Tag Archives: children

Ron Carter | June 20, 2017En Español

I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I looked from the practically empty refrigerator before me to the precious little girl standing by my side.

I was on a project visit in Eastern Kentucky with one of our volunteer coordinators, and she had arranged for me to see first-hand the conditions in which many of the youngsters in her school are forced to live. On this particular day, we accompanied a beautiful little shaggy-haired seven-year-old girl, not yet enrolled in our program, home following the day’s classes.

“I don’t know what I’m going to feed the children tonight,” she said, explaining that her monthly check had not yet arrived, making it impossible for her to shop for groceries.

We were greeted warmly at the door of a rather ramshackle house by the child’s mother, a woman who appeared much older than she actually was. We were made to feel quite welcome, despite the worn and mismatched furniture that cluttered the small living room.

What to Feed the Children

As we spoke with the woman, she wore her heart on her sleeve. She cried as she told us how difficult times were, and especially how hard it is for her, as an unemployed single parent of three living on food stamps and a small monthly federal assistance check, to make sure her children have enough food to eat.

She stated over and over that her children would probably go hungry were it not for the free breakfasts and lunches they receive at school each weekday. “I thank God for those school meals,” she said. “The money just does not go far enough, and by the end of the month, sometimes the food has run out.” The woman then took us into her small kitchen and opened the refrigerator to show us how little food was there: a half-empty container of milk, a stick of margarine, a few leftover beans in a pot, and a couple of slices of cheese. “I don’t know what I’m going to feed the children tonight,” she said, explaining that her monthly check had not yet arrived, making it impossible for her to shop for groceries.

Backpacks Full of Food

Our feeding programs are essential for children living in poverty.

Then the woman said something that really made me think – something I had never considered prior to that visit. She said, “It is really hard in the summer, because the kids have to eat all their meals at home; there are no school meals then, but I still don’t get any more money.”

She went on to say how bare the cupboards get during the months of June through August, and that she knows there are times when her children get very hungry. She had tears in her eyes as she spoke, and my heart broke as I took in the significance of her words. It hit me, then and there, that there are children all over our country who, just like this family, must go hungry on a regular basis — especially in the summer when school feeding programs are unavailable to them.

Since that time, Children Incorporated has worked with a number of schools and childcare centers to support weekend and summer backpack feeding programs. The availability of these programs often determines whether or not a child will eat, sometimes for days at a time. These backpacks filled with non-perishable food items provide nourishment, as well as a highly important reminder to the children receiving them, that someone, somewhere remembers and cares about them.

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HOW CAN I DONATE TO Children Incorporated’s feeding program?

You can donate to our feeding program in one of two ways. Call the office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our specialists on staff or visit our website at www.childrenincorporated.org/donate.

Shelley Callahan | June 12, 2017En Español

Located southwest of the capital of Nicaragua is Boaco, a town that was built on such a steep hill that it is described by locals as having two floors – a first floor with homes and businesses, and then another tier of houses and shops high above the first, considered the second floor.

It was fitting to hear that the city is referred to as having two floors because part of our visit to the Casa Betania Welfare Center was to visit the completed two floors of the clinic that are a part of the Sisters’ home and our affiliate project, which supports 86 sponsored children in our program.

Saving Children and Saving Money

The clinic at Casa Betania

When we arrived at Casa Betania, we were warmly greeted by the children and our volunteer coordinator, Sister Cristina. Casa Betania itself has been in Boaco for more than thirty years, and Children Incorporated has been affiliated with it for almost as long as it has been in existence. The children had taken the time to come to the Home on a Saturday, a day they wouldn’t normally be there, to meet with us.

Of the more than eighty children in our program, 63 of them attend a local primary school, seven are in university, and the rest are in high school. The Sisters at Casa Betania — five in all — provide support for the children in shifts by days of the week. Since there is only one Sister that works with the students as an afterschool tutor, and the others help with cooking meals for the children, the students take turns coming to the home once a week after school, Monday through Thursday, to receive help with their homework and have a meal.

