We recently received a letter from our volunteer coordinator, James, at the Dandora Center in Nairobi, Kenya, who writes to us to express his gratitude for Hope In Action funds that have allowed him to improve and expand the school, which is all to the great benefit of the children we serve there.
“I look back and appreciate with gratitude how much we have been able to achieve at the center through your support.”
A letter from James
“Dear Children Incorporated,
Receive warm greetings from us all at the Dandora Center, and we hope that this finds you well! The children are fine and getting on well with their daily school activities in this rather short but very busy term. Soon, national examinations and assessments will be setting in, and afterwards, the children will be entering the long December holidays.”
“At this juncture, I look back and appreciate with gratitude how much we have been able to achieve at the center through your support, which has made the environment for the children so conducive to learning.”
“I am glad that the boys’ restroom that I mentioned to you during my last communication is now complete and only needs to be painted. We have now begun constructing the girls’ restroom hoping that it will be complete by the beginning of next year. Upon completion of these restroom blocks, we hope to renovate the current room being used as toilets and convert it to a more spacious computer room that will be able to accommodate all the children with ease.”
“I appreciate the support you gave us to construct the first floor of the new classroom block which is currently being used by the children in the junior secondary school. We hope that next year we can manage to do the final floor and roofing of the block to prepare for ninth grade classrooms. Your love for the children at the center gives us hope as we make this request.”
Finally, it’s my great pleasure to share with you a few photos of the children carrying out different activities together with a few structural developments. We forever remain indebted to you as well as all the Children Incorporated sponsors for all the things you do for children.”
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.
After spending a few days in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, visiting with a few of our affiliated sites in the area, it was time for our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, and myself to take the short trip by plane to Sucre, where Children Incorporated supports seven schools, helping hundreds of children living in poverty every year.
The students beamed with pride as we made our rounds, and Gabriella explained to Luis and me that our donors had purchased the equipment, refrigerators, kitchen tools and utensils necessary for the culinary program to exist.
I had not visited Sucre the last time I traveled to Bolivia in 2016, so I was especially excited to see the town and get a chance to meet with our volunteer coordinators and sponsored children at each of the sites. Located in the south-central part of the country, Sucre sits at a high elevation, which gives it a nice and cool temperature all year long, which I looked forward to after a few very hot days in Santa Cruz. Beyond the cool climate, Sucre is also recognized as the constitutional capital of the country, and is home to dozens of government run local schools and privately-run language schools for foreign visitors.
But, upon our arrival, before I even had the chance to really get to see Sucre itself, Luis and I ventured about twenty minutes outside of the city on our first day, to the small agricultural community of Yolata. I noticed immediately how incredibly narrow the cobblestone streets were, as we bounced down the road in the taxi. I gazed out the window, realizing just how very quaint the town was, only taking up a dozen or so city blocks in total, which made walking very convenient. Yolata is home to many farmers who struggle to grow enough food to feed their families and sell in markets, as the area is prone to drought throughout the year. This makes it difficult for them to get out of poverty — and makes it even more important that Children Incorporated is able to provide support for children growing up here.
Visiting the school
When we arrived at the front gate of the Santa Rosa School, a small group of children held a hand-made sign which read “Welcome” in Spanish. They were all dressed in traditional Bolivian clothing, ones that looked similar to the outfits we saw at the Montero School, where children had performed dances to celebrate our arrival. Luis and I stepped out of the taxi, and were greeted by our volunteer coordinator, Gabriella, who escorted us inside the school’s compound and into the courtyard, where dozens of children and their parents were seated under a small pavilion. After we were introduced to the group, the students performed songs and dances for us as a way to say “thank you” to their sponsors for all the support they receive throughout the year.
This is a large affiliation for us — 53 children are enrolled in our sponsorship program and, according to Gabriella, many more could use support from a caring sponsor. As we talked in her office after the children’s presentation, she explained that many of the impoverished families in the community didn’t have any plumbing or running water, and they did their best to sell small food items as street vendors in Sucre, but overall making ends meet was hard for them, even if both parents were able to work.
We continued talking as Gabriella led us on a tour of the school, showing us the classrooms for the middle and high school age students, and a new edition to the school that would accommodate younger students in the upcoming year, as more and more children were coming back to school after the pandemic and additional space was needed for them.
A wonderful treat during our visit
As with many of the other schools in Sucre, Gabriella explained, the Santa Rosa School is run by the government, but not funded fully by the government, so Children Incorporated has been a huge help in filling a gap when children’s parents can’t afford school supplies, clothes, food and hygiene items. And, she added, without our donors, they never would have been able to complete the culinary building that she was excited to show to us.
As we turned a corner to enter through a large doorway, to my surprise, we came upon the culinary classroom, which was filled with students in their chef’s uniforms, all lined up around counter tops filled with baked goods they had made for us! As Gabriella introduced us to the students, we had a chance to try Bolivian pastries and cakes that were not only beautiful, but absolutely delicious. The students beamed with pride as we made our rounds, and Gabriella explained to Luis and me that our donors had purchased the equipment, refrigerators, kitchen tools and utensils necessary for the culinary program to exist.
