Tag Archives: children

Shelley Callahan |

As an incredibly diverse continent, it is difficult to sum up Africa as a whole. Each of the 54 countries that Africa comprises is unique and distinctive in its own way, offering beautiful landscapes, rich histories, and varied cultures and customs. Spanning over 5,000 miles north to south and 4,800 miles east to west, Africa contains a wide array of religions and ethnic groups. Within each country, stark contrasts exist between rural areas and bustling cities. Known for its amazing natural wonders and safari adventures, which attract tourists from all over the world, Africa also faces a great deal of adversity, as many people there are plagued by extreme poverty, famine, and war.

Our work in Africa helps thousands of children in need every year.

Facts about Africa

– African has the second-largest population in the world with about 1.2 billion people inhabiting the continent

– Over 1,000 languages are spoken by the people of Africa

– The most-practiced religion in Africa is Islam, followed by Christianity

– The oldest human remains ever discovered, thought to be approximately 200,000 years old, were found in Ethiopia

– The longest river in the world, the Nile (4,132 miles long), is located in Africa

– The world’s largest desert, the Sahara, which is almost the size of the United States, is in Africa

– Victoria Falls is the largest waterfall in Africa, at 355 feet high and one mile wide

– Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa, at over 19,300 feet

– Madagascar is the largest island in Africa, and it is the fourth-largest island in the world

– Africa is the second-largest continent on earth after Asia, at approximately 11.7 million square miles

– Africa is the hottest continent on earth

In Africa, we provide children and their families with mosquito nets to protect them against mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and dengue through our Mosquito Net Fund, and we support feeding programs through our International Feeding Programs Fund.

Understanding poverty in Africa

To understand our work in Africa, it is important to comprehend the struggles that the families of our sponsored and unsponsored children are facing on a daily basis as a result of poverty. Although Africa’s economy is improving, the continent is the poorest in the world, and many children and adults there are afflicted by hunger, disease, and a lack of basic necessities.

Facts about poverty in Africa

– 75% of the world’s poorest countries are located in Africa, including Zimbabwe, Liberia, and Ethiopia

– Diseases like HIV/AIDS are leaving kids orphaned at a very young age; an estimated 50 million orphans live in Africa

– Of all of the people in the world without access to clean water, almost 40% of them live in Africa

– Every day, almost 2,000 children die from diseases linked to unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation

Facts about hunger in Africa

 – Half of the continent’s population is children; an ever-increasing number is experiencing stunted growth due to the challenges of malnutrition

– More than 300 million children are chronically hungry, and more than 90% of those children suffer from long-term malnourishment and nutrient deficiency

– The average plot of land that a family living in poverty owns is too small for a garden that could help feed a family

Facts about child education in Africa

– Primary school enrollment in African countries is among the lowest in the world

– 33 million primary school-aged children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not go to school; 18 million of those children are girls

– Although literacy rates in Africa have greatly improved over the last few decades, approximately 40% of Africans over the age of 15, and 50% of women above the age of 25, are illiterate

– Children from the poorest households are 3 times more likely to be out of school than children from the richest households

Facts about child health in Africa

– Malaria kills 3,000 African children per day

– More than 90% of the estimated 300–500 million clinical cases of malaria that occur across the globe every year are documented in Africa – primarily in children under the age of 5

– Measles, malaria, and diarrhea are 3 of the biggest killers of children — yet all are preventable or treatable

– 270 million children have no access to healthcare

– 1 in 5 children in Africa lacks safe drinking water

How you can help

You can help a child living in poverty in Africa to receive basic needs and an education so that they may have the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty – and you can do so in a few different ways. One way is through our child sponsorship program. Sponsorship provides an underprivileged child with basic and education-related necessities such as food, clothing, healthcare, school supplies, and school tuition payments. This vital support allows impoverished, vulnerable children to develop to their full potential – physically, emotionally, and socially. Sponsors positively impact the lives of the children they sponsor through the simple knowledge that someone cares about their well-being. This gives children in need hope, which is powerful.

Sponsors positively impact the lives of the children they sponsor through the simple knowledge that someone cares about their well-being.