Like so many of our projects, not only do the Sisters support the children in the community — their parents also go to the home to discuss business and finances, and the Sisters encourage them to work together to earn an income. Some women get together to make tamales to sell on the street, and then they share in the profits; others clean houses or work as cooks in wealthier families’ homes. The fathers tend to work in carpentry or help the women sell food – but jobs are limited in Boaco. The Sisters also help the families save money; they offer to act as a bank, so the families are able to put funds aside throughout the year.

The Power of Padrinos

On top of receiving food and tutoring, children also receive clothes and shoes, thanks to their padrinos, the name they call their sponsors — which literally translates to “godparents” in English. All of the support is really important for the children, but the Sisters feel that the homework and tutoring help is the most crucial part of the program. Classrooms in local public schools are overcrowded, so teachers can’t give children the attention they need. The Sisters at Casa Betania would like to hire an additional tutor, but paying a salary is a concern, since they don’t get funding for educational support from the government or other organizations that offer aid.

On top of receiving food and tutoring, children also receive clothes and shoes, thanks to their padrinos, the name they call their sponsors – which literally translates to “godparents” in English.

A Doctor Among the Sisters

After visiting with the children, Sister Cristina showed us the clinic. Three years ago, thanks to our gracious donors, Children Incorporated provided $7,000 in funding to help complete the clinic after a local woman who was providing the financial support for the large addition was suddenly unable to help anymore. Now that the clinic is complete, what used to be a very small dispensary with just one room is a large clinic with multiple examining rooms and a full pharmacy.

One of the Sisters completed medical training, and is now a doctor, seeing upwards of forty patients a day, four days a week at the clinic. A Canadian health organization provides medications free of charge, and anyone in the community with an illness or wound is welcome to visit for treatments and care. Another staff member at Casa Betania is working on getting her nursing degree so that the clinic will be able to see even more patients.

The Sisters have their hands full between supporting the children four days a week and running a clinic during the week as well; but as Sister Cristina told us, there are so many kids in need in the community, and they would gladly bring more children and families into the home. With more padrinos, the Sisters could support more children, and the community would continue to benefit with both education and health and well-being.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN NICARAGUA?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | June 7, 2017En Español

Almost as soon as we arrived in Managua after our flight from San Jose, I could tell that Nicaragua was vastly different from Costa Rica. As we drove out of the capital city, the jungle landscape we had seen just one day before had been replaced by flat, open land where cows and horses roamed for miles. Along the road to Leon, the second-largest city in Nicaragua after Managua, we saw cowboys, both young and old, leading herds of animals, and I felt like we were in an old Western movie.

Andreia, International Project Specialist, with Sister Olga, our volunteer coordinator

That feeling didn’t change when we arrived two hours later at the La Recoleccion Home, a school for girls that has been around since 1880. La Recoleccion itself looked like a movie set – the large hallways and courtyards of the school were picturesque, towering stories above us. Lush trees and blossoming flowers grew all around, and archways leading into grand halls were enormous. I hadn’t known what to expect on my first trip to Nicaragua, but its beauty overwhelmed me, which was striking, considering we were in one of the poorest countries in the Americas.

The Land of Lakes and Volcanoes

Geographically, Nicaragua is the largest country in Central America. It is a multi-ethnic country of six million people, and the main language spoken there is Spanish. Tourism in Nicaragua has grown exponentially in recent years, but the population of the country still remains very poor. 48 percent of its people live below the poverty line, living on less than two dollars a day.

The country is primarily an agricultural one, and its minimum wage is among the lowest in all of the Americas. For that reason, many Nicaraguans leave to try to find better work in neighboring countries like Costa Rica, even though that means leaving their families, including their children, behind.

But those who are accepted have a safe place to be during the day; and for some, La Recoleccion offers an escape from a world of poverty during the night as well.

A Safe Place for Girls

At La Recoleccion, more than 1,300 girls attend the school every day. Sister Olga is our volunteer coordinator at the school, which also serves as a girls’ home. She has been working at La Recoleccion since 2014, when she moved from Honduras, where she had been working as our coordinator at another affiliate project since 1998. In all, Sister Olga has been associated with Children Incorporated for almost twenty years; and like Sister Bertalina at Santa Luisa in Costa Rica, she has worked at multiple projects in multiple countries!

