Tag Archives: poverty

Kristen Walthall | July 25, 2022

As a part of our 2022 “Virtual Visit” series, our Director of U.S. Programs, Renée Kube, takes us to Floyd Central High School on a visit to hear about our sponsorship program and other outreach services conducted by our volunteer coordinator, Teresa.

Renée Virtual Visit

“Floyd Central High is a relatively new school located in the community of Eastern. It was built in 2017 as a consolidation of the old Allen Central High and South Floyd High Schools. It offers the standard state-approved curriculum, and also offers dual enrollment, AP, and online college courses. The sports teams compete in football, baseball, volleyball, softball, and cheerleading. There are also competitive teams for golf, archery — and bass fishing!”

“Teresa is devoted to her students and families. Most are loving and hardworking, but generations of poverty and lack of education have caused a lot of hardship and struggle.”

“The high school is also a ‘feeder’ school for two other Children Incorporated affiliated sites — Duff-Allen Central and May Valley Elementary schools, which is fantastic because our sponsors can follow their sponsored children from elementary to high school with ease thanks to these partnerships.”

“Floyd Central serves about 638 students in grades 9-12. Everyone at the school is very proud of the 93% graduation rate, considering that the students and families face a lot of challenges — 75% of students live in poverty and lack access to basic resources.”

Teresa’s programs

“Our volunteer coordinator at the school is Teresa. She is an involved coordinator who has created a Youth Services Center Student Outreach Group. They host activities and raise funds for special events throughout the year, ranging from purchasing suitcases for foster children to pet food donations for the local animal shelter. This is a wonderful opportunity for the students to feel connected and give back to their community.”

Family Game Nights were a hit with Teresa’s students and their parents.

“Since the pandemic, in addition to our sponsorship program, Children Incorporated helped Teresa with three other programs. The first program was a series of family fun nights where the students and families turned off their screens and bonded over playing board games and making snacks together. Teresa collaborated with the other coordinators, and it was a county-wide event. The families sent pictures to Teresa and said they were surprised at how much this meant to them.”

“The second program was mixing physical activity and positive mental outlooks to support educational outcomes. The last program was a health and fun fair for expectant and new mothers, which was also a collaborative, county-wide event. The fair included packets of important information and diaper bags filled with small baby care items. Participants could register for one of three grand prizes: a baby bouncer, rocker, or stroller.”

Getting the support they need

“Teresa is devoted to her students and families. Most are loving and hardworking, but generations of poverty and lack of education have caused a lot of hardship and struggle. Teresa shared that one of her students is being raised by a single father. Due to some unexpected expenses, he got behind on rent. In order to get caught up, the dad and his son were paid a little money by neighbors to clear brush out of their creek beds. The boy sells eggs to help. Teresa said that our sponsorship program is a big help with this boy’s school clothing. He (and the other program-enrolled children) fit in with their peers with the new clothes they receive which really helps their self-esteem, and they are dressed appropriately for the weather.”

***

How do I sponsor a child in Kentucky?

You can sponsor a child in Kentucky 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 Kentucky that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | July 12, 2022En Español

Children Incorporated is thrilled to announce our partnership with the Spirit Airlines Charitable Foundation. To mark fifteen years of flights to San Jose, Costa Rica, Spirit Airlines wanted to give back to children, families, and communities in the area.

“Lanie Morgenstern, the Senior Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility & Strategic Partnerships with Spirit Airlines contacted us and was very enthusiastic about our work in Costa Rica,” explained Children Incorporated Director of Development, Shelley Callahan.

Spirit Airlines is committed to having a positive impact on the world in many different ways through their partnerships with organizations just like ours.

“Lanie felt that our work directly lined up with the mission and vision of the Spirit Airlines Charitable Foundation and wanted to provide immediate educational and basic needs support to children who attend our affiliated sites in San Jose.”

“I also felt that this partnership was ideal for both the children in our programs and for the sites we support. The donation from Spirit Airlines Charitable Foundation will allow our volunteer coordinators to purchase much-needed food items, hygiene items, mattresses, clothes, shoes and school supplies for the children we support,” explained Callahan.

“These items are essential to their health, well-being, and education and we are so grateful for Lanie and the whole Spirit Airlines Team.”

Spirit Airlines is committed to having a positive impact on the world in many different ways through their partnerships with organizations just like ours.

