bikes in honor of a cross-country cyclist friend who recently passed away.

A surprise at school

Ten bikes were slated for elementary and middle school children in Wolfe County, Kentucky. Wolfe County has a population of about 7,300 and is ranked 14th on the list of Poorest Counties in the United States. The median income for an entire household is less than $26,000 here – about half the national figure.

Virtually every child in the region would qualify as “underprivileged” to outside observers, so schools are staffed with resource coordinators who help them get assistance from outside agencies and non-profits like Children Incorporated.

At Campton Elementary School, the resource coordinator is Susan Lacy, who helped pick out several children to receive bikes. She said that one of her biggest challenges is ensuring that the students have enough to eat when they’re at home. The kids get one healthy meal each school day through free or reduced lunch at Campton, but on weekends and holidays, many go hungry.

Getting after-school snacks is a big deal for these kids – getting a bike was going to be unfathomable.

Susan called in the two students at Campton who were receiving the bikes so they could be the first to see their new wheels. Their shy but appreciative faces said it all – they were overwhelmed by the new presents and were clearly eager for the school day to be over so they could try them out.

After they’d had a few minutes to absorb the news, we loaded the bikes back into the truck to deliver them directly to their homes.

Living conditions

“One of her biggest challenges is ensuring that the students have enough to eat when they’re at home.”

-Susan Lacy

The next stop was Rogers Elementary, also in Wolfe County. Susan is the coordinator here as well, although the two schools are about an hour apart.

At Rogers, a brother and sister came out to see their bikes, and their excitement made us glow the whole drive to their home for the drop-off. There, we met their mother, a single mom with five children in a dilapidated trailer, surrounded by other unoccupied and often burnt-out trailers far from the main road.

Susan said this was one of the poorest areas in eastern Kentucky and that the trailers face a continual threat from fire. Even without the ubiquitous cracked and broken windows, the trailers are hard to heat in the winter and families burn huge quantities of firewood in cramped conditions, leaving the trailers at risk for out-of-control fires.

We’re glad that the children’s mother let us come here. It is truly difficult for many of the families to let anyone see their living conditions, and often, they turn down donations if a drop-off is required because they’re embarrassed by their poverty.

But, in this case, the mother beams as the bikes are delivered to her happy children.

‘Tell her I love her!’

At Red River Valley Elementary, we gave bikes to two sets of brothers. The four boys were sweet and excited, and one of them exclaimed: “I don’t know who gave us these bikes, but tell her I love her!”

All of the Children Incorporated children know they have sponsors, but the youngest don’t always understand what that means. They understand that they receive food, clothes, and gifts, but they don’t always connect those items to a specific person who has sent them. Seeing this child understand that a stranger had purchased a bike just for him was one of my warmest memories of the trip.

At the boy’s home, we handed over the bikes to his mother, who has four children and suffers from periodic strokes. Her health keeps her from working or driving, so the children have nothing much to do in rural Kentucky all summer. The bikes are a blessing for the children, who were gifted with the freedom that comes from fast wheels and the wind in your hair on a hot day.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN Kentucky?

You can sponsor a child in Kentucky in one of two ways – call our office and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381, or email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org.

Shelley Callahan | May 25, 2016En Español

Located just southeast of Mexico, Guatemala is the most populous country in Central America. Its spectacular mountains boast a wealth of natural resources and stunning biodiversity. For centuries, this land served as the core territory of the renowned Mayan civilization. Following two centuries of Spanish colonization, Guatemala gained its independence in the early nineteenth century — only to endure another 150 years of political instability and civil unrest. Additionally, this area is prone to devastating natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and hurricanes, which cause mudslides and flooding.

Thanks to these programs, which are supported by Children Incorporated donors, many students will have the skills they need to obtain employment after they graduate so they can help support their families right out of high school, and eventually become financially independent.

Despite recent economic growth and successful democratic elections, Guatemala still struggles with widespread poverty, illiteracy, crime, and high rates of unemployment and underemployment. Villa Nueva, located just southwest of Guatemala City, is the largest city in the country and is no exception to these maladies. Located in a low-income neighborhood, the Juan Apostol School provides for children not only through its excellent academic program, but also through its exceptional skills training programs. Founded in 1964, the school strives to give students many different opportunities to rise above the difficult socioeconomic circumstances into which they were born, which gives them the chance to have a brighter future.

