Tag Archives: education

Shelley Callahan | January 10, 2018

Last year, Kenya suffered from a disastrous drought, which killed livestock and caused widespread crop failure, creating food shortages throughout the country. As a result, the cost of grain increased tremendously. Nearly 3 million people were affected by the drought, causing many families to worry that they wouldn’t be able to afford to feed their children.

Many of the students who attend the Materi Girls’ School come from families in villages close by; and because of the drought, not only were their families going without food, but the school was also struggling to feed the girls during the school days as well.

Some of the families that felt the effects of the drought included those of our sponsored children at the Materi Girls’ School in Kenya. When Brother John Konzka founded the school in a village called Taraka many years ago, he had envisioned a place in which young Kenyan girls would be given the opportunity to access the world outside their households.

As an American missionary and teacher in Kenya, Brother John had seen firsthand the leadership roles that Kenyan women were starting to embrace in their families, and he knew that more opportunities for girls to receive an education would present more opportunities in general for Kenyan families. Brother John has since passed away, and the school continues to help hundreds of girls every year.

Many of the students who attend the Materi Girls’ School come from families in villages close by; and because of the drought, not only were their families going without food, but the school was also struggling to feed the girls during the school days as well. Thanks to our Hope In Action Fund and our wonderful donors, however, we were able to send funds to the school for the purchase of enough food to last the remainder of the year, so that the children wouldn’t go hungry, and to help the families of the children that attend the school.

We are endlessly grateful for your support in making sure these girls and their families had enough food to eat!

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN KENYA?

You can sponsor a child in Kenya 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 who is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | January 10, 2018En Español

Unfortunately, it is not uncommon for many children who attend our affiliated schools in Eastern Kentucky to not have proper clothes and shoes, let alone school supplies, throughout the school year. In a part of the U.S. where poverty is rampant, oftentimes, parents don’t have enough money to pay the bills or to buy their children new, necessary items when needed. Thankfully, some children living in Kentucky have the Children Incorporated program and our volunteer coordinators, along with our Back to School Fund, to rely on to provide for them when they need help the most.

Kevin desperately needed new shoes.

Last year, one of our volunteer coordinators in Kentucky, Gloria, noticed in a school hallway that seven-year-old Kevin’s* shoes were falling apart. Kevin, who at the time was enrolled in our program but waiting for a sponsor, wore shoes that were covered in duct tape – they were so covered that Gloria could barely see the shoes themselves. When she asked Kevin about his shoes, he said that his mom had tried to fix them when the soles came unglued, but duct tape was all she had, and she couldn’t afford to buy him a new pair.

New shoes for Kevin

Gloria was able to find Kevin a gently-used replacement pair of shoes at the Resource Center at the school, and then she contacted our Director of U.S. Programs, Renée Kube, to see if Children Incorporated could help Kevin to get a new pair quickly. Thanks to our Back to School Fund, Renée was able to send funds to Gloria to get Kevin brand new shoes and a new school outfit, as well as some school supplies.

We are incredibly grateful for our sponsors and donors who contribute to our Back to School Fund.

Today, Kevin has a sponsor who ensures each and every month that he is provided with the things he needs to be able to go to school without worry and to concentrate on doing well in his studies.

We are incredibly grateful for our sponsors and donors who contribute to our Back to School Fund to ensure that our sponsored and unsponsored children are being supported throughout the year. Without you, we couldn’t help children in need.

*Name changed for child’s protection.

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HOW DO I DONATE TO THE BACK TO SCHOOL FUND?

You can donate to our Back to School 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 and make a donation on our website.

Shelley Callahan | January 9, 2018En Español

Located in the town of Owingsville in Kentucky’s Bath County, Crossroads Elementary School is a consolidation of two of Children Incorporated’s former affiliated schools – Bethel and Salt Lick Elementary Schools. When the two older schools were shut down, one new school was built to replace them; and according to our Director of U.S. Programs, Renée Kube, who recently visited Bath County, the school is huge.

Serving 496 children in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, a large percentage of students there is living in poverty. Seventy-five percent of the kids qualify for free meals. Many parents and guardians are small farmers, laborers, and service workers – they hold low-income jobs with little security. Many children are being raised by their grandparents, which is hard on their caretakers, especially the ones who have lived in poverty their whole lives.