Of the 68 girls enrolled in our program and attending the school, 25 live in the home full-time because their families have moved away to look for work. Many of the girls who don’t live at the Home live with single mothers who work long hours away from home in fields, or as housekeepers for other families. Violence is a concern because the girls are at home alone in the afternoons while their mothers work late – and unfortunately, abuse sometimes comes from people the mothers are associated with, like stepfathers or boyfriends.

A Beacon of Hope

It’s hard for Sister Olga to decide who gets to go to the school – more parents approach the school about enrolling their daughters than there is room for students in the classrooms, even though it is a very large school. But those who are accepted have a safe place to be during the day; and for some, La Recoleccion offers an escape from a world of poverty during the night as well.

The girls are well-cared-for by Sister Olga and the teachers and staff, so they can worry less and focus more on getting a good education. The girls also receive counseling, and Sister Olga offers sewing classes to their mothers so that they may acquire the skills they need to make a better living for themselves and their families. In the beautiful land of volcanoes and lakes in Nicaragua, La Recoleccion offers a safe and special beacon of hope for so many girls and their mothers.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN NICARAGUA?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 31, 2017En Español

A five-hour drive from Costa Rica’s capital is the small town of Bribri in the Talamanca region, southeast of San Jose, along the border of Panama. The town is inhabited mostly by the indigenous Bribri tribe, which is comprised of people who live and work close to the Sixaola River, which separates Costa Rica from Panama by just a short boat ride.

For the last nine years, during five of which Sister Bertalina has been at Santa Luisa, the 83 children in our program have been receiving food, clothing, shoes, and school supplies upon monthly visits to the home.

The area produces various crops, including bananas, plantains, cacao, and a variety of tropical fruits; agriculture provides little income for the families in the region, however. Among the houses and schools within the Bribri community is the Santa Luisa home for the elderly, which not only serves the aging population, but also provides support for children in the community.

A Surprising Connection

We left San Jose at 4:00 a.m. to make the drive to Bribri; we passed over mountains and then drove along the Caribbean coast until the paved road we had been traveling on stopped, and a gravel path lead us into the jungle, the river to the south visible every so often over banana trees.

When we arrived at Santa Luisa, we saw a community center at the entrance gate, and there was a basketball court in front of it. Directly behind it was the home for the elderly, which consisted of four or five separate buildings connected by walkways. Another home sat on a hill above the driveway, where Sister Bertalina, our volunteer coordinator, was waiting for us.

Sister Bertalina with one of our sponsored children

Upon greeting us, Sister Bertalina explained that she had been our coordinator for two years at La Milagrosa in San Jose — which we had visited just the day before — until 2011, when she came to Santa Luisa.

Before that, she had worked at one of our other affiliate sites, Casa Central, in Guatemala as well. In the last ten years, she has been our coordinator for three different sites in two different countries — meaning she has a lot of experience with how to best support the children in our program.

A Community in Need

Sister Bertalina showed us around the grounds of Santa Luisa, which are well-kept and full of chickens, roosters, and fruit trees — all of which provide food for the residents of the home. Santa Luisa is funded and run by the Costa Rican government.

Ten staff members help care for upwards of 25 elderly residents at a time, and the four Sisters that live on the property help to oversee operations, as well as provide support for the children and their families in the surrounding communities through our sponsorship program.

For the last nine years, during five of which Sister Bertalina has been at Santa Luisa, the 83 children in our program have been receiving food, clothing, shoes, and school supplies upon monthly visits to the home.

Both the young and old are being affected by the delicate nature of their families’ economic situations — all because of poverty.

Although the children and the elderly don’t interact with one another during those visits, in many ways, they go to the home for similar reasons. The elderly there have families who are no longer able help them as they become older and unable to care for themselves. Being a casualty of the cycle of poverty, these families can’t afford to take care of aging parents or extended family members, and they are forced to leave them in the government’s care.