Our policy has always been to consider the needs of each sponsored and unsponsored child on an individual basis. We work closely with our volunteer coordinators at our project sites, who are familiar with each individual circumstance and the needs of every child in their care. Sponsorship donations are sent to our projects at the beginning of each month in the form of subsidy stipends. Our on-site volunteer coordinators use these funds to purchase basic and education-related items for children in our program, to ensure that they have what they need to do their very best and succeed in school.

You can also help children in need by donating to one of our special funds. In Africa, we provide children and their families with mosquito nets to protect them against mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria and dengue through our Mosquito Net Fund, and we support feeding programs through our International Feeding Programs Fund. Our special funds offer options for sponsors who wish to further their support, as well as for donors who wish to make a difference without making a commitment.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN AFRICA?

You can sponsor a child in Africa at one of our affiliated projects 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 donation portal, create an account, and search for a child in Kenya or Ethiopia who is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

References:

 http://www.interesting-africa-facts.com
 http://www.aho.afro.who.int
http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/afr/publication/poverty-rising-africa-poverty-report
https://www.children.org/global-poverty/global-poverty-facts/Africa
http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats
http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4a02d7fd6.html
https://thewaterproject.org/water-scarcity/water_stats#stats
https://www.gfmag.com/global-data/economic-data/the-poorest-countries-in-the-world
https://borgenproject.org/10-quick-facts-about-poverty-in-africa/
 http://www.afro.who.int/health-topics/child-health
http://www.allcountries.org/health/facts_about_health_in_the_african_region_of_who.html

Shelley Callahan | En Español

The Encore Academy lies in the Milan neighborhood of New Orleans, a subdistrict of Central City in the Uptown region. The neighborhood dates back to the 1800s, and it grew to become the largest African American commercial district during the Jim Crow era. After desegregation, many African American families moved to other areas in the city, leaving many businesses and homes vacant. Currently, Central City has one of the highest murder and violent crime rates in New Orleans. Although the Encore Academy is able to offer students an education, it is an established charter school without a library.

Children at Encore Academy unfortunately don’t have a library at their school.

We are not exactly sure why the school, which is housed in a refurbished structure, does not include a library, whereas most of our other affiliated schools in the United States do. Not only are students lacking free books to borrow to help them with their education, but they are also required to purchase and wear a uniform to school, which creates a financial burden for their parents. While the uniforms downplay socioeconomic differences to foster school spirit and a sense of unity, the cost to families living in poverty is huge — especially when they have multiple children in school at the same time, and are already having a hard time making ends meet.

A growing population of students

Sponsorship support sometimes goes towards purchasing books so that children are not only reading in their leisure time at home, but they also have a sense of ownership when they might not otherwise while living in poverty.

The school hasn’t been able to expand enough to create a library for our sponsored and unsponsored children, but attendance at the Encore Academy is expanding fast. Since its founding in 2012, the school has grown from 220 students to over 550 in grades pre-kindergarten through eighth. The academy is an open-admissions charter school, which means that children from all over the city attend. Where it is lacking in books, the school does have a strong foundation in the arts, especially in music, as well as a before and after school program called Champ Camp. Run by our partnering organization at the Encore Academy, Communities In Schools (CIS), some of the camp’s enrichment activities include voice and theater production. In the past, Children Incorporated has provided Hope In Action funding to help with these important enrichment activities.

Giving children the gift of books

Since these children don’t have access to literature outside of school textbooks, sponsorship support sometimes goes towards purchasing books so that children are not only reading in their leisure time at home, but they also have a sense of ownership when they might not otherwise while living in poverty. Although we hope that the school will be able to establish a library for its students in the future, we are grateful for our sponsors, who are supporting children with basic needs and books so that they can obtain an education and have a brighter future.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN NEW ORLEANS?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | En Español

We don’t usually relate recycling to helping deaf children, but at the Father Andeweg Institute for the Deaf (FAID) in Lebanon, a project involving plastic bottle caps is doing just that. The children and administrators at FAID have started collecting plastic bottles caps. For every 600,000 caps they collect, the school recycles them for money that is used to buy a new hearing aid for a needy child in attendance, many of whom are Syrian refugee children. In addition to collecting bottle caps to purchase hearing aids, FAID is also using the empty plastic bottles, as well as old car tires, to paint and decorate for a sensory garden for the children as part of the recycling project.

About Lebanon

In addition to collecting bottle caps to purchase hearing aids, FIAD is also using the empty plastic bottles, as well as old car tires, to paint and decorate for a sensory garden for the children as part of the recycling project.