Many different options for learning

On a recent trip to Guatemala, our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, visited the Juan Apostol School to see how the skills training programs were helping to prepare students for future employment. The school is a private one with over 1,000 students in two buildings — one for primary education, and the second for secondary education and skills training programs.

The school provides an education to children of low-income families in Villa Nueva, located just southwest of Guatemala City. The school serves as a safe haven for kids growing up in poor communities, especially since the city is riddled with many gangs and much criminal activity.

Luis found that the skills training programs were even more impressive than he remembered from his last visit to the school a few years ago. Thanks to these programs, which are supported by Children Incorporated donors, many students will have the skills they need to obtain employment after they graduate so that they can help support their families right out of high school, and eventually become financially independent. Every student in the school attends computer training classes, and they have the option to participate in the graphic design or computer repair and maintenance programs, or a robotics lab.

Luis also visited the cosmetology program for high school students, where students learn various cosmetic techniques such as giving manicures, doing makeup, cutting hair, and styling hair, and they learn about fashion. Lastly, at the end of his visit, Luis was able to watch as students prepared food in the school’s culinary program, during which they learn not only to cook, but also about visual presentation and the use of spices so that when they graduate from high school, they will be ready for employment at high-end tourist restaurants.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN GUATEMALA?

You can sponsor a child in Guatemala 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 sponsor portal and search for a child in Guatemala who is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 20, 2016En Español

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 other caretakers.

The children here seem like typical kids. Some are shy, some are rambunctious, but each has faced incredible hardship in their short lives.

Genevieve, the family resource director and our volunteer coordinator, is in charge here. She introduces us to a shy, smiling Allison.*

Genevieve remarked on the relationship between Allison and her sponsor, Carol Gaunce, who lives 500 miles away, back home in Richmond, Virginia.

The Fourth Child

Gaunce was retired with three adult sons when she decided to become Allison’s sponsor. In a way, she added a fourth child to the family.

In addition to the food, clothes and school supplies she needs, Gaunce regularly sends gifts and letters to keep in touch.

“She’s just as cute as she can be. She’s a shy child, a first-grader,” Gaunce beams. “I write letters when I send her little things from time to time.”

Getting Started

Gaunce first got involved with Children Incorporated in 2014 because of her friendship with the organization’s president and CEO, Ron Carter.

“We heard a lot about what he was doing and we wanted to help,” she said. “My husband is from Kentucky and we knew that Jackson County is one of the poorest in the region.”

Gaunce and her husband Jimmie asked to sponsor a child in West Virginia or eastern Kentucky and they were assigned to Allison.

“We didn’t have any specifics,” she said. “We just wanted a child in need.”

A hard life in Appalachia

Allison is in better shape than many of the Children Incorporated kids, she said, because she has two parents and a stable home – the only thing lacking is money.

Allison, her two sisters and her parents live in a trailer up a logging road and her parents both work minimum wage jobs. That they can both find any work at all is a rare thing in the impoverished rural area, where the mining industry’s decline has left the entire region in dire straights.

“They are a loving family unit,” Gaunce said. “I would love to meet Allison and give her a hug but I don’t think she needs that – she has a good family.”

Gaunce provides support and encouragement in other ways. For example, Allison’s parents have a large garden where they grow most of their own food and Allison has a number of pet cats who live outdoors. One of the things she’s asked Gaunce for is food to help feed them, and she obliges.

“She’s very compassionate,” Gaunce smiles proudly.

Boots on the ground

Genevieve administers our program to 28 children at this school. She identifies students most in need and works with Children Incorporated to get them day-to-day essentials.

She also acts as a go-between for sponsors and children. Gaunce sends letters and gifts to Allison through Genevieve, who checks them over before delivering them to the 7-year-old.

“I think that’s a good thing because you don’t really know what people might be sending the child,” Gaunce said. “She can open it up and make sure they’re appropriate. I like that process.”

It’s one of the things that especially pleased her about Children Incorporated.