At least at the Santa Rosa School, she knew her children were being provided for.
Visiting homes in Yotala
After we said goodbye to the students, Gabriella wanted to take us to visit a few of the homes of our sponsored children before we returned to Sucre for the evening. We piled into her car and made our way out of the small town and up into the hills, where we first visited a family with two small children in our program, living in a two-room building with electricity and little else. The father told us he makes his own version of yogurt which he sells in the city, but it is a lot of work, and his pay is very low.
Their well-kept house was very bare, and I wondered how they stayed warm at nights when the temperature dropped. There was no means to heat the home, and the concrete walls offered no insulation. Shortly after, we visited another home on the side of a small mountain, where a family of three was living in one small room with no electricity or running water. The mother expressed her gratitude for her children’s sponsors, who took worry away from her while her children were at school receiving an education. At least at the Santa Rosa School, she knew her children were being provided for so they could focus on getting an education, which gave her the peace of mind she really needed.
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.
Each year, our volunteer coordinators write letters to our office to let us know their first-hand experiences with how powerful sponsorship is for children at their schools.
Today we hear from Michele at Owingsville Elementary School in Kentucky about how our program has helped children this past year, all thanks to our caring sponsors.
“I thank you all for allowing our Resource Center to be a part of Children Incorporated. It is a true blessing to our school and families.”
Michele’s Letter
“Owingsville Elementary Family Resource Center (FRC) would like to take this opportunity to thank you for allowing our students to be a part of Children Incorporated. Our students have benefited greatly from the sponsorship program. We currently have 22 students sponsored in the program and four newly enrolled awaiting sponsorship. We appreciate all the work Children Incorporated does for these children in need.”
“We started the school year with students returning to school full time. We do offer virtual learning, and about 15-20 students were enrolled in that for the year, however, our elementary school will not offer virtual learning next school year. Our principal, Dr. Bailey, started his fifth year here at Owingsville. I started my 31st year in the FRC. Melania, the center’s clerk, applied for and was selected coordinator of the Crossroads Elementary FRC, so I spent about seven months without a clerk until February when a new clerk, Emily, was hired. Due to limited funding, she is also the clerk for the Bath County Middle School Resource Center. We came back to school without the COVID-19 restrictions in the fall of 2022. Additional teachers were added to make the teacher to student ratio smaller in first grade.”
Finding everything she needs
Our sponsors help ensure children’s needs are met throughout the year.
“Owingsville Elementary School has been at 74% free lunch for the past year, and we have an enrollment of 543 children from preschool through 5th grade. Our free lunch percentage and enrollment have both increased in the past years. We have many students in need, and we are blessed to have the Children Incorporated program at our school. Last year, to spend the Children Incorporated funds, I shopped the clearance rack at Kohl’s and was able to get some great clothing. Most of it was for fall and winter, so I saved it and was able to match sizes up with all my Children Incorporated students. In October, I went shopping for fall clothing and shoes. In November, I went shopping for Christmas items and winter clothing. It is becoming increasingly hard to find the good deals on clothes that I used to find. I work very hard to get good quality and quantity. In April, I worked on the Children Incorporated shopping list for spring and summer needs and handed those items out before school was out for the summer.”
“Our center also provides a Backpack Program, where we send home food on the weekends. I currently serve 37 students on this program, and a number of them are Children Incorporated sponsored children. Now, the Summer Feeding Program is currently available, and the Backpack Program will resume in August; however, we are always available to provide emergency food.”
Grateful for all the support
“We appreciate all of the Children Incorporated sponsors and staff! We are fortunate to have sponsors who send additional funds, cards for holidays and special occasions. For the third year in a row, one special sponsor has sent gift cards for me to purchase birthday cakes and sent gift cards for special occasion dinners such Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter for their sponsored child.”
“I thank you all for allowing our Resource Center to be a part of Children Incorporated. It is a true blessing to our school and to families that benefit from it.”
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.
When our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, and I discussed traveling to Bolivia in March of 2023, he was most excited about getting to visit the Montero School outside of Santa Cruz.
The support they receive from Children Incorporated sponsors goes a long way to help supplement food items, school supplies and hygiene items for children in our program.
Not only had Children Incorporated donors funded the construction of seven classrooms at the school seven years ago, for which Luis and I were invited to attend the community inaugural event, but more recently, we have supported the school’s efforts to build an agricultural school that had been completed just last year.
Luis is passionate about agriculture. As a young university student in Guatemala, he majored in agriculture before moving to the United States and becoming a teacher, and eventually working with Children Incorporated. He understands the importance of learning a trade and more specifically, a trade that generates an income while really helping the local economy.
Visiting the Montero School
When we arrived in Santa Cruz in early March, we visited our affiliated site, Villa Emilia, before making the trip to Montero, which was about two hours away from the city. Our volunteer coordinators picked us up early in the morning of our scheduled visit, and we headed almost directly north for roughly 60 kilometers, arriving to the school with a warm welcome from our sponsored children and their parents, who had prepared a full morning of presentations for us that included speeches, poem readings and traditional dances.