Its website states: “The Spirit Charitable Foundation believes change starts by giving back. We are committed to inspiring positive change in the communities where we live and work. We invest in organizations that have a meaningful social impact on the lives of Children and Families, Service Members and the Environment, through Team Member volunteerism, monetary, and in-kind donations. Every child should have a bright future, which is why we support and volunteer with organizations that focus on developing our next generation. Our efforts improve children’s lives and their future opportunities to learn and grow and become successful members of their communities.”

Thank you, Spirit Airlines Charitable Foundation, for all your support!

***

Children Incorporated | July 12, 2022

Today, Mexico is the world’s tenth most populous nation — and largest Spanish-speaking country by population — with a growing, diversified economy and a relatively stable democratic government. However, despite the country’s wealth of culture, history, natural resources and beauty, many natives and immigrants are plagued by impoverished living conditions. Crime and murder rates in the country are high, and corruption and drug cartel activity are constant sources of concern despite efforts to eliminate them.

In Mexico, children’s very lives and futures are at risk, as they struggle with poverty and lack of educational resources. Right now, children in Mexico need your help.

Mexico has long suffered from high poverty and lack of social programs. The COVID-19 pandemic has likely made these issues worse, and according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in a joint study conducted with the Mexican government, more than 20 million Mexican children and adolescents are estimated to live in poverty, and five million of them in extreme poverty.

Additionally, the study found that nearly 14% of Mexican children under five years of age are stunted, meaning they are slowed in their development often as a result of malnutrition. The rate is higher in rural areas, reaching nearly 33%.

Challenges for Children in Mexico

In Mexico, children’s very lives and futures are at risk, as they struggle with poverty and lack of educational resources. Right now, children in Mexico need your help.

Over half of Mexican children 18 years old and younger (52.6 percent) live in poverty
4 million Mexican children live in extreme poverty
30% of children between the ages of 3 and 5 do not receive an education
In Mexico, only 62% of the children start high school, and only 45% of them finish
In 6 out of every 10 households a child is forced to work to contribute to his or her family

Our Work in Mexico

Thanks to caring people like you, Children Incorporated has helped thousands of impoverished children in Mexico since 1964.

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 for children in Mexico who are living in crisis.

***

How do I sponsor a child in Mexico?

You can sponsor a child in Mexico 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 Mexico that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

SOURCES:

https://news.un.org/en/story/2013/04/436072-majority-poor-mexico-are-children-un-report

https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2022/01/24/cf-fostering-inclusion-in-mexico

https://www.esperanzacontigo.org/en/publication/74/help-fight-poverty-in-mexico

Shelley Callahan | June 21, 2022En Español

Only four days into our trip to Mexico, our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, and myself are already in our third city, Guadalajara.

After visiting our affiliated sites in both Mexico City and San Miguel de Allende, I am excited to also return to the La Luz Home in Guadalajara after six years. I have fond memories of meeting the children and getting to hear about this truly incredible site and the abundance of programs that it has for children in the community, including our sponsorship program.

I have fond memories of meeting the children and getting to hear about this truly incredible site.

Difficulty Through the Pandemic

Our volunteer coordinator, Sister Elizabeth, picks us up early in the morning along with La Luz’s driver, who spends most of his day taking the children back and forth between the Home and the local public schools that they attend. When Luis and I get in the van, there is a young boy sitting next to Sister Elizabeth that at first, I don’t recognize with his mask on.

As we drive to La Luz through the early morning traffic of Guadalajara, Luis and I catch up with Sister Elizabeth about how things have been for her during the pandemic. She admits that, like many other of our affiliated sites, it was difficult for them not knowing when the children would be able to go back to school and knowing that all the families that they support were in need of more resources than ever before.

Remember Fernando

About 20 minutes later, the driver pulls over in a residential neighborhood, and we all exit the car — including the young boy, who removes his mask and takes off running down the sidewalk to a big metal door about 30 feet away. I suddenly realize — I have been here before! We are at the home of Fernando whose family we met on our last trip to Mexico. I hadn’t recognized him, but without his mask, I can see clearly that it is the same Fernando, only taller.

We enter his home, which is occupied only by his older sister at the time — his mother is at work and his other siblings are at school. Fernando is the only child in the family young enough to still be attending La Luz — he is still too small at 10 years old to not have more supervision since his mother works long hours at a local school.

Because of his mother’s demanding work schedule, I know it’s best that Fernando is still at the La Luz Home — as long as he is there, he will be under the loving care of the Sisters and his sponsor — and it’s obvious that it has helped him a lot. He looks healthy and happy, and excitedly gives us a short tour of his small house, even though not much has changed since our last visit.

