Tag Archives: sponsor

Shelley Callahan | February 27, 2022En Español

One of the ways we work to help children in our program is by supporting the needs of the affiliated sites where they are receiving care. This is especially important at our sites, like the J. Calvitt Clarke Home in India, where children not only attend school at the home but live during the week and require additional resources — including nutritious meals.

A loving gift

Today, we hear from our volunteer coordinator, Benarji, who wrote a letter to donors thanking them for a gift which allowed them to purchase much-needed kitchen and dining room equipment.

“These were essential items for the home and the children to not only provide daily meals, but to safely cook and avoid smoke inhalation.”

“Greetings to you! First of all, I thank you for your loving concern towards our Home. The funds were used to purchase two dining room tables and four wooden benches, as well as a water geyser with a 15-liter capacity, an inverter, a gas stove and a new gas connection. These were essential items for the home and the children to not only provide daily meals, but to safely cook and avoid smoke inhalation. The equipment also allows us to have hot water so the children can bathe comfortably in the rainy and winter seasons!

I am closing my letter with a heartfelt thanks from our children and ask for your continued thoughts during the pandemic.”

About the J. Calvitt Clarke Home

Named in honor of the father of Children Incorporated-founder Jeanne Clarke Wood, the J. Calvitt Clarke Home serves impoverished children in this region by providing for their basic, immediate needs while also investing in their futures by way of a well-rounded education – the key to breaking the cycle of poverty.

Located in the town of Dornakal, about 100 miles east of Hyderabad in the southeastern Indian state of Telangana, the J. Calvitt Clarke Home serves as a beacon of hope as poverty in the region is extensive, especially in years when droughts destroy the rice harvest and families working in agriculture are not able to support their children.

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How do I sponsor a child in India?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | February 24, 2022En Español

It is always exciting to hear from our volunteer coordinators that they are able to expand our sponsorship program within their regions because it means that more children in need will benefit from having a loving sponsor. This year, thanks to the efforts of our coordinators in the Philippines, we have added not only one new affiliated site but two — which will help hundreds of children in need.

This year, thanks to the efforts of our coordinators in the Philippines, we have added not only one new project but two — which will help hundreds of children in need.

Of course, we couldn’t do our important work in the Philippines without the support of our amazing sponsors who are now able to sponsor children in two new locations in the Philippines — the Santo Nino Center and the Cangumbang Center, which help change the lives of some of the most impoverished children and their families in the Philippines.

About the Philippines

The Philippines comprise a vast island nation in Southeast Asia. This archipelago of more than 7,000 islands boasts sandy beaches, towering mountains and volcanoes, tropical rainforests and an incredible wealth of natural resources and biodiversity. Humans have called these islands home for thousands of years, predating historic records. Today, the Philippines incorporate a staggering number of languages, ethnic groups, religions and cultures. Despite its status as an emerging market, however, nearly half of all Filipinos still earn less than $2 a day. Adequate sanitation, access to healthcare and access to potable water are still daily challenges in this widely underdeveloped country, which is also prone to typhoons, earthquakes and volcanic activity.

About the Santo Nino Center

Families from from Tacloban, where the Santo Nino Center is located, earn meager incomes, and often only one parent is working in the informal sector. Most inhabit concrete dwellings, but many others live in shacks fashioned from nipa palm shingles, bamboo and castoff boards. Children living in these impoverished conditions tend to suffer from neglect, abuse, or displacement. Amid this devastating poverty and its socioeconomic effects, the Santo Nino Center serves as a beacon of hope.

The Center is dedicated to facilitating community development, providing healthcare and promoting education. Especially in the wake of Typhoon Haiyan — one of the worst storms to hit the area in a hundred years — in November 2013, Children Incorporated plays a vital role in this mission. Together, we can help provide these deserving children with the opportunity to rise above the difficult socioeconomic circumstances from which they come.