“They are a loving family unit. I would love to meet Allison and give her a hug but I don’t think she needs that – she has a good family.”

– Carol Gaunce, Sponsor

“Before you even sign up, you know what the program is like,” she said. “It’s very straightforward.”

Children Incorporated uses volunteer coordinators in each location to manage support efforts. The volunteers are locals – school resource counselors in Kentucky or nuns in Bolivia – and already know the children and their families well. That helps build trust among client families and ensures continuity so children can rely on continued physical and emotional support.

“It’s a wonderful program,” Gaunce said. “I have nothing but good things to say about it.”

‘Such great need’

For anyone considering helping children in need, Gaunce has only one piece of advice – go for it.

“There is such great need,” she said. “Don’t hold back. If it is in your heart to do it, do it.”

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN Kentucky?

You can sponsor a child in Kentucky in one of two ways – call our office and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381, or email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 6, 2016En Español

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 smiling, confident face keeps flashing across my mind. The Children Incorporated volunteer and architect of our Montero school was once himself a sponsored child. Throughout the week, he’s been our local tour guide and companion, showing us around the city and introducing us to hundreds of children he’s helping on the path to self-sufficiency in adulthood.

There were so many Children Incorporated kids in so many schools that I can’t even estimate how many I met.

The nuns: Septuagenarians lead by example

Then I focus on Sister Pilar. The 75-year-old nun ventures into the darkest slums of Santa Cruz, looking for homeless women and children. She brings them back to live at her bright, spacious villa while the children go to school and their mothers get job training and placement — and then their own homes and a new life.

My thoughts move to Sister Geraldina, another 75-year old nun, whose laughter is infectious and energy is boundless. My whole trip to Bolivia was prompted by Sister Geraldina, who has overseen the school’s expansion from a collection of run-down buildings to a modern facility with space for hundreds of children.

The children: New schools, new shoes and new kittens

And then, of course, there are the children themselves — scores of faces flash across my mind, smiling and shy but curious about me, a new face in their school. At school, there is no evidence of the poverty in which they live — armed with new clothes, shoes and school supplies from Children Incorporated, they are indistinguishable from any other children of the world. They are boisterous, mischievous and cheerful, talking and playing as their teachers try to settle them into their schoolwork after a break.

Roberto, Luis and Roberto’s wife in their home in Bolivia

There were so many Children Incorporated kids in so many schools that I can’t even estimate how many I met. Their faces and names flash before my eyes like pages in a scrapbook, but my thoughts solidify for a moment on Efrain. After three years in the program, he is now a fourth-grader in La Paz. He’s a good student and lives in a one-bedroom home with his mother, three siblings and three kittens. It’s the kittens that he wanted to talk about — they sleep next to him and his brother and, like any child, he is enamored with them. He was also enamored with his shoes — he showed them off with pride and told me about receiving them from Children Incorporated. With three kittens and a new pair of shoes, Efrain smiled like the luckiest, most privileged child in the world.

The professor: A sponsor makes all the difference

I hope he ends up like Carla, and I feel a rush of joy as I think of her standing on the street with her daughter near her grandmother’s fruit stand in La Paz. Carla, now 30, started in the Children Incorporated program at the age of 9 after her parents left her to find work in Argentina. She was raised by her grandmother with help from a Children Incorporated sponsor who provided her with clothes, school supplies and food. Her rise from poverty was astounding — she is now a professor and has her own daughter and she still writes letters to her former Children Incorporated sponsor.

And as the plane rises above the clouds and the world below disappears, I close my eyes and send out fervent wishes and prayers that Efrain’s future — indeed all of their futures — are so bright.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN BOLIVIA?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | April 21, 2016En Español

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 in life aren’t the ones who have everything; the happiest people are those who share everything.”

– Roberto Andrade

It took years of patient waiting, but a sponsor finally stepped forward, and the 8-year old was enrolled at Escuela Cristiana. His art skills blossomed, nurtured by a supportive community, and he discovered his interest in architecture.

school architect rises from poverty

Roberto lives and works in Santa Cruz, following his three passions: art, architecture, and helping children in need. His architectural skills were employed in the expansion of the Montero School in Okinawa, a rural community a few hours out of Santa Cruz. But he is not only a talented artist and architect; he is also a humanitarian who donates his art to raise funds for impoverished children.