Renowned for its towering cedar trees, Lebanon boasts fertile valleys; snow-capped, ore-rich mountains; and – in a region where water is scarce – sixteen rivers that flow into the glistening Mediterranean Sea along Lebanon’s western coast. This small Middle Eastern country has an incredibly rich culture, evincing the influence of such illustrious civilizations as the Greek, Roman, Arab, Ottoman Turk, and French. However, Lebanon’s wealth of diversity has also contributed to its turbulent history.

Lebanon continues to suffer repercussions of a history riddled with wars – both civil and international. Poverty, unemployment, and the ever-present threat of war are tragic realities here. These are, perhaps, most pronounced in Beirut, the nation’s capital. Settled over 5,000 years ago, this historic city is Lebanon’s largest and primary seaport, but it is also afflicted with dire poverty and its socioeconomic effects.

Helping children cope with hearing loss

Needy children in Beirut not only face hardships when it comes to living in poverty, but those that attend FAID are also afflicted with the complications of their disability. Founded in 1957, FAID provides deaf children with a basic education, as well as with specialized training, to enable students to become self-sufficient. The school plays a crucial role in giving these hearing-impaired – and often destitute – children the opportunity to rise above the challenging circumstances that they face.

Currently, there are twenty Syrian refugee children registered at the school; and despite the difficulties that supporting them all financially presents, projects such as the recycling program and support from Children Incorporated sponsors are crucial to these vulnerable children receiving an education.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN LEBANON?

You can sponsor a child in Lebanon 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 donation portal, create an account, and search for a child in Lebanon that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | En Español

A vital port on the renowned Mississippi River, the city of New Orleans is steeped in culture and history. Even so, areas of this historic city have long struggled with poverty and its socioeconomic effects. The neighborhoods surrounding the Success Preparatory Academy are no exception. Located in a very old and run-down section of New Orleans, abandoned and boarded-up homes line the streets, most dating back to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005, serving as an outward sign of the daily struggles that residents face.

As a result of these circumstances, the Success Preparatory Academy serves as a beacon of hope and a safe haven for children living in New Orleans. Its friendly and professional staff creates a warm, welcoming environment where children feel secure – a sentiment that they may not experience in their difficult home lives – and receive a well-rounded education.

Higher education is the focus

Rachel pictured with one of our sponsored children.

Located on Bienville Street in the Lower Mid-City/Treme neighborhood, not far from the historic French Quarter, the Success Preparatory Academy offers children a curriculum that prepares them for college; and it is complemented by a variety of after-school activities, because the administration believes that even before children reach high school, it is important to emphasize the importance of higher education to them, so that they will have more opportunities to succeed in the future.

Eighty-seven percent of the children that attend the Success Preparatory Academy come from low-income families. Children are required to wear uniforms there – khaki pants or skirts. The uniforms consist of polo shirts with the school logo, and they are color-coded by grades: kindergarten through grade five wear maroon, sixth and seventh grades wear navy, and eighth-graders wear gray. Students are allowed to wear college sweatshirts of any color over their uniform shirts. Children Incorporated provides our sponsored and unsponsored kids with these sweatshirts.

Since the Success Preparatory Academy embraces a focus on college preparation, university banners from across the country decorate the halls. Teachers adorn their classrooms with items and colors from the universities that they attended. On certain days, the students may wear college tee shirts if they’ve been receiving good grades and have been behaving well.

A need for fresh fruits and vegetables

Our volunteer coordinator at the school is Rachel. On a recent visit to the Success Preparatory Academy, Rachel told our Director of U.S. Programs, Renée Kube, that her greatest need at the school is help with basic necessities – especially with offering fresh produce to the children. She said that the sponsored and unsponsored kids there love fresh fruit, but that most don’t ever have any in their homes; and the corner stores in their neighborhoods don’t sell them. There is a “food desert” in the middle of a bustling city.

Since the Success Preparatory Academy embraces a focus on college preparation, university banners from across the country decorate the halls.

A food desert is an area where fresh fruits and vegetables are not available. Large parts of New Orleans – specifically the poorer sections – don’t have grocery stores. Instead, they have corner markets where one can purchase snacks and some canned goods, but not nutritious whole foods.