About the Cangumbang Center

The Cangumbang Center, located on the southern side of the province, is categorized as an agricultural area, and is almost thirty minutes away from the city, which can be reached by jeepney and habalhabal (a single motor vehicle). Most families here are farm tenants and belong to poor families. The area is known to be flood prone, and during rainy or typhoon season, knee-high deep floods are common. Most families struggle while waiting for harvest or planting season. The children we support in this center come from families with meager income, most often with just one parent who works in the informal sector. Due to a lack of education, many parents end up in low-paying jobs. Some children at the Center are also neglected, abandoned, abused or displaced. Thankfully, with the support of Children Incorporated sponsors, we can help provide these deserving children with the opportunity to rise above the difficult socioeconomic circumstances from which they come.

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How do I sponsor a child in the Philippines?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | February 6, 2022En Español

We recently received an update from our volunteer coordinator at the Touch a Life with Hope Center in Sri Lanka, who took the time to share with us the history of the organization, as well discuss some of the ways they have been able to help some of the most vulnerable girls in Colombo — in large part thanks to our sponsors.

“It is with great pride and hope that I present this report of the Touch a Life with Hope Center, as this year marks the 35th year of the home since its inception.

From the entire staff of the Touch a Life with Hope Center, thank you to all the Children Incorporated sponsors for their support.

Touch a Life with Hope Center is managed by the Shilpa Children’s Trust. Empowering the lives of the girls that walk through our doors via a sound education remains a priority at the Center. Nurturing and uplifting girls through love, care, proper nutrition and guidance is our main goal. We strive to inculcate the values and the skills essential to live as a contributing member of society, and it is our fervent wish that when it is time for our girls to leave the Center that they join the community as mature independent young women.

Past to Present

“It is with pride that we remember the path travelled so far. The Touch a Life with Hope Center was established in 1987. It was the brainchild of a group, mostly of educationists led by Mrs. Sujatha Gunasekera, who took on the challenge to give protection to a group of children affected by the atrocities of the civil war.

Girls at the Touch a Life with Hope Center receive a well-rounded education, in large part thanks to their sponsors.

With minimal resources, they were able to temporarily house around hundred children who were brought in from the war-torn areas, providing shelter, nourishment, clothing and a safe environment. In addition, building up their educational needs and skills, always a high priority, was cherished and served as the backbone of its mission statement.

In 1988, we were allocated land in Narahenpita, on a 30-year lease, and a basic shelter was built to accommodate 25 of the girls who had greatest need for a home. Since then, the Touch a Life with Hope Center has made great strides in its progress. Alongside the focus on education, individual talent and skills were recognized and development of these given importance for the overall well-being of a child. Space was created into the overall design of the Center to provide an area for the girls to be able to practice dance, music, drama and art. In 2002, we were fortunate in securing a three-year grant from international donor agencies, such as European-Commission and ICT (International Childcare Trust, UK) to build a comfortable and spacious home for fifty girls as well as a vocational center.”

Continuing their work into the future

“With the 2004 Tsunami affecting a greater part of the South coast, and thousands of children being orphaned, the Touch a Life with Hope Center, while adhering to the government regulation of keeping the children in their home environment, proposed and implemented a sustainable program to support 350 children for a period of four years. This was yet another milestone in the history of the Center.

Alongside the focus on education, individual talent and skills were recognized and development of these given importance for the overall well-being of a child.

Along with this ambitious project, between 2004 to 2009, many other proposals were written, and funds received to help communities within and around the community where the Center is located. Within these were micro financing, agriculture and home gardening, silting and cleaning of canals and supporting a school for children with Down Syndrome in the area — in total, over 10,000 lives were impacted through this project over the four years.

Through all of our development, Children Incorporated has been a crucial part in supporting our efforts and ensuring that the girls who are in attendance at the Center are receiving clothes, food, school supplies and hygiene items — all which contribute to their overall health and ability to do well in school. From the entire staff of the Touch a Life with Hope Center, thank you to all the Children Incorporated sponsors for their support.”

About Sri Lanka

Sponsored children pose outside of the Touch a Life with Hope Center.

