Tag Archives: education

Shelley Callahan | May 25, 2016En Español

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

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

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

Many different options for learning

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

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

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

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

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN GUATEMALA?

You can sponsor a child in Guatemala in one of three ways: call our office at 1-800-538-5381 and speak with one of our staff members, email us at sponsorship@children-inc.org, or go online to our sponsor portal and search for a child in Guatemala who is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 20, 2016En Español

We arrived in Jackson, Kentucky on Wednesday and caught up with some of the kids at LBJ Elementary School.

The children here seem like typical kids. Some are shy, some are rambunctious, but each has faced incredible hardship in their short lives. Jackson is one of the poorest cities in the state. Several have lost one or both parents to the rampant drug epidemic in the region and live with a single parent, grandparents or other caretakers.

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

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

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

The Fourth Child

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

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

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

Getting Started

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

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

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

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

A hard life in Appalachia

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

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

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

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

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

Boots on the ground

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

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

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

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

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

– Carol Gaunce, Sponsor

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

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

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

‘Such great need’

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

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

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN Kentucky?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 13, 2016

Bolivia is still fresh in my mind as we head out on I-64 to get to our next destination: Williamsburg, Kentucky.

I am joined this time by Shelley Oxenham, who manages relationships with all of our U.S. volunteer coordinators. Shelley has worked for Children Incorporated for eight years. She works closely with our volunteers and has watched many of the children we serve grow up and graduate.

One of the great things about a road trip is that it gives you time to think. In the past, when I thought of poverty in America, I immediately pictured the urban poor – children raised in inner-city slums amid gangs and street crime. But in Appalachia, poverty has a different face. Whitley County with a population of 36,000, is a picturesque mountain community in eastern Kentucky – or it would be, if not for the visible signs of economic decline. The collapse of the coal industry hit the entire region hard, and the railroads have cut jobs as well. In their place, a booming meth trade has sprung up, along with the accompanying deaths, drug addiction and incarcerations.

Shelley and I arrive on a Tuesday morning to meet with Sherry Paul, Children Incorporated’s volunteer coordinator at Whitley Elementary School. Eight children are enrolled at the moment, with a long waitlist of others in need of help.

Where have all the parents gone?

Almost all of the children here live in poverty. The drug problem has left a disproportionate number of children essentially parentless. There are so many grandparents raising children that the school has set up a support group for them.

More than emotional support, what they really need is concrete help. Over 90 percent of the children at the elementary school qualify for reduced lunch prices because of their income and for many, school is the only place where they’re guaranteed a proper meal.

The lack of food at home is particularly a problem during the winter break, when the kids face more than a week without a meal. In the days leading up to Christmas, Sherry makes gift baskets for the children, packing in flour, sugar, butter, peanut butter, bacon, eggs, bologna, hot dogs, bread, Pop-Tarts and oatmeal so their grandparents have something to cook for them.

Aging caregivers – a whole new challenge

One of our sponsored children and their grandmother in Jackson County, Kentucky

Dennis with his grandmother

Two hours up the road from Whitley County is Jackson, where we met with Genevieve, the volunteer coordinator at LBJ Elementary School. There are 28 children enrolled in the Children Incorporated program here, and most are in a similar situation to those in Whitley.

One of them is Dennis, an 11-year-old who, in many ways, is a typical fifth-grader. He’s into basketball, football and riding his dirt bike. But Dennis and his two siblings live with their great-grandparents, who are in their 80s with failing health.

In addition to food, clothes and school supplies, which all of the Children Incorporated families need, Dennis’ family also needed a ramp at the house for his great-grandmother, Gail, who can’t manage the front steps. Genevieve coordinated the project, enlisting the high school vocational students to build the ramp for free with all of the supplies purchased by Children Incorporated.

We met Gail at the school, where she was attending a nutrition class set up for parents, grandparents and great-grandparents trying to raise children on meager incomes (most bring in less than $10,000 a year). The nutrition class helps them figure out how to make the best of what they have, and while they’re there, they can pick up the food and supplies that Genevieve provides thanks to Children Incorporated funding.

Building a new future

Twenty minutes down the road, we visit Wolfe County Middle and High schools, where volunteer coordinator, Connie, takes care of 72 children at the middle school and 52 at the high school. It’s a big enough job that she’s got an intern helping her out because for the teens, the immediate needs of food and clothes are only one concern – their near future looms large on the horizon.

There aren’t many jobs here for kids after graduation, and there are no good ones. The Dairy Queen, Save-A-Lot and hardware store are the best job prospects for graduates who stay in town. Most residents who do have jobs commute to factories or logging sites in other communities.

Along with food and clothes, Connie must also prioritize travel for her high school students. The Children Incorporated funds pay for students’ class field trips to other areas, allowing the kids to at least see other parts of the state. It’s the only time many have ever left eastern Kentucky and for some, the only time they ever will.

Connie’s goal is to get the graduates out of town and on to better lives. She and Shelley are working on a plan to obtain Children Incorporated funds for college or technical school so the teens, most of whom have lost their parents to drugs and jail, can build their own futures.

Reversing the endemic poverty here isn’t an easy or a short-term goal, but Connie and Shelley are determined. One by one it is possible to help a child rise above these challenges and position them for a brighter future. It’s a long process, but each child who graduates is one step closer to breaking the cycle of rural poverty.

*Names changed to protect the individuals.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN Kentucky?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | May 6, 2016En Español

After more than a week in the mountains of Bolivia, I’m headed home — back to Richmond, Virginia, and my life of comparative ease and comfort. As the ground falls away beneath the plane, I’m staring out the window, trying to compose coherent thoughts, but they are lost amid a thousand mental images of the people and scenes I’ve experienced in the last few days.

Our tour guide: An architect rises from poverty

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

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

The nuns: Septuagenarians lead by example

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

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

The children: New schools, new shoes and new kittens

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

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

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

The professor: A sponsor makes all the difference

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

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

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN BOLIVIA?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | April 28, 2016En Español

A positive role model can make all the difference. Single mothers in Santa Cruz, Bolivia are finding that out, and so are the children who look up to them.

Sister Pilar

Hidden behind the popular tourist destinations and modern attractions of Santa Cruz lurks the shadow side, where many children knew nothing but homelessness, poverty and crime–until Sister Pilar showed up.

Sister Pilar and her fellow nuns at Villa Emilia regularly venture into the darkest sides of Santa Cruz to find and talk to women working on the streets. These women, mostly single mothers, struggle to keep their families intact and their children fed – a task that is always difficult, dangerous and often illegal.

But those who cross paths with Sister Pilar find not only help, but a new way of life. The nuns provide a safe, temporary home for the women and their children on a spacious, beautiful compound where they learn job and child rearing skills.

The environment and help offered at Villa Emilia provides a lifeline for the families. More importantly, however, it provides positive role models for the women, allowing them to become positive role models for their own children, thus breaking the generational cycle of poverty, homelessness and crime.

A beacon in the dark

At the heart of the project is Sister Pilar, a 75-year-old nun from Spain, who has devoted her life to helping the poor regardless of their background or beliefs. Her primary focus is to provide concrete support to the women and children under her care.

“It doesn’t matter which religion you believe in, as long as you help the poor.”

– Sister Pilar

More than 70 children are in the Villa Emilia program, and Sister Pilar takes care of them all, along with their mothers. The women are trained in garment-making with the expectation that they’ll later be employed in the large industrial garment industry in Bolivia. For the time being, however, they work in a garment factory managed by the sisters of Villa Emilia. There they learn not only technical know-how, but also work ethic and workplace skills that will help them succeed – and that they’ll later pass on to their own children.

During their stay at Villa Emilia, the women learn to look up to and trust Sister Pilar, and they work hard to prove themselves and to “graduate” from the transitional program. Their children do as well – they attend school and are tutored by Sister Pilar, learning from the nuns and from their mothers to work hard to succeed. The results are measurable — an unusually high percentage of the Villa Emilia children are at the top of their classes at school.

A stable future

Once the families are ready, they transition into permanent housing. The homes are initially owned by the sisters, but the women buy them for their own, using their wages to pay the mortgages and thus learning about budgeting and homeownership – more lessons they pass on to their children.

Once in their new homes, some of the women stay on working at the sisters’ factory, while others land jobs on the outside. Either way, they become the proud owners of small, modern houses built close together on a large, subdivided plot. The neighborhood allows the families, who have become friends and colleagues, to stay together in schools, commuter buses and workplaces.

Sister Pilar and her volunteers have purchased nine more plots of land for new homes. Roberto Andrade, who oversaw the Montero school expansion, will oversee the construction plans for the additional houses. Once an impoverished Bolivian child himself, Andrade is now an architect and a regular volunteer on the Children Incorporated team, living proof that sometimes all you need is a chance to become a role model for change.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN BOLIVIA?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | April 21, 2016En Español

Roberto Andrade and his wife, Verónica, are waiting for us when we step off the plane in hot, humid Santa Cruz. Roberto is an artist and an architect now, but he was once a little boy with enormous potential and struggling parents who worried about his future. They saw the talent and creativity in their son and knew that a quality education would help him develop into a happy, healthy adult.

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

– Roberto Andrade

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

school architect rises from poverty

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

Roberto Andrade with his wife Verónica and Luis

Luis with Roberto and his wife

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sister Geraldina at the Montero school in Bolivia

Our volunteer coordinator Sister Geraldina

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

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

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

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

The school: new beginnings for the future

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

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

growing up and growing into service

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

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

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN BOLIVIA?

SPONSOR A CHILD