“If families have transportation barriers or illnesses, or mobility problems or other obstacles to getting out of their neighborhoods, what they’re limited to are these little corner stores,” said Renée. “For thousands of families, fresh fruits and vegetables just can’t be found.”

Helping to keep the water running

While visiting the school, Renée also had the chance to meet with one of our sponsored children, Ricky*, who has a special sponsor that supports him well beyond sponsorship. With the additional money that his sponsor sends, Rachel has had the opportunity to purchase an entire winter wardrobe and a laptop computer for Ricky. The money has also helped Ricky’s mom to pay their water bill down so that their water would not be turned off, which was a huge help to his family. Last holiday season, Ricky’s sponsor purchased a Thanksgiving meal – from the paper products to the pecan pie – for his entire family.

Ricky’s mom is so thankful for the assistance that he receives. As a single mother raising her kids and grandkids, she tries hard to make ends meet – but it is really difficult for her to generate enough income to support everyone. According to Rachel, Ricky’s mom says that the Children Incorporated program has changed the lives of her entire family.

*Name changed for child’s protection.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN NEW ORLEANS?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | En Español

Every year, Children Incorporated provides thousands of coats, gloves, boots, hats, and mittens to children in need in Kentucky, Arizona, New Mexico, and Michigan during the winter months, thanks to our Warm Clothing Fund. Without this special fund, many children would go without the warm clothes that they need in order to attend school properly dressed when the weather is very cold. This is essential in keeping them healthy, and from missing class and falling behind.

Our donors are helping keep kids warm during the winter months!

This past winter, Children Incorporated was able to go above and beyond just providing warm clothes to our sponsored and unsponsored children at the Hanaadli Community School/Huerfano Dormitory in New Mexico – we were also able to allocate funds for extra warm blankets for the children there. Homes in the Huerfano community are very small, but the zone serves a population that is spread out across a very wide area. The distance is so great that some families who enroll their children in the Hanaadli Community School also enroll them at the Huerfano Dormitory on the school’s campus. These children go home on weekends and on holiday breaks from school.

Cozy all winter long

Every year, Children Incorporated provides thousands of coats, gloves, boots, hats, and mittens to children in need.

In October, during a visit to the school by our Director of U.S. Programs, Renée Kube, our Volunteer Coordinator Elsie asked Renée if we would provide the children in her care with warm blankets so that they could be comfortable sleeping in the dorms at night. Since Huerfano is at an elevation of 6,194 feet above sea level, and is located in the high desert country, the winter temperatures there plummet much below freezing. Renée gladly sent funds to Elsie, thanks to our sponsors and donors who have contributed to our Warm Clothing Fund – and now the children stay warm and cozy all winter long!

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HOW DO I DONATE TO THE WARM CLOTHING FUND?

You can contribute to our Warm Clothing Fund 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 donation portal, create an account, and donate to our Warm Clothing Fund.

DONATE

Shelley Callahan | En 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. Despite recent economic growth and successful democratic elections, Guatemala still struggles with widespread poverty, illiteracy, crime, and high rates of unemployment and underemployment.

Though a seemingly small gesture, for these children and their parents, creating something handmade as a way of saying thank you to sponsors shows just how important our sponsorship program is to them, as well as to the school and community.

These maladies are perhaps even more pronounced in the city of Tecpan, located some sixty miles west of Guatemala City. The overwhelming majority of Tecpan’s 50,000 inhabitants claim direct descent from the Maya. However, despite their rich cultural heritage, indigenous people often find themselves marginalized, left to endure the brunt of poverty and its associated effects. For this reason, the Tecpan School, one of our affiliated projects in Guatemala, is incredibly important to these families. Run by nuns of the Hijas de la Caridad (Daughters of Charity) Order, the school strives to aid the impoverished children of this region; and thanks to the help of their sponsors, children and their families are receiving basic needs, which helps them to break the cycle of poverty.

Families in Guatemala work together to make gifts for sponsors.

Showing appreciation

Recently, we received pictures from our volunteer coordinator at the Tecpan School of children and their mothers making small gifts of handmade bracelets and bookmarks for the kids’ sponsors as a way to show their gratitude for all that our sponsors do to help these families. Though a seemingly small gesture, for these children and their parents, creating something handmade as a way of saying thank you to sponsors shows just how important our sponsorship program is to them, as well as to the school and community.

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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 donation portal, create an account, and search for a child in Guatemala that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD