Tag Archives: help children

Children Incorporated | March 24, 2025

Our volunteer coordinator, Casey, at Huguenot High School in Virginia, recently wrote to us to thank you, our amazing sponsors, for your dedication to helping children at her school find value in themselves and their education:

“Thank you and your donors for their continued support. You are changing the world one gift at a time!”

Casey’s Letter

“This is a huge thank you to all our donors and you all at Children Incorporated. Here at Huguenot High School, we have so many students in need. We have many students dealing with anxiety and social issues on a regular basis, and you have helped them so much.

We have also observed many individual students helped by the generous donations of Children Incorporated. Just as one example, we have a student who both works and goes to school and doesn’t have a lot of money to spend on herself. She has to help pay rent where she lives and often wears the same clothes over and over again. Due to your donations, I was able to get her necessary hair products, clothes, and even a few extra gifts for herself that she would never get if it weren’t for you all.

There is no way any of the students could help support themselves without the funds of Children Incorporated. Our children are able to feel special and loved by people they don’t even know or get to meet, and that is something amazing. You all help build self-confidence and self-worth, and help children see the world from a different perspective and create graduates where there may not have been one. Thank you and your donors for their continued support. You are changing the world one gift at a time!”

With gratitude and appreciation,

Casey

your impact through hope in action

Sponsorship is one of many ways you help impoverished children every month. Additionally, thanks to contributions to our Hope In Action Fund in the last month, we have been able to:

– Provide funds to purchase nutritious meals for 30 children for a month at Santa Isabel Ana Seton in Guatemala
– Provide funds for relief and recovery efforts for families affected by flooding at Kimper Elementary School in Kentucky
– Provide funds to purchase meals for 25 students for a month at the Dandora Community Center in Kenya
– Provide funds for students at Oak Grove/Bellemeade Elementary School in Virginia to purchase books at the Spring Book Fair
– Provide funds to purchase bed frames, mattresses, and bedding for five students who attend Langston Hughes Academy in Louisiana
– Provide funding to purchase meals for 1000 children for a month at the St. John’s Community Center in Kenya
– Provide funds for relief and recovery efforts for families affected by flooding at Cowan Elementary School in Kentucky
– Provide funds to purchase materials and supplies for a Native Art project at Page Middle School in Arizona
– Provide funds for Martin County Middle School students to travel from Kentucky to Washington, D.C. for a field trip
– Provide funds to relief and recovery efforts for families affected by flooding at Valley Elementary School in Kentucky

…and so much more! Thank you to our supporters for all that you do! We couldn’t do our life-changing work without you.

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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 go online to our sponsorship portal, create an account, and search for a child in that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Children Incorporated | March 23, 2025

As Luis Bourdet and Yefiny Mena continue their visits to our affiliated sites in Guatemala, Yefiny writes about the Casa Central School, where an inventive program offers students the chance to help others in their own communities.

“One of our greatest satisfactions is knowing that helping these children will positively change their lives by helping them go to school and achieve their goals.”

In the heart of Guatemala City

“Casa Central is located in Guatemala City. At the moment, we have 69 children at this affiliation site. Our coordinator is Sor Alicia G. Morataya, who is also assisted by Lisbet A. Martinez. Our children here attend different schools that go from primary to high school grade. Besides helping the children, they perform other tasks and social work like providing food for homeless people of the community once a week.”

“The Casa Central School is located in the heart of Guatemala City and serves children from low-income families on the periphery of the city, mostly without a stable housing environment, permanent income, and steady provision of educational, nutritional, and health services. The Children Incorporated monthly support helps in the provision of food, school supplies, shoes, and clothing to the participant children,” said Yefiny.

“This is with the purpose of getting them ready to attend local public schools, with very few attending low-cost private schools in the area. Participant children in the Children Incorporated program attend school education all the way from kindergarten to 12th grade, which may prepare them for skill training or for university. However, many are prepared here to initiate the arduous labor life, at least with a high school diploma, which was never available to their parents.”

“The center has some support from a local university by providing students to complete their required practicum, mainly in the Social Services area of their careers. The Center is run by the Congregation of Sisters of Mercy, a Catholic Order dedicated to education, health, and community service missions. The Sisters also run a soup kitchen for indigents here, as well as a home for the elderly,” explained Yefiny.

“The center is a well-care section of the compound, with a large enclosed area for meetings and food distribution and small offices to do social service support and follow-ups. They also have a large kitchen where they prepare food for the indigents. The home for the elderly is in a different location from the center. Children at Casa Central meet here once a month to receive subsidies for nutritious food, hygiene items, clothes, shoes, and at the beginning of each school year for school supplies.”

“According to the coordinator, the help provided to all these children has been tremendous since many of their parents’ economies have been affected after COVID-19, making them struggle to provide for their basic children’s needs. One of our greatest satisfactions is knowing that helping these children will positively change their lives by helping them go to school and achieve their goals, giving them the possibility of having a better future for themselves and their families,” said Yefiny.

