Tag Archives: sponsor

Shelley Callahan | October 2, 2018En Español

Located along South America’s central-western coast, Peru includes arid Pacific coastlands, spectacular mountain ranges and vast Amazon rainforest. This land has been home to indigenous peoples for thousands of years, including the Inca Empire, which constructed Peru’s most iconic landmark, Machu Picchu.

Sponsors positively impact the lives of the children they sponsor through the knowledge that someone cares about their well-being. This gives children in need hope, which is powerful.

Peru’s rich culture, breathtaking beauty and wealth of natural resources, however, belie the abject poverty in which many of its residents live. Many rural areas are still recovering from the Sendero Luminoso terrorist attacks of the 1990s, which claimed countless lives and caused thousands of families who had relied upon agriculture for generations to seek shelter in large cities. Unfortunately, these migrants to urban areas encountered an even deeper level of poverty there. While Peru as a whole suffers from high unemployment, hyperinflation and all the difficulties that poverty entails such as disease, malnutrition and crime, these maladies are most pronounced in its overcrowded urban areas.

Facts about Peru

–    The capital is Lima
–    Peru is the third-largest country in South America
–    Population: 30,444,999
– Major languages: Spanish, Quechua, Aymara, Ashaninka
–    Roasted guinea pig, called Cuy, is the national dish of Peru
–    Three-quarters of the world’s alpaca population lives in Peru
–    There are over 3000 types of potatoes grown in the country
–    Machu Picchu is one of the seven wonders of the world
–    The largest flying bird on Earth is in Peru, The Giant Andean Condor

Facts about poverty in Peru

–    The poverty rate in Peru is 25.8%
–    6.9 million Peruvians live in poverty
–    Per capita income in Peru is $3,500 a year
–    About 60 percent of Peruvians earn less than $190 a month
–    Because of the rampant poverty, Lima has a large number of illegal shantytowns, where residents live without running water or electricity
–    About 34% of children in Peru work to help their families
–    Because many families live in rural regions, the Peruvian government finds it difficult to provide healthcare for children

Where we work

In Peru, we affiliate with three projects in and around Lima, the Chacarilla School in the impoverished Chacarilla neighborhood to the south of the city, the Puente Piedra Girls Home in the Puente Piedra districted to the north of Lima, and the Villa School, which is also located in the Puente Piedra area.

How you can help in Peru

You can help a child living in poverty in Peru in a few different ways. One way is through our child sponsorship program. Sponsorship provides an underprivileged child with basic and education-related necessities such as food, clothing, healthcare, school supplies and school tuition payments.

This vital support allows impoverished, vulnerable children to develop to their full potential — physically, emotionally and socially. Sponsors positively impact the lives of the children they sponsor through the knowledge that someone cares about their well-being. This gives children in need hope, which is powerful.

Sponsorship provides an underprivileged child with basic and education-related necessities such as food, clothing, healthcare, school supplies and school tuition payments.

Thanks to donations to our Hope In Action Fund and our International Feeding Program, we have been able to further support our projects in Peru beyond sponsorship.

Our policy has always been to consider the needs of each sponsored child on an individual basis. We work closely with our volunteer coordinators at our project sites in Peru, who are familiar with each individual circumstance and the needs of every child in their care. Sponsorship donations are sent to our projects — orphanages, homes, community centers and schools — at the beginning of each month in the form of subsidy stipends. Our on-site volunteer coordinators use those funds to purchase items for children in our program, to ensure that they have what they need to do their very best and succeed in school.

You can also help children in Peru by donating to one of our special funds. Our special funds offer a variety of giving options for sponsors who wish to further their support, as well as for donors who wish to make a difference without making a commitment. Thanks to donations to our Hope In Action Fund and our International Feeding Program, we have been able to further support our projects in Peru beyond sponsorship.

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Shelley Callahan | October 2, 2018En Español

Bevins Elementary School lies in the easternmost region of Kentucky, in beautiful Pike County. This area was once a prosperous and thriving one, when its coal and timber industries were booming. The mountain passes and rugged terrain, while suitable for mining and logging, have effectively blocked other types of industries from settling in this part of the state. Thus, as mines closed, those who had spent their lives working underground could not find new employment opportunities above.