Big Help From Sponsors

Fernando is pictured in his school uniform standing on the patio of the home he shares with his mother, siblings, grandfather and aunt.

Once we have finished seeing Fernando’s home again, we say goodbye to his sister and head to the La Luz Home, only a short five-minute drive away. The children are still in school, so Sister Elizabeth gives us a tour, and we have a meeting in her office with the Home’s full-time social worker. They tell us that all twenty children at the Home are currently sponsored through the Children Incorporated program, and it’s a big help for them to have the support.

Every child at the La Luz Home, including Fernando, is there because one or both of their parents are incarcerated, so having a sponsor doesn’t just mean they are getting resources they need each month, like food and school supplies, but it means they have someone that they know cares about their well-being.

Like Fernando, some of these children have the same sponsor that they did six years ago when I first came to La Luz, and that can be life-changing for these children, who might not always feel special growing up in poverty with parents who struggle in really desperate situations.

Around the time that we wrap up our meeting, La Luz’s driver is bringing the second group of children to the Home in the van, and both the girls and boys excitedly run from the entrance through the courtyard and into their separate dorms to change out of their school uniforms and get ready for lunch. Sister Elizabeth invites us to chat with the children while they eat, and I have the chance to take some photos of them enjoying their soup and tuna salad, giddy knowing that the guests for the day came to visit with them.

I love knowing that, like Fernando, these other children who I am only just meeting for the first time are getting the chance to live long-term at La Luz as well.

Saying Goodbye for Now

I love knowing that, like Fernando, these other children who I am only just meeting for the first time are getting the chance to live long-term at La Luz as well. It’s a great relief to know that they have some consistency here that doesn’t always exist in their home lives.

As we depart for the day and say our goodbyes, I give one last wave to Fernando and the other children, myself just as giddy as the children knowing how much our sponsors are doing to help ensure that they all get to grow up at La Luz.

***

How do I sponsor a child in Mexico?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | June 19, 2022En Español

After our visit to Casa Hogar Santa Inés in Mexico City, Children Incorporated Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet and I were off to San Miguel de Allende to meet with Sister Isabel, our volunteer coordinator at Hogar Santa Julia.

Remembering Santa Julia

I had fond memories of Santa Julia from my visit six years prior – the beautiful grounds of the home, with its well-maintained gardens and bright colorful murals, stood out to me as such as a wonderful place for destitute young girls to grow up in, away from the harsh conditions that they lived in before.

Even through all the challenges of the pandemic, the staff at Santa Julia always maintained and focused on their goals for the children there.

At Santa Julia, each girl is at the home because social services in Mexico has deemed their home life to be unfit — and in fact, once the children are enrolled at the home, they are there until they are 18 years old and can determine for themselves as adults if they want to have contact with their families again. When they are removed from their homes, the situation is often so horrific that the parents don’t know where their children are being taken for their children’s protection.

Getting to know the home again

When we arrive at Santa Julia, we are greeted by Lily, who is the Director of Development at the home, and Sister Isabel. It was great to meet Lily for the first time; she is energetic and enthusiastic about the Children Incorporated program. It was equally wonderful to see Sister Isabel again who had grown into her role as the head of the home since the last time we saw her, busily running around with many daily tasks to take care of.

We start the morning with a tour of the facilities, and Lily tells us about how the last few years have been for them. During the COVID-19 lockdown, the children stayed at Santa Julia and were out of school and learning virtually for nearly two years. During that time, the staff worked hard to creatively engage the girls in activities including art and online English classes. The girls took swimming lessons over the summer of 2021 and showed off artwork that they created at a local restaurant. They also participated in a Christmas Bizarre where they sold small crafts that they made by hand.

Including family in the present and future

The dorms at the Santa Julia Home are spacious and well-kept so the girls living there truly do feel at home.

Lily continued to explain that even through all the challenges of the pandemic, the staff at Santa Julia always stayed focused on their goals for the children — to learn good habits and values, especially respect for one another, to achieve consistency with their education, and to achieve comprehensive development through physical activity and proper nutrition.

Beyond all this, the girls also receive medical services, dental services, psychological services and ophthalmological services throughout the year. Additionally, Santa Julia managed to expand its programs in 2021 and began including brothers of the young girls during their intake process. Lily expressed that over the years, the staff of Santa Julia noticed that they had several cases in which girls who were separated from their home were not only having a difficult time adjusting, but were distressed over no longer being with their siblings and feeling alone and abandoned.