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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 go online to our sponsorship portal, create an account, and search for a child that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | February 25, 2025

Sagrada Familia is located in Antigua, a small city surrounded by volcanoes in the south of Guatemala. This is a center administered by a group of sisters that was founded in 2002. The children meet every month to receive subsidies, which consist mainly of food supplies or school supplies, at the beginning of each school year.

At Sagrada Familia, our coordinator is Sor Isabel Reynoso, who has been our coordinator since Sagrada Familia opened its doors in 2002. Sor Isabel’s runs the program with the help Ms. Ana Julia Vasquez, her assistant.

Sagrada Familia has a total of 46 children. This center is located just about 25 miles away from Guatemala City (a good hour and a half of driving under heavy traffic) and works in a similar way to Casa Central. Run by the same order of Sisters of Mercy, this center is also near a Catholic School, Sagrada Familia School, run by the same Sisters.

At the center, the Children Incorporated participant children are met regularly and provided with Children Incorporated support, which here consists of a provision of food, school supplies at the beginning of the school year, shoes and clothing, as well as health support for those that do not have any. All these support making sure every child attends a local public school in the area.

A Garment-making skill training and a food preparation program were implemented with support from Children Incorporated. These programs have been very successful, as many of the children do not have an opportunity to continue their studies once they finish high school, and their parents do not have the skills. Therefore, they normally work low-paying day jobs. With the skill training, we can make sure that a parent has the opportunity to earn a decent salary to support their family, and a child that may not attend university will have the same opportunity. They enlightened us with a cultural and musical program during our visit, in which some of the our sponsored children participated.

Children from Sagrada Familia attend different schools in Antigua. Besides meeting once a month with the children, they also take their time to prepare the letters and update the children’s information. They mainly benefit all the children with monthly food supplies that consist of rice, beans, oil, oatmeal, butter, sugar, eggs, cheese, and INCAPARINA (a popular and affordable high-protein hot cereal made of cottonseed, sorghum flours, maize, yeast, and other nutrients used especially in Latin America, to prevent protein-deficiency diseases).

They also have a program called “SAN” (Asistencia Alimentaria Provisional), in which they assist Low-income mothers whose children were born underweight by providing nutritious food to help them get to a normal and healthy weight according to their age and height. This program benefits children from 0 to 5 years old.

Children Incorporated | February 24, 2025En Español

Our volunteer coordinator, Tonia, at Sparta Elementary School in North Carolina, recently wrote to us to express how awesome she thinks you, our loyal sponsors and donors, are for the support you provide for children at her school.

Tonia’s Letter

“Because of the financial support our students have received from their sponsors, I have been able to purchase clothes, book bags, school supplies, and toiletries throughout the school year. It is so exciting and rewarding to see the Children Incorporated students’ smiling faces as they come to school with new outfits. The students make sure to come by and show us. It is also so important that I am able to buy the students much-needed soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrushes, and toothpaste that they would otherwise not have.

Thanks to you, we have been able to provide funding for ongoing Hurricane Helene emergency relief supplies for students and families — and so much more!

We are so fortunate to have such loving and caring sponsors who correspond with our students and encourage them in a positive way. The sponsors write letters and send coloring sheets, stickers, and cards, which are such fun surprises for the kids! Some of our sponsors even send special gifts for holidays, and seeing the excitement from the children is so awesome. The kids get very excited when they receive mail from their sponsors and are always ready and willing to write their sponsors a nice thank you note.

Thanks to sponsors, students were also able to purchase books at the book fair and go on a field trip to the Outer Banks this past year! The look on their faces when they were told they didn’t have to pay the fee for the trip was priceless. We very much appreciate the Children Incorporated program!”

your impact through hope in action

Sponsorship is one of many ways you help impoverished children every month. Additionally, thanks to contributions to our Hope In Action Fund in the last month, we have been able to:

– Provide funds to purchase desks for students at the Bethel School in Guatemala
– Provide funds to purchase mattresses for children in our sponsorship program at the Recanto Esperanca Center in Brazil
– Provide funds to purchase bakery equipment for a skills training program at CARITAS-Novo Milenio Center in Brazil
– Provide funds to purchase water storage tanks for the Santa Rosa School in Bolivia so students have access to potable water
– Provide funds to purchase meals for 30 students for a month at Santa Isabel Seton in Guatemala
– Provide funding for ongoing Hurricane Helene emergency relief supplies for students and families at Mitchell High School in North Carolina
– Provide funds for an evening literacy program for students and their parents at Bevins Elementary School in Kentucky
– Provide funds to purchase educational tablets for students at Whitesburg Middle School in Kentucky
– Provide funds to purchase hygiene items for students at Phillis Wheatley Community School in New Orleans, Louisiana
– Provide funding to purchase meals for 100 children at the St. John’s Community Center in Kenya

…and so much more! Thank you to our supporters for all that you do! We couldn’t do our life-changing work without you.