Thankfully for the students of Bevins Elementary School, the faculty there not only strive to provide a safe learning environment, but they also work to support grandparents who have found themselves raising kids again – but as seniors this time.

Today, poverty plagues this region, and adults are not the only ones experiencing the debilitating impact of its effects. Thankfully for the students of Bevins Elementary School, the faculty there not only strive to provide a safe learning environment, but they also work to support grandparents who have found themselves raising kids again – but as seniors this time.

A passionate coordinator

On a recent trip to Eastern Kentucky, our Director of U.S. Programs, Renée Kube, visited with the Family Resource and Youth Services Center (FRYSC) coordinator at Bevins Elementary School, Sandy, who is also our Volunteer Coordinator. The school is located in a very small community called Sidney, west of Belfry. With an enrollment of only 227 children, the school is one of the smallest schools in the Belfry district.

Upon meeting Sandy, Renée observed that she takes a great deal of pride in her job. Her excellent work is demonstrated in her dedication to further aiding the children she serves through our programs. In fact, last year, Sandy was nominated by her principal as a contender for the Kentucky Association of School Administrators’ annual Fred Award. The award – inspired by Fred Shea, the postman who is the subject of Mark Sanborn’s national bestseller, The Fred Factor – recognizes non-administrative staff, students, and volunteers statewide whose daily efforts are deemed extraordinary and integral to a positive learning atmosphere in their school communities.

We support children in need in Eastern Kentucky.

Renée pictured with one of our sponsored children at Bevins Elementary School

Sandy is impassioned by FRYSC’s work to remove the “non-cognitive barriers” to children’s success in school by providing them with clothes, shoes, school supplies, and hygiene items throughout the academic year. She also works closely with the other coordinators in the middle and high schools in the Belfry district to collaborate on outreach efforts between older and younger siblings in the same families.

This is in order to ensure that all children are receiving the basic needs that are so important to their academic success. When it comes to working with our sponsored and unsponsored children, Sandy explained to Renée, her primary focus is always to obtain clothing and shoes, as well as school supplies. Sandy considers each child’s individualized personal needs upon selecting her purchases.

Training for grandparents

As Sandy discussed how she would like to see the resource center develop, Renée learned about a county program to be launched by FRYSC coordinators this school year called Grandparents As Parents (GAP) — a program for which financial assistance is greatly needed. There is a high percentage of grandparents and great-grandparents raising children in Pike County, sometimes due to parents passing, and other times because parents are incapable of caring for their own children as a result of problems with drug abuse. Many require support with regard to issues such as recognizing the signs of bullying; training on how to monitor kids’ social media use; how to utilize technology for themselves for job training; and how to check online for academic performance and behavior notes for the children in their care. The workshops will also touch on budgeting, and proper sleep and nutrition; and attendees will be provided with literature for reference.

After listening to Sandy speak so passionately about helping these grandparents – many of whom are living in poverty, and never expected to be raising their grandchildren — Renée informed Sandy that Children Incorporated would be happy to provide funding for this special program through our Hope In Action Fund. This fund is maintained for instances just as this. Now Sandy can rest assured that grandparents in her community will receive the support they need to raise their grandchildren to be the most successful students they can be.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN KENTUCKY?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | September 21, 2018En Español

Nestled in picturesque mountains and steeped in a rich cultural heritage, Pike County is situated in the very heart of Appalachia – an economically depressed area that stretches from the Virginias to Tennessee and Kentucky. This was once a thriving region, as a result of the success of its then bustling coal and lumber industries. In 1994, however, the Eastern Division of The Pittston Company closed its coal mines.

Today, rampant unemployment and widespread poverty paint a somber life in Pike County.

Unfortunately, rugged terrain has effectively blocked other industries from settling in this part of Kentucky. Thus, as mines closed, those who had spent their lives working underground could not find new employment opportunities above. Today, rampant unemployment and widespread poverty paint a somber life in Pike County. Their debilitating effects impact not only the adults there; hunger and cold nights in bed are the plight of too many children in this area, as their parents struggle to make ends meet.