Roberto Andrade with his wife Verónica and Luis

Luis with Roberto and his wife

He lived most of his life in Sucre, one of the capitals of Bolivia, where he grew up and attended college. The trip here to Santa Cruz, over 500 km of rough roads, would have once been impossible for his family, but art shows and exhibitions have brought the successful artist to New York City and further.

We’re here to see the inauguration of the school expansion, but this site visit is also a sort of reunion. I first met Roberto in Richmond, where he stopped en route to an art show in New York, and Luis met him on a trip to Bolivia when he was 14 and still in child sponsorship. After graduation, Roberto stayed in touch with Luis and was brought on to work on the school expansion program with Sister Geraldina, our coordinator near Montero.

More than just a school: It’s a window to the future

Before the expansion, this school was heavily overcrowded and poorly ventilated. La Paz is a beautiful colonial city above the clouds, and Santa Cruz a populous modern city with chain stores familiar to any American. But here in the countryside near Montero, people live in lean-tos and one-room huts with thatched roofs, and poverty is as staggering as the heat.

The poverty may be greater, but the parents aren’t different from those we’ve met in La Paz. They hold the same hopes Roberto’s parents did – for education to empower and elevate their children into stable adulthood. The school is more than just a means to an end: it’s a powerful symbol of a future. Before the expansion, and despite substandard conditions including poor ventilation and no sewage system, this symbol drew more than 1,000 children from all over the region, stretching it far past capacity.

Before the renovation, over 1,000 children packed into the dilapidated school — with bad ventilation and no sewer system.

Sister Geraldina: a 75-year-old volunteer leads the charge

Sister Geraldina at the Montero school in Bolivia

Our volunteer coordinator Sister Geraldina

Our volunteer coordinator, Sister Geraldina, runs the school. She has devoted her life to helping children, since entering a religious order as a young woman in her native Chile. After 25 years of service there, she came to Bolivia, where she’s worked for the last 31 years.

She starts her mornings with a modest breakfast and immediately gets to work, involved with the children throughout the entire school day. In spare moments, she organizes parents and community events and spends her afternoons scheduling the other sisters and helping with their work.

If that all wasn’t enough, she also planned and oversaw every aspect of the expansion, upgrading this school from a collection of run-down buildings to a modern, well-ventilated facility with classroom space for the hundreds of students who attend. She’s already working on a second and third proposal, and she uses our visit to show us the improvements still necessary to accommodate more children in conditions conducive to learning.

Sister Geraldina is warm, but very serious, and never slows down as she coordinates the inauguration. Her energy belies her age. At 75, she worked side-by-side with the much younger Roberto to oversee the construction. In just a year, the duo and their construction team built five new slab-and-beam classrooms, restrooms, and a modern sewage system, with funds raised in tandem by our child sponsorship network and Sister Geraldina through the local community.

The school: new beginnings for the future

More than 600 people from the local communities attended the inauguration. The event is kicked off with performances of traditional dances by joyous, happy children in the gym. After the event, families of the 80 children in sponsorship meet with Luis to discuss their community and the children’s needs.

The celebration continues the next day when the children attend school for the first time in their new classrooms. In these new rooms, these children seem like children everywhere, laughing at silly jokes, goofing around, and working on class assignments.

growing up and growing into service

Education provides a lifeline for these children. Despite crushing poverty and a childhood marked by need, Roberto has become a successful artist and architect, dedicated to improving the lives of children who are growing up in even more impoverished locales. Some of these children will move on from the dusty towns and rough, dirt roads of their past, and others will stay, engineering the conditions and infrastructure to elevate the next generation, the same way their parents and Sister Geraldina did; the same way that Roberto did.

I look at the children of Montero the same way I imagine that Roberto’s parents looked at him, and I see bright futures, full of potential, compassion, and acts of kindness and charity. Which ones will become architects? Teachers? Doctors? How will they give back to the next generation?

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN BOLIVIA?

SPONSOR A CHILD