This is something that I have become used to seeing with children in our program, but hadn’t yet seen with the elderly. Both young and old are being affected by the delicate nature of their families’ economic situations — all because of poverty. The elderly residents, just like so many children, are lacking the support they greatly need, and are just as vulnerable as children are.

Living in the jungle

After showing us the Santa Luisa grounds, Sister Bertalina took us to visit the home of two children in our program, only a few-minutes drive away. The visit took us deep into the jungle, where at first glance, it didn’t seem that a path off the main road existed at all.

Blanketed by large banana trees, it was narrow and muddy, and it took us up a steep incline. When we arrived at the wooden two-bedroom house, which was built on stilts on the side of a hill, we were greeted by the father, who held his small son in his arms. His wife and their other son were out, but he told us we would meet them at Santa Luisa the next day, when we were to meet with the other sponsored children in our program.

We provided shoes to children thanks to Because International.

The father explained that the roof leaks whenever it rains, which forces them to bag their clothes and tie those bags to the rafters in order to keep their belongings dry.

The family has little money for food because the father makes a very low wage working banana fields. The youngest son is anemic, which makes it difficult to keep him healthy. As we left, Sister Bertalina mentioned that she wants to buy mattresses for many of these families who sleep on the floor or foam padding. She also wishes she could start a nutritional program for the families so she could provide them with vitamins, as well as instructions on how to eat well.

Neither young nor old

The following day, the children went to the center to meet with us, along with their mothers, and some with their fathers, like the family we had met the day before. The children were excited to meet with us, and it gave them a chance to play on the playground, too.

They ran around together until it was time for us to hand out school supplies and shoes we had brought with us for them to take home. Each child received a pair of shoes from Because International, a book bag, pencils, erasers, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.

It is more than just a home for the old which also supports the young — it is a home that makes a difference for everyone in-between in Bribri, too.

After they received their gifts, the mothers served a large meal of rice, potatoes, and vegetables. After we ate, everyone went home for the day, and we said our goodbyes. The family we had visited the day before came to speak with us — the father, the mother, and the two small boys. The parents, who were neither young nor old, expressed their gratitude for the support they receive from our program, thanks to the Santa Luisa home.

It occurred to me how important Santa Luisa is to this community. It is more than just a home for the old which also supports the young — it is a home that makes a difference for everyone in-between in Bribri, too.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN COSTA RICA?

You can sponsor a child in Costa Rica in one of two ways – call our office and speak with one of our sponsorship specialists at 1-800-538-5381, or go online to our donation portal, create an account, and search for a child in Costa Rica that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 24, 2017En Español

When we first met our volunteer coordinator, Marta, at the Costa Rica Center in San Jose, I could tell she was full of energy. A small Costa Rican woman, she walked quickly down the sidewalk away from our hotel, as Andreia, our International Site Specialist, and I tried to keep up. When we got to her car, she shuffled us in, having a busy agenda for the day.

Ricky, Marta (left), and Ricky’s mom, outside of their home

In the morning, we would be visiting the houses of four of our sponsored children, and then we would be meeting the eighteen children enrolled in our program at the community center, which Marta uses as their monthly meeting spot. There, the mothers and the children had something special planned for us.

A Second Mother

The Costa Rica Center has been a Children Incorporated affiliate site for more than thirty years. Our founder, Mrs. Jeanne Clarke Wood, originally started working with this place when it was an orphanage. At that time, it had a school attached to it, which Marta’s son, who is now grown, attended. Marta worked as a volunteer with our former coordinator at the school, and eventually took over for her. She has been our coordinator at the Costa Rica Center for twenty years now.

Today, the orphanage is no longer there, and Marta has found another location at which to meet with the children in our program. Our program could have disappeared with the closing of the orphanage and the school, but instead, Marta happily took over all the responsibilities that go along with sponsorship, acting in many ways as a second mother to these children, which she isn’t really far from.

She has seen many of the children grow up in our sponsorship program, having been enrolled in primary school, and going on to graduate. A lot of the children have been in the program for ten years or more, which says a lot about Marta. She has used her abundance of energy to help keep these kids in school for many years.

The Importance of Longevity

Marta happily took over all the responsibilities that go along with sponsorship, acting in many ways as a second mother to these children, which she isn’t really far from.

All the Costa Rica Center children live in the city of San Jose, in various impoverished neighborhoods, and they attend the local schools. Many of them are in high school, or are just graduating and moving on to college or trade school. I was so impressed with Marta — her personal dedication to helping these kids was amazing, and the fact that so many older children, mostly between the ages of fourteen and eighteen, are enrolled shows me that she understands the importance of longevity when it comes to sponsorship.

Keeping children in the program as long as possible, and keeping up with their home lives and families is a big job — and Marta is obviously doing it well. She not only meets with the children on a monthly basis to provide them with food baskets, but she also plans holiday and Mother’s Day activities to give the children and their families a chance to get together and celebrate. She also has monthly meetings with the mothers to discuss whatever concerns they may have.

Helping Children Become Teens

Theresa and her mom in their house in San Jose

Our first stop was Ricky’s home, which was a small house down a narrow alleyway in the city. In his early teens, Ricky is a ninth-grader who lives with his parents and two siblings. His mother talked to us about how much sponsorship helps the whole family — with Ricky receiving support, they have less to worry about, and it also motivates Ricky to do well in school so he can stay in the program.

Marta also took us to Theresa’s house. Theresa was born five months prematurely and has had health issues ever since she was an infant. She is now nineteen, has always needed a wheelchair to get around, and has had multiple complications throughout her life that have lead to long stays away from home — sometimes even months — in the hospital. Theresa’s single mother receives very little help from the government to cover health care costs, and the government prevents her from working because she must care for her daughter full-time.

Theresa’s sponsor sends additional gifts to help with her special needs, which has been a great help for the family, who never knows when Theresa might end up back in the hospital — and her sponsor has even visited a few times over the years. As I look around the house, I notice a picture of Theresa on the wall, holding a violin. Her mom told us that one time, when Theresa was hospitalized for four months, the staff there gave the children musical instruments so that they would have something to do. Theresa learned to play while she was recovering, and plays all the time now.

The Joy of Laughter

After our home visits, Marta took us to the community center where she meets with the mothers and children. The center is large, with a stage in front, and benches lining a wall. The mothers all brought homemade dishes for lunch, as well as homemade crafts to show us. Ceramics, paintings, and knitted garments lined a long table that was against a wall. Marta explained that she encourages the mothers to make crafts to sell, so they can earn additional income.

After lunch, the children had a special performance planned for us. They did an interpretive dance, which was very well choreographed, considering these teens do not see each other very often at the center, nor do they live close to one another or attend the same schools. They had taken the time to get together to practice, and it was apparent that they enjoyed being together as a group, because they worked really well as a team.

It was great to see that they have become close – more than friends – over the many years they have had sponsors.

After their performance, Andreia and I spoke with the mothers, while the teenagers sat on the stage and chatted, laughing excitedly, and enjoying the desert their mothers had prepared. I kept getting distracted by their laughter, and my eyes wandered over to them, one different giggling face after another coming into my view.

I love knowing that these children have gotten to know each other because of our program, since they probably wouldn’t have met otherwise. It was great to see that they have become close — more than friends — over the many years they have had sponsors. These teens are like family, with Marta acting as an additional mother in their lives, all supporting each other as they grow up.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN COSTA RICA?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 18, 2017En Español

In so many countries around the world, drought is a constant worry, causing problems for crop cultivation and keeping impoverished people from having access to drinking water. In San Jose, Costa Rica, in the slum neighborhood that surrounds our affiliate site, La Milagrosa, a welfare center that supports more than seventy sponsored children, families have the opposite problem. Instead of the rainy season bringing relief from arid conditions, it causes those families to fear losing their homes to the mudslides that often come with it.

Sister Vielka is pictured with a mother and daughter outside their home.

Costa Rica, with a population of about 4.5 million people — nearly a quarter of whom live in the metropolitan area of the capital and largest city, San Jose — is one of the most stable and prosperous nations in Latin America. Because of that, it’s not cheap to live there and everything is expensive, especially food. But despite the high cost of living there, the country attracts a lot of migrant families.

Costa Rica is surrounded by nations that are much worse off than it is. Nicaragua and Panama have higher poverty rates, less stable governments, a lack of employment opportunities, and violence is more rampant there. This leads families, desperate for better lives for themselves and for their children, to migrate to Costa Rica in search of employment and a safer environment in which to live.

Unfortunately, what they find when they arrive is low-paying jobs for men in construction or field labor; and the only land they find to build on as undocumented immigrants is government-owned and in the hills of San Jose, which is subject to frequent mudslides. The rainy season lasts from May to November, so for half the year, work can be inconsistent, and families are concerned about losing their homes and all their belongings.

The Sun Shines on La Milagrosa

At La Milagrosa, which is run by our volunteer coordinator Sister Vielka, children receive food on a monthly basis, as well as educational support, mostly in the form of encouragement from the Sisters. Most of the children live with their single mothers who struggle to find support in a foreign country. Some receive food stamps from the government, but most are trying to get by on their own, away from their home country and extended family.

Six Sisters live at the home, and they not only make sure the children are fed, but they also offer emotional support to the mothers, who might find work cleaning houses or doing laundry. But those jobs fill only for a few hours a week, which isn’t enough — and it causes them a great deal of stress. The Sisters talk with the women about their issues, and counsel them through tough times.

Instead of the rainy season bringing relief from arid conditions, it causes those families to fear losing their homes to the mudslides that often come with it.

As we visit with the children at the home, Sister Vielka explains that they have to turn in their report cards and show passing grades in order to stay in our program. She says that this rule has been working really well to not only motivate the children, but also to keep their mothers engaged in their learning.

The Sisters would love to one day run an after-school tutoring program so that the children could receive additional support; that would require funding to hire a teacher to work with the kids. La Milagrosa is currently not receiving any support from the government or elsewhere, and there are few resources outside of Children Incorporated sponsorship to do more to support the kids’ education.

When It Rains, It Pours

We left La Milagrosa in the early afternoon to walk through the neighborhood to visit the homes of some of our sponsored children. It was a bright and cool day, and there was not a cloud in the sky. We walked with Sister Vielka and her assistant Gisela down a steep hill, and then down a dirt path covered by giant, lush tropical plants, taking us off the main road into what felt like a jungle within a city.

Gisela told us that seven years ago, rain took five houses from families in the middle of the night. Luckily, the occupants were able to get out safely in time, but they all lost everything they had in the mudslide.

Andreia Beraldo, International Project Specialist, outside the home of a family who lost their bathroom to a mudslide last month.

We walked up tightly-packed dirt steps that had been carved into the side of the mountain to reach our first home, where a woman greeted us in the doorway. When we walked into the living room, she pointed to the floor with one hand, as she held her small baby in the other arm, and told us that the floor used to extend further out — but rain had washed part of it away, exposing the ground below and leaving a huge hole in their home.

It seems like only a matter of time before the rest of the floor will go sliding down with the rain, leaving this family homeless. Last month, rain took out their bathroom, which had been on the side of the house. When we walked outside to leave, we could see what was left of a small structure where there was no longer a toilet, but only another hole left in the ground on the property.

With each home visit, we seemed to go further and further up into the hills. Since the land is owned by the government, the families risk not only having their homes wash away in the rain, but also being removed at any point. Gisela explained that when it rains a lot, the children aren’t able to get to school, because it becomes too dangerous for them to be walking around.

After visiting four or five houses, we could see why so many of our conversations with families and the Sisters were about the rain. Each house was barely clinging to the blanket of dirt beneath it on a dry day like that day — looming on all of our minds was what will happen when the rain inevitably comes.

As we walked back to La Milagrosa, the clouds started to come in heavily; and in the distance, we could hear the rumble of thunder. By the time we reached the Home, it had started to pour.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN COSTA RICA?

SPONSOR A CHILD