To mitigate this issue, Santa Julia started offering temporary housing for siblings during the adjustment period, during which the brothers and sisters can stay together until the boys can be relocated and can continue to have regular contact with one another.

A truly incredible place

Before leaving the home for the day, we had a chance to meet with some of the girls, some of whom I remember from six years ago. They all looked so healthy and happy, sitting closely together on the couches in Sister Isabel’s office, obviously bonded together from their time at the home. I showed them old photos of themselves on my phone but refrained from taking any new pictures at Lily’s request. Because of the sensitivity of their situations, she preferred that we help to keep the girls’ anonymous, and I understood completely after hearing more about how hard Santa Julia is working to give these girls, and their brothers, a safe place to grow up in.

For now, I have the memories of the children in my mind from our visit and a comfort in my heart knowing that they are safe and sound among truly incredible people in a truly incredible home.

***

How do I sponsor a child in Mexico?

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | June 9, 2022En Español

It has been roughly two and half years since we have been able to visit our affiliated sites, and I personally couldn’t wait to have the opportunity to travel to Mexico again. It finally happened in mid-May, and the trip exceeded all of my expectations.

When the pandemic hit, kids not only couldn’t go to school but in some cases could no longer stay in the group home and had to instead return to unstable and impoverished environments.

Without a doubt, our volunteer coordinators have had a tough time through the pandemic. Whether in the United States or abroad, school closures made accessing the children in our sponsorship program so much more of a challenge, but it was more important than ever as families tried to cope with so much uncertainty.

The devastation of the pandemic

Our affiliated sites in Mexico were no exception and in some ways, had it worse than other sites we work with. Each of our sites in Mexico — one in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and San Miguel de Allende — functions as a group home as well as a resource center. Therefore, when the pandemic hit, kids not only couldn’t go to school but in some cases could no longer stay in the group home and had to instead return to unstable and impoverished environments.

This was exactly the case at our affiliated site in Mexico City, Casa Hogar Santa Inés. When Luis and I arrived there a few weeks ago, we were greeted by our volunteer coordinator, Sister Flor, who gave us a tour of the facility while the girls were still in school. Sister Flor informed us that the girls had returned to Santa Inés three weeks prior. During that time, their mothers, or family members that acted as their guardians, would come to the Home once a month to pick up hygiene items and food, thanks to the girls’ sponsors. Beyond that, Sister Flor would call around and check on the girls during the week, making sure the girls’ basic needs were met the best she could.

The same but different

In total, twenty-seven girls came back to Santa Inés Home once the government allowed it and are back to school. The younger girls, those in pre-school and kindergarten, attend a local public school. The older girls, who attend primary school, go to a private school where each of them has received a scholarship to cover their school fees and books. The girls sleep at the Home from Sunday until Friday, and then are picked up by a parent or guardian, some of which travel upwards of two hours across Mexico City to Santa Inés.

For the most part, Santa Inés looked very much the same as I remember from when Luis and I visited back in 2016 — the grounds are incredibly well-kept, the dormitories are brightly painted and cozy, and the playground area offers ample space for the girls to play and just be kids in a safe and loving location. Sister Flor explained to us that outside of the support that each girl receives from her Children Incorporated sponsors, she relies on social services through the government and donations from local pharmacies and groceries stores to make sure the Home has everything it needs to provide for the children.

A big difference I did notice from our visit was just how many more services the Home is now providing to the children than before.

A big difference I did notice from our visit was just how many more services the Home is now providing to the children than before. A dentist volunteers time once a week to check on the girls’ teeth, and a computer lab and library are available for afterschool tutoring. A small infirmary is fully stocked with medications, and a clothes and supply room are abundant with items. Sister Flor even told us that she works to help the girls with their English. It seemed that over the years Sister Flor and the other administrators had really gone above and beyond to make the Home the best that it could be.

A place to call Home

After we finished the tour, we had a chance to meet the girls as they arrived from school. Sister Flor told us that she hopes that now that the Home is fully operating again, she can continue to add more girls to their program, which I think is a fantastic plan.

Even with all the challenges that the Home faced over the last two years, it was obvious that they still managed to grow and expand what they are able to offer, and any child would be fortunate to be able to call this place Home.

***

How do I sponsor a child in Mexico?

SPONSOR A CHILD