On a recent trip to Pike County, our Director of U.S. Programs, Renée Kube, and our U.S. Projects Specialist, Shelley Oxenham, visited Valley Elementary School. There, they met with our Volunteer Coordinator Betty. Valley Elementary School has an extremely high enrollment of almost 1,000 students, from kindergarten through the eighth grade. Despite a large number of students at the school, with the help of the resource center and our program, Betty is hopeful that her efforts are making a big difference for children who are coming from impoverished households.

Betty explained to Renée and Shelley that she loves the flexibility of the Children Incorporated sponsorship program. It is very helpful to her to have the ability to purchase a wide variety of items for students, depending on their individual home situations. This way, she is able to make specific purchases in meeting the individualized needs of each child in her care. She said that our sponsored and unsponsored children are constantly in need of clothes and shoes; she also provides them with school supplies and food baskets often.

Meeting a special sponsored child

Sarah benefits greatly from having a sponsor with Children Incorporated.

During their visit, Renée and Shelley met with a few students who are enrolled in our sponsorship program. One student in particular stood out to them: Sarah* is in the eighth grade, and she lives with her parents and two sisters. She genuinely appreciates the support she receives from her sponsor.

Sarah anxiously awaits the items that she receives regularly thanks to monthly contributions. These donations especially help her in obtaining new shoes and clothing that she otherwise would go without. Betty also purchases art supplies for Sarah using her sponsorship funds, because Sarah loves art. She told Renée and Shelley that her family cannot afford art supplies, so she is incredibly grateful that her sponsor helps to support this passion of hers.

Internet famous

Before leaving Valley Elementary School, Betty showed Renée and Shelley a video of some of the third-grade students there who have become quite well-known on social media. The children were learning about coal mining and the industry in class, and their teacher challenged them to make a video demonstrating some of what they’d learned about the subject. The video would be entered into a much-anticipated annual community event – the CEDAR, Inc. Coal Fair.

With help from local high school students, the third-graders sang to the tune of Taylor Swift’s recent hit “Shake It Off.” After three days of filming, they finished the video, called “Mine the Coal”. When the fair was over, their teacher posted the video on her personal Facebook page, where it was widely shared, and where it has now accumulated more than 215,000 views. Along with Valley Elementary being a big school, its students are also a big hit on the internet!

*Name changed for child’s protection.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN KENTUCKY?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Shelley Callahan | September 18, 2018

Companies choose to partner with charitable organizations for a variety of reasons, and a successful corporate partnership benefits both the nonprofit and its sponsor. When you make the decision to partner with Children Incorporated, you are choosing to make a lasting impact not only on impoverished children, but also on their families, and entire communities as well.

About Children Incorporated

Founded by Jeanne Clarke Wood in 1964, Children Incorporated is an international nonprofit organization with a steadfast vision: to provide children living in poverty with the basic needs and education that they would otherwise go without – the tools that they need to break the cycle of poverty.

When you make the decision to partner with Children Incorporated, you are choosing to make a lasting impact not only on impoverished children, but also on their families, and entire communities as well.

Children Incorporated passionately believes that children everywhere deserve education, hope, and opportunity. We provide sustainable solutions that enable children around the world to receive such necessities as food, clothing, health care, and an education. These essentials, so often taken for granted, are vital to a child’s growth – both as an individual and as a contributing member of their local community.

Our Work

Children Incorporated partners with already-established schools, orphanages, homes, and childcare centers to address the specific needs of the children they serve. Each of our approximately 300 projects has its own local staff member who administers our program on a volunteer basis. We also maintain many special funds, such as our U.S. and International Feeding Programs Funds; we provide assistance for income-generating projects, health care and educational assistance programs; and we support critical projects, like school expansions, medical clinic repairs, housing improvements, and more.

Read more about our special funds:

U.S. Feeding Programs Fund

Mosquito Net Fund

International Feeding Programs Fund

Warm Clothing Fund

Skills Training Programs Fund

How to get involved

Most often, companies choose to sponsor a whole project rather than individual children. This type of approach allows a company to have an even greater impact in the lives of many children, as well as in a community as a whole. It is our aim to work with you as a team to bring basic needs assistance and programs that teach self-sustainability to children and communities in need.