The island nation of Sri Lanka is located just east of India’s southern tip. It has been known by many names over the centuries, but it fittingly derives its current name from the Sinhalese words meaning “resplendent island.” Amidst its tropical rainforests, coastal plains and south-central highlands, Sri Lanka boasts the highest biodiversity density in Asia, with roughly a quarter of its thousands of species of plant life and mammals existing nowhere else on the planet. Prehistoric settlements suggest that humans have also called this land home for thousands of years. Its strategic location and deep ports made it an important part of the ancient Silk Road and even tactical grounds in World War II.

Today, in the wake of Portuguese, Dutch and British colonization, Sri Lanka maintains its rich and ancient cultural heritage, comprising diverse ethnic groups, languages and religions. Despite its many advances, internal ethnic tensions remain active in Sri Lanka. In 1983, these culminated in 26 years of insurgencies and civil war, which, along with reports of corruption and widespread abuses of civil rights — not to mention the devastating tsunami of 2004 — left the nation reeling. Despite a recovering economy, Sri Lanka is still plagued by widespread poverty and its devastating effects.

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How do I sponsor a child in Sri Lanka?

You can sponsor a child in 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 sponsorship portal, create an account, and search for a child in Sri Lanka that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | January 24, 2022En Español

One reason Children Incorporated is so special is because of our ability to help children around the world with their particular needs – largely due to the closeness that our volunteer coordinators have with children in our program.

One reason Children Incorporated is so special is because of our ability to help children around the world with their particular needs.

Last year, we received sponsorship enrollment information for a little boy named Ricardo at the Laboure School in El Salvador. In the comment section of his forms, our volunteer coordinator at the school indicated that Ricardo is deaf in his left ear, is partially deaf in his right ear, and that he needed hearing aids.

Our international programs department contacted our volunteer coordinator at Ricardo’s school immediately upon finding out about Ricardo’s situation to see if Children Incorporated could help. Soon after, we sent Hope In Action Funds to get Ricardo the hearing aids he needed — and shortly after that, Ricardo was matched with sponsor!

About El Salvador

Ricardo is pictured with his new hearing aids.

Abundant in rivers, lakes, and fertile, tropical farmland, El Salvador’s wealth of natural beauty traverses a vast central plateau bordered by Pacific coastal plains to the south and rugged mountains to the north. For centuries, several Mesoamerican nations called this land home, including the Lenca, Olmec, Maya, and Pipil/Cutcatlec. However, this smallest and most densely populated Central American nation is particularly susceptible to natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, and it has been plagued by chronic political and economic instability for more than a century. High unemployment rates, rising inflation, organized crime, and a soaring birthrate leave many Salvadorans to live in abject poverty. The nation’s capital, San Salvador, is no exception to these maladies.

About the Laboure School

The Laboure School serves as a beacon of hope to this impoverished community. Although originally founded in 1934 as an orphanage for girls, today it operates solely as a school, providing a well-rounded education and moral support to both boys and girls of the city of San Salvador. The school offers children here an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and to rise above the difficult socioeconomic circumstances from which they come.

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How do I sponsor a child in El Salvador?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | January 10, 2022En Español

In early 2021, we were fortunate to partner with the Jeunesse Foundation to support children in our projects around the world. A year later, we look back at what we have been able to accomplish thanks to their support.

Our Director of International Programs, Luis Bourdet, writes about the projects we have supported abroad:

It has been a great success to have tablets for the children, and a blessing to be able to access virtual education in a better and more suitable way.

“Tablets were distributed to children at affiliated programs in Colombia, Brazil, and Peru over the past year, thanks to the Jeunesse Fund. Due to COIVD-19, most children in Latin America were forced to receive virtual education with no digital platform and no personal computers. The idea to provide tablets came through a conversation about the difficulties children were having accessing education with little to no resources. Children were using their parents’ smart phones, when available, to complete their lessons using radio, television, and digital apps that required costly internet access. With tablets, the children would have the tools to access these apps through public internet channels, without having to share their parents’ phones. It has been a great success to have tablets for the children, and a blessing to be able to access virtual education in a better and more suitable way.

A new school in Bolivia

A child in Peru poses with a tablet that was given to him thanks to our partnership with the Jeunesse Foundation.

Jeunesse has also agreed to contribute to the building of an agricultural technical training center in Bolivia. It was built in a a rural area, about a two-hour car drive away from the city of Santa Cruz, and provides agricultural training to local children and adults so that they will not have to leave the town and go to the big city, which is just too far from their home. The center sits on enough land for agricultural training, and has a school building, a barn, mostly for bovine production, a chicken house, a pig pen, a fishery, a bee farm, and a duck farm, so that the training program will be inclusive and comprehensive.

In this area of Bolivia, families are totally dependent on agricultural production, so the center provides training in the areas that will generate the most business for the locals. The funds from Jeunesse were directed for the construction of two of the school’s classrooms, along with a set of toilets.

The Montero School also submitted a proposal to expand their educational facility to implement an agricultural training program. The proposal included a request for funds to purchase land to use for practical training, since the current facility only had a building for theoretical and academic education. The construction of classrooms for practical training was the priority, followed by the construction of a barn for bovine training, a pig pen for porcine training, a chicken coop for training in poultry production, and the reconditioning of existing fishponds for fish production.

We are incredibly grateful for the support of the Jeunesse Kids Foundation. They have helped make big changes for so many children and families in our program during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children Incorporated has allocated funding from other sources to purchase land and facilities for the other areas of production, such as the barn, the pig pen etc., as well as finding a source of water and electricity for the program’s use. It has also allocated funding to purchase animals and basic equipment and tools for educational purposes. The construction has been completed, and the Montero School is now in the subsequent phase of reconditioning the land and planting vegetables, fruit trees, and permanent forestry, while awaiting some additional funding support for administration and maintenance costs, food for the animals, and fencing the facility.”

We are incredibly grateful for the support of the Jeunesse Kids Foundation. They have helped make big changes for so many children and families in our program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you again for all you have done!

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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

Ron Carter | January 4, 2022En Español

When the COVID-19 pandemic initially hit in early 2020, I admit that I was greatly concerned about the negative impact it might have on our ability to raise the funds so badly needed to provide services to the thousands upon thousands of children and families that rely on us for help. I was fearful that our donors might be overwhelmed by their individual burdens and concerns and find themselves unable to continue to support our work.

Thank you, all, for your continued support of Children Incorporated’s work. Together, we can change and improve our world, one child at a time.

But…I was wrong. Very wrong! Our donors, contributors, and sponsors not only continued to fund our relief efforts; they upped their contributions and shared even more generously than before. They recognized that those who were already struggling prior to the pandemic were among the most vulnerable during it, and they – our loyal supporters – came through like never before.

Humbled by generosity

Our sponsored children had an especially wonderful Christmas, thanks to their sponsors!

I have been especially humbled by the generosity shown to Children Incorporated during the last two trying years. While the pandemic has certainly shown us the dark side of humanity at times, it has mostly revealed to us how kind and caring people truly are. My faith in humankind has been restored as I have witnessed compassion in action in so many wondrous ways. As donations came into our office in support of our COVID-19 Relief Fund, and we were able to provide masks, medication, hand sanitizers, and food, I saw the goodness of human hearts on full display. As the funds that we received allowed us to purchase laptop computers and personal tablets so that children could continue their studies remotely during school shutdowns, I witnessed hope for the future. As sponsors inquired about the individual children they sponsor and sent specialized gifts for them, I witnessed love, even across the miles and among relative strangers.

Remaining hopeful in the New Year

As I write these words, the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. The Omicron variant has now made its ugly presence known, and our society – once so hopeful that an end was in sight – is experiencing déjà vu and moments of concern, confusion, and conflict. I feel those things as well, but I remain hopeful, optimistic, and filled with a sense of expectation and wonder, for I have seen what we can do together. I know that good still exists among us, and with love and kindness, we will not only survive, but thrive.

Thank you, all, for your continued support of Children Incorporated’s work. Together, we can change and improve our world, one child at a time.

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 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