Renée, Gloria, and a few of our sponsored kids at Crossroads Elementary School pose for a photo.

Upon arriving at Crossroads Elementary School, Renée was greeted by our Volunteer Coordinator, Gloria, whose plan was to have Renée visit the Resource Center, and then meet some of our sponsored kids before taking a tour of the school. Built just eight years ago, the school has a modern feel that was apparent from the second Renée stepped through its front doors.

Renée could see large classrooms on either side of the hallways as she and Gloria made their way to the Resource Center, the corridors bright and sparkling, as though they had just been cleaned. Even before seeing it in its entirety, Renée thought it was a beautiful school, and it made her happy to imagine how hundreds of children in attendance had a large, safe, clean environment in which to learn and grow. Over the years, Renée has visited many of our sponsored children’s homes, which are typically old, small, rundown, and unkempt – a reflection of the extreme poverty in which these families live.

Resources for everyone

When they arrived at the Resource Center, Gloria showed Renée some cabinets and plastic storage bins that were stuffed with food and gently-used clothes. She explained that any child or family can come chose what they need; and for some children, she sends food home with them on the weekends if she’s worried they won’t have anything to eat otherwise.

Shortly after Gloria finished showing Renée her supplies, Natalie*, one of our sponsored children, arrived at the Resource Center. Natalie is a sweet and shy second-grader who loves to read. She and her brother are being raised by their disabled grandparents in a small, old mobile home. Natalie benefits greatly from the support of her sponsor, who ensures through her contributions that she gets appropriately-sized clothes and shoes, and school supplies and hygiene items all year long, as she needs them.

Next, Renée met Kevin*, another sponsored child who Gloria knew really needed the additional help that sponsorship provides. Gloria enrolled Kevin in our sponsorship program last December, but sometimes it takes a while to find sponsors for kids; by spring of the following year, Kevin was still waiting to be sponsored. During that time, he went to school in shoes that were completely split open and covered in duct tape. When Gloria brought him to the Resource Center to ask him about the shoes, Kevin said, “My shoes broke and Mama fixed them because I can’t have new ones.”

Many children are being raised by their grandparents, which is hard on their caretakers, especially the ones who have lived in poverty their whole lives.

Gloria knows Kevin’s mother struggles intensely – she is raising three kids in a small mobile home, and her sole income comes from work at a fast food restaurant where she makes minimum wage. Gloria was able to go to her cabinet and find Kevin a pair of gently-used shoes that, although not brand new, were at least not held together with tape. Thankfully, Kevin got a sponsor shortly after the incident, and now he receives new shoes and clothes that fit him perfectly.

A beautiful school

After visiting with Natalie and Kevin, Gloria took Renée on a tour of the school, which is colorful and full of natural light all throughout it. The computer lab has the latest technology, and the library is full of thousands of books, with brightly painted murals on the walls, and fun carpets laid across the floors. Renée loved seeing all the different rooms in the school – she felt as though it offers a wonderfully warm atmosphere for learning, and that it really does serve as an oasis for our sponsored kids, who come from broken homes and instability.

Once they arrived at the gymnasium, Renée found a big group of kids watching performers do exercise routines for the children to learn and then copy. Something special set up by the principal to reward the students for good attendance, they snapped, stomped, shook, and jumped in place on the floor of the big gym, with its shiny floors and new mats and bleachers. Renée could tell the children were having a fabulous time, and she once again found herself feeling thankful that these children, who had enough to worry about at home, living in poverty, have a lovely school to enjoy.

*Names changed for children’s protection.

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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 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 | December 24, 2017En Español

After spending two weeks visiting eleven of our affiliated projects in India and Sri Lanka, knowing that the St. Mary’s Girls’ Hostel in Khammam was the last home I would be seeing on my trip left me with a bittersweet feeling. India and Sri Lanka are both full of beauty, diverse cultures, and wonderful people who face extreme hardship every day. Sri Lanka has suffered greatly from natural disasters and decades of civil war; India suffers from overpopulation and dire poverty caused by gender inequality and disparities in income.

Despite how difficult it was to see so many people living in desperate conditions there, I had grown fond of both countries. I learned so much about what our amazing volunteer coordinators are doing to educate our sponsored children, and to give them a better chance at living successful lives.

A home for the disabled

The St. Mary’s Girls’ Hostel is located in South India in the rice-producing state of Telangana. The Church of South India opened the hostel in the small city of Khammam in 1980 to address the poverty that working-class families in the community faced. The thousands of field workers who plant and harvest rice are paid so little that they live in a state of continuous economic struggle. When the rice crops fail, as they often do during and after periods of drought or flooding, the situation for workers and their families becomes even more desperate. Even in the best of times, the rice workers are often unable to afford to send their children to school.

It was great to see Mr. Rao take so much initiative to provide skill training for the girls so that they will have better employment opportunities later in life.

When we arrived at the home, we were greeted by our Volunteer Coordinator, Mr. Rao, who explained to us that St. Mary’s was once a home for the physically disabled, including blind and deaf students. Unlike so much of India and the developing world, the home was built to accommodate people in wheelchairs. The matron of St. Mary’s, who is wheelchair-bound herself, has no difficulty navigating the walkways between the girls’ dorms, the kitchen, and the recreation rooms, thanks to the original design of the home.

As he showed us around the buildings, Mr. Rao told us that not only do the girls go to school every day, but they also are learning to make bracelets, books, and brooms — all of which are sold to the community to generate additional income to support the home and the girls. Additionally, the home offers computer and clothes-making classes and training for older girls and women who do not live there. In total, there are 27 staff members who teach all of the courses offered, which I thought was quite impressive. It was great to see Mr. Rao take so much initiative to provide skill training for the girls so that they will have better employment opportunities later in life.

Always in need of more funds

The home itself is a lovely facility — the grounds are full of lush, green tropical plants, and there is plenty of room for the girls to play. The hallways are covered with large, colorful pictures and posters of the special people, both Indians and foreigners alike, who have helped fund the work of the St. Mary’s Girls’ Hostel over the years — all of which contributed to the bright and festive atmosphere at the home.

Of the 47 girls between the ages of six and nineteen who are living in the home, forty of them are currently sponsored. Mr. Rao said that there is room for additional children, but they don’t currently have funding to enroll more young women. I realized then, one day before I was to return home, that I had heard this from each of our projects in Sri Lanka and India over the past couple of weeks — I was told by each and every one of them that they could reach even more kids with additional funding.

It was hard to hear that there are children missing out on going to school because of money — something we don’t worry about as much in the United States; but instead of focusing on the negative in my last few hours in this unique part of the world, I thought about how grateful I am for our sponsors, who send thousands of children around the globe to school every year, because they believe as much as we at Children Incorporated do that every child deserves an education.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN INDIA or SRI LANKA?

You can sponsor a child in India or Sri Lanka 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 India or Sri Lanka that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Ron Carter | December 15, 2017En Español

I’ve never believed in New Year’s resolutions; far too often, those things that we set out to do at the start of January fade and vanish within a couple of weeks, if they even last that long. Instead of making unrealistic and often unsustainable goals for myself, I prefer to look at the facts: what I accomplished in the past year, what I may have missed along the way, and how I might do better in the days ahead.

The same is definitely true in regard to Children Incorporated. While I always dream big when it comes to our organization, I am also a realist. I know the solid and life-changing work that we have done, not just over the last year, but, in fact, over the last 53 years! I have seen first-hand the effects of our outreach to children and families all around the world. I absolutely believe in the value of our child sponsorship program, for I have talked to the children, heard them tell tales of how a kind and caring individual – a sponsor – has changed their lives. I have shared meals and dialogues with our wonderful volunteer coordinators – the incredible folks who are there in the field, doing the work, touching and enriching lives through their kindness and caring. I know that Children Incorporated is making a difference, and I celebrate that fact.

We can always do more

I have talked to the children, heard them tell tales of how a kind and caring individual – a sponsor – has changed their lives.

I am also aware that we can always do more, and we can always strive to be better. Our organization can never stop growing and changing, or finding new ways to meet the needs of children and families; and my vow to each of you, as this new year begins, is that we will do just that. We will continue to evaluate the success of our project sites; and just as we have done for all these years, we will work diligently to be good stewards of the funds entrusted to us. We value our reputation and the solid ratings we have received from Charity Navigator, CharityWatch, GuideStar, and The Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance – and we will maintain the same high standards that have won us their praise.

Looking forward to the new year

Children Incorporated may be fairly small in comparison to some other child sponsorship and assistance organizations, but what we do is significant. Children Incorporated matters, because with the generous support of our loyal donors, we are changing the lives of young people and their families all around the world each and every day. Our resolve is to continue to do so, and to grow and learn, and adapt as new and diverse needs arise.

As we move into 2018, and as always, we appreciate your trust in us, for you truly make our work possible.

From the heart,
Ronald H. Carter
President and Chief Executive Officer

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How do I sponsor a child with children incorporated?

You can sponsor a child in one of three ways: call our office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our staff members, email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org, or visit our website at www.childrenincorporated.org and browse our sponsor portal.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | December 13, 2017En Español

When we think about Christmas, we often think about giving the perfect gifts to family and friends. Gift-giving comes in all forms – whether it is buying a loved one a sweater, writing a poem for them, or making them dinner – it is a meaningful way to show others that you care. For sponsors Bill and Ilene Hafker, their idea of gift-giving is to help children in need, involving their friends in the process, and giving Bill’s mother what they knew she would consider to be the perfect Christmas gift.

We caught up with Bill, a retired environmental engineer from Oakton, Virginia, to talk about his sponsorship experience, and how the holidays influenced a different kind of gift-giving.

S.C.: How did you find out about Children Incorporated?

B.H.: It was the early 1980s, and I read about the organization in a promotional brochure that crossed my path. I was in a situation where I was looking for a good cause to support. We have been sponsors for more than thirty years now! Over the years, we have sponsored nearly twenty children.

S.C.: Tell us a little bit about your early sponsorship experience.

B.H.: My wife and I sponsored one child together at first, and then we decided to sponsor a second. We thought this was a worthy cause, and wanted to let our friends get involved, too. When we sent out our annual Christmas letter in 2002, we asked them to contribute to our sponsorship of that child. We called our new sponsorship “The Hafkers and Friends.” As a result of that letter, we received enough contributions to sponsor a little girl from Costa Rica named Maria*. We knew our friends would love to help because they are like-minded people who feel the same way we do about giving back to the world and helping others in need. A few years later, my family and I went to meet Maria at the project she attended, La Milagrosa. We took Maria and her family to restaurants and museums in San Jose, and had a lovely time getting to know Maria, her mother, and her siblings.

We knew our friends would love to help because they are like-minded people who feel the same way we do about giving back to the world and helping others in need.

About ten years ago, we decided to sponsor a third child. Instead of exchanging Christmas gifts with my two brothers that year, or getting my mom a traditional present, which she usually ends up saying she doesn’t need, we decided to sponsor a child in honor and thanksgiving of our mom. Mom’s Christmas gift each year since has been sponsorship of “her” child, and she loves receiving it every time! This year, us three brothers wanted to increase our gift to our mom, so we sponsored a second child for her, and committed to sponsoring both children for ten years.

S.C.: Do you communicate with any of your sponsored children directly? Do they send you letters?

B.H.: There have been times in the past when we have been better at that, but we try to send letters periodically – at least once a year. They write to us as well. I can tell that they are encouraged to do art, and to create a meaningful way to express themselves in their correspondence. It is wonderful to get an update on how they are doing in school, and what they like most about it, as well as to have pictures to see what they are thinking about and how they are feeling.

S.C.: Is there anything else you’d like to share about your sponsored children?

B.H.: We currently sponsor a child named Adnan* who is at a school for the deaf in Lebanon. It is especially rewarding to be able to help a child who needs extra assistance in that regard. Not long ago, we were told by a Children Incorporated staff member that a former sponsored child of ours in India decided to pursue a Doctor of Pharmacy degree and is very close to graduating. We are very proud of him for that, and we’re thankful for what little part we might have played in making that possible.

*Names changed to protect the children.

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