Read about our special projects around the world:

Building Homes in Bolivia

Providing Dorms and Beds in India

Feeding Programs in the Philippines

Hearing Aids for Children in Lebanon

Gardens for Schools in Arizona

Computers for Students in Kentucky

By partnering with us, you help meet the needs of the children that we serve, so that they may grow, learn, and have the opportunities in life that they deserve.

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Shelley Callahan | September 13, 2018En Español

Recently, our Director of U.S. Programs, Renée Kube, and our U.S. Projects Specialist, Shelley Oxenham, visited one of our longest-standing and most stable partnerships – the Family Resource and Youth Services Center (FRYSC) of Pike County in Kentucky. Children Incorporated began our outreach in Kentucky not long after the founding of our organization in 1964. At that time, our program was in only one county in the state: Menifee. Unfortunately, when our volunteer coordinator in Menifee County retired a few years later, no one was able to step in and take her place; so that project site was reluctantly closed.

In order to continue helping children in need in the Appalachian Region of the United States, one of our staff members at the time, Dorothy Carver, went to our founder, Mrs. Jeanne Clarke Wood, with an interesting proposal: her husband was relocating for work from Richmond, Virginia, where our headquarters was located at the time, to North Carolina. Mrs. Carver offered to reinstate our Appalachian Division with a focus in western North Carolina, where extreme poverty was rampant. Mrs. Wood agreed; once Mrs. Carver relocated to North Carolina, she began traveling regularly, steadily expanding our sponsorship program in the state.

Today, Children Incorporated is affiliated with all seventeen public schools in Pike County, which is the easternmost and largest county in North Carolina.

A Breakfast for Champions

In 1990, when Mrs. Carver retired, our Appalachian Division consisted of 32 projects in western North Carolina. Her assistant, Irene LeCroy, took her place as the new Appalachian Division Director. Mrs. LeCroy worked hard to continue to expand our work with impoverished children and their families. She wanted Children Incorporated to acquire affiliations in Kentucky, as well as move into West Virginia. It was she who first learned of Kentucky’s newly-developed Family Resource and Youth Services Center. Thanks to Mrs. LeCroy, our first re-affiliations since the early 1970s were in Pike County, Kentucky. The first was Kimper Elementary School in March of 1993 – and more and more were added over the years.

Today, Children Incorporated is affiliated with all seventeen public schools in Pike County, which is the easternmost and largest county in Kentucky, encompassing 788 square miles. It has a rugged mountainous terrain, with narrow river valleys and great scenic beauty. However, the continuing decline of the coal industry has yielded high rates of unemployment; underemployment; and rural out-migration, in which families are forced to leave their homes in search of steady work elsewhere. The county’s child poverty rate is 29 percent – and twelve percent of those kids live in deep poverty, in which their families’ incomes are less than half the poverty threshold.

We are incredibly grateful for our coordinators in Pike County, who work hard every day to ensure children’s needs are met.

Since this year marks Children Incorporated’s 25^thanniversary of our work in Pike County, Renée and Shelley decided to start their week-long trip of visits to our affiliated schools in the area with a breakfast meeting to acknowledge the FRYSC coordinators, who also serve as our volunteer coordinators. Renée and Shelley invited all seventeen coordinators, as well as Mr. Robert Osborne, who is the Director of Federal Programs for the Pike County Board of Education, and who supervises our coordinators there.

Renée and Shelley hosted a fun breakfast, getting all the coordinators together to reminisce about how Children Incorporated sponsors and donors have facilitated their work helping kids in Eastern Kentucky over the years. Renée and Shelley also made it a point to express their gratitude to the coordinators for dedicating so much time and effort to ensuring that their students benefit fully from their sponsors’ crucial support.

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HOW DO I SPONSOR A CHILD IN KENTUCKY?

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

SPONSOR A CHILD

Children Incorporated | August 31, 2018En Español

The children in our program not only have the opportunity to obtain an education and experience the hope that lies therein – they also witness firsthand the transformative impact of giving in