***

How do I sponsor a child with Children Incorporated?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | February 10, 2025

Our first day visiting our affiliated sites in New Orleans was a huge success and so much fun, and I woke up on the second and final day of our trip excited for what the day had in store for us. Just as we had done the previous morning, Shayne picked up Renée, Kris, and me at our hotel, and we drove with her to our first school, the Phillis Wheatley Community School, where we met Maria out front before going in to meet with our coordinator.

According to Odina, a lot of the ways she is able to look out for the best interests of the students are largely thanks to Children Incorporated sponsors.

Getting to Know phillis Wheatley

Phillis Wheatley Community School is located in the Tremé neighborhood of New Orleans and has around 750 children enrolled. As a charter school, like the other charter schools in the city, children can come from any area of New Orleans to attend Phillis Wheatley, and the city school buses will offer transportation to students no matter where they are located.

The school is named after Phillis Wheatley, who is considered the first African American author of a published book of poetry in America. Born in West Africa, she was sold into slavery at the age of eight and brought to Boston, where she learned to read and write and eventually became a poet.

After we checked in at the front office, we were greeted by Odina, our volunteer coordinator, who took us to her office to discuss our sponsorship program and hear more about the particular needs of the students at her school. Odina explained to us that even though New Orleans is in the South and bouts of cold weather are limited, the need for warm clothing is still her greatest need and the area in which our sponsors help children the most.

It’s not just that the children don’t have warm clothing, Odina explained, but it is that when the weather does turn cold, the children stay home from school because of the lack of warm coats, long pants, or proper shoes. This exacerbates a problem that is already present with her students, which is with attendance. Living in poverty, as Odina described to us, already creates a lot of obstacles for students attending school regularly, so being able to help children overcome the barrier of not having adequate clothing is such a blessing.

Even though New Orleans is in the South and bouts of cold weather are limited, the need for warm clothing is still her greatest need and the area in which our sponsors help children the most.

Helping Parents in Need

As we continued to talk with Odina, she mentioned that one of the other things she feels she could use help with is getting parents involved in their children’s education, especially for those guardians and caretakers who suddenly become parents in emergencies.

Renée mentioned that our Hope In Action grant program could help with parenting classes. She described a program in Kentucky that we support called “Grandparents As Parents,” which helps older adults cope with taking care of young children and helping them understand positive means of supporting them in school and at home.

After our meeting, Odina took us on a tour of the school, where we met with some of our sponsored children in the hallways between classes. The children were happy to take photos with Odina, and it was apparent they thought a lot of her as not only a staff member at the school but as someone who looked out for them and their best interests. And, according to Odina, a lot of the ways she is able to look out for the best interests of the students are largely thanks to Children Incorporated sponsors.

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How do I sponsor a child with Children Incorporated?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Children Incorporated | January 29, 2025

Our volunteer coordinator, Heather, at Viper Elementary School in Kentucky, wrote to us to thank our sponsors, who were, and always are, especially a big help during the holiday season:

“Children Incorporated has been such a blessing for all sponsored students. Specifically, at Christmas, there was an abundance of students needing assistance this past year. I never have to worry about my Children Incorporated sponsored children getting help. I am blessed to have the funds to care for all of their desires and immediate needs. Parents know the funds are here when they need support, so they don’t hesitate to reach out if their child has outgrown a pair of shoes or if it is a change of season and the children need new clothes.”

“Not only me but the parents of these students will forever be grateful for the blessings Children Incorporated brings us.”

“One particular parent couldn’t thank me and Children Incorporated enough for not only the sponsor providing funding but for allowing her daughter to pick out her own clothes and what she liked and would actually wear. Another parent remarked on how her child’s day was made after receiving the new clothes and shoes she picked out and the positive impact this program had on the whole family. Not only me but the parents of these students will forever be grateful for the blessings Children Incorporated brings us.”

your impact through hope in action

Sponsorship is one of many ways you help impoverished children every month. Additionally, thanks to contributions to our Hope In Action Fund in the last month, we have been able to:

– Provide funds to replenish the food pantry for children and their families at Westover Hills Elementary School in Virginia
– Provide funds to purchase hygiene ties and household supplies for a family in an emergency at Foundation Preparatory Academy in Louisiana
– Provide funds to purchase nutritious meals for 30 students at the Dandora Center in Kenya for one month
– Provide funds to purchase daily meals for 100 students at the St. John’s Community Center in Kenya for one month
– Provide funds to purchase nutritious meals for 25 students at Kids’ Hope in Ethiopia for one month
– Provide funding to purchase nutritious meals for 25 students for one month at the Fortune Children’s Center in the Philippines
– Provide funds to replenish the food pantry at River City Middle School in Virginia
– Provide funds to purchase meals for 30 students at Santa Isabel Ana Seton in Guatemala for a month
– Provide funds to purchase a basic washer and dryer for a family in need with a student who attends May Valley Elementary School in Kentucky
– Provide funding to purchase bedding, bed frames, and mattresses for two students at Wrigley Elementary School in Kentucky

…and so much more! Thank you to our supporters for all that you do! We couldn’t do our life-changing work without you.

***

How do I sponsor a child with Children Incorporated?

SPONSOR A CHILD