The Montero School itself is located on a beautiful, large piece of property, where school-aged children attend throughout the day, and classes for older children and adults are held in the evenings. The support they receive from Children Incorporated sponsors goes a long way to help supplement food items, school supplies and hygiene items for children in our program — things they need to make sure they can attend school fully prepared and ready to learn.
A site that continues to grow
After the presentations were over, the children enjoyed a snack from the school’s kitchen and then headed home for the day. Luis and I enjoyed a nice lunch with our volunteer coordinators, and took a quick tour of the school, revisiting the additional classrooms Children Incorporated had built, which now showed signs of many wonderful days of use, as teachers had decorated with lessons, written on the chalkboards, and arranged desks to best fit their students’ learning styles and needs.
In next week’s edition of Stories of Hope, we will visit the agricultural school along with some of the students and teachers who are involved with this new program on a daily basis — another great reminder of just how much our donors help children around the world receive an education.
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.
This past July, we had a special surprise at our office in Richmond, Virginia when we received notice that our volunteer coordinator, Peter Njuguna, from the St. John’s Community Center in Nairobi, Kenya, would be visiting. Peter has been a long-time coordinator with Children Incorporated, running our sponsorship program that supports children living in poverty in the Pumwani area of Nairobi.
“Our mission is to promote a just, healthy, and transformative community through capacity building, social inclusion, and accountable interventions,” explained Peter.
Peter arrived at the office prepared with a presentation in which he discussed the mission, vision and curriculum at St. John’s. He explained that the school is especially focused on providing a quality education to help break the cycle of poverty in their community through education, sports, nutrition, life skills, and spiritual guidance, which enables students to reach their full potential and become future leaders.
“Our mission is to promote a just, healthy, and transformative community through capacity building, social inclusion, and accountable interventions,” explained Peter.
“We do this through our Competent-Based Curriculum which helps to individualize each learner within a classroom to improve their critical thinking skills, enhance reading culture, and motivate parents to work closely with teachers to help ensure that comprehensive results are achieved by everyone.”
Peter went on to describe the ways in which this model of teaching has its own challenges — mostly in that it requires new textbooks and computer equipment that are not cost-friendly. It also requires training teachers, which is time consuming. Regardless, Peter is optimistic about this approach to learning, especially since many of the children in the community face so many challenges living in poverty. Their lives became even more difficult during the pandemic, when parents lost their usual labor jobs like housekeeping, construction work, and food vending. Peter watched as more and more children dropped out of school to try to help their families when they needed the support of a school environment more than ever.
Today, according to Peter, 102 children are supported through our sponsorship program from first grade all the way to vocational training which takes place after graduation. This constitutes almost half of the 206 children in total attendance at the school, which means our sponsors have a huge role in making sure students are receiving an education. Beyond providing school supplies and funds for uniforms and text books, our sponsors and donors also provide daily meals for students at the school, which improves their physical fitness and makes it possible for parents to carry on with their work without having to worry about the safety of their children, who no longer have to leave school to come home for lunch.
“We take retention very seriously at St. John’s, so we work hard to follow up with parents and guardians about the learning process so they can express any concerns. We also host parenting classes and give life skills lessons to students about substance abuse, child rights and responsibilities, career paths and personal studies,” said Peter.
Before he finished his presentation, Peter shared with our staff success stories of students who had graduated from the school to go on to work in education, mentoring, and youth leadership. Peter feels strongly that these children, who are now young adults, were able to focus on school and become successful in large part due to their sponsors, and was so happy to be able to express those feelings to all of us in person.
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.
Truly a nation of contrasts, Chile spans over 2,000 miles of South America’s western coastline, with deserts in the north, rainforests in the south and the snowcapped peaks of the Andes Mountains ranging throughout. Although a politically progressive country when it comes to human rights, millions of Chileans live in abject poverty.
Thanks to caring people like you, since 1964, Children Incorporated has helped thousands of children living in poverty in Chile.
There is a striking disparity between the rich and the poor here, which stems in part from the education system. A good education in Chile is expensive, and parents must pick up the bill for tuition costs. It’s a cycle — inadequate education yields unskilled workers who earn insufficient funds to cover tuition expenses for their children. As a result, parents work long hours for low wages, and children often get jobs at a young age to help support their families, preventing them from getting an education.
Challenges for Children in Chile
In Chile, children’s very lives and futures are at risk, as they struggle with poverty and a lack of educational resources. Right now, children in Chile need your help.
As of 2020, 15.6% of children in Chile are impoverished
Healthcare inequalities among the poor are a major issue in Chile meaning poor families often get low-quality services or none at all
Child labor in Chile keeps children from attending school and receiving an education, which would help them break the cycle of poverty within their household
Thanks to caring people like you, since 1964, Children Incorporated has helped thousands of children living in poverty in Chile.
We work with our volunteer coordinators in local communities to provide health and nutrition, education, hygiene items, clothes, shoes, and other essentials that help children and families rise above the poverty in which they live.
Our strategy is to focus on individual children through our sponsorship program, ensuring they are receiving exactly what they need on a regular basis.
Your support makes all our work possible to help children in crisis in Chile.
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How do I sponsor a child in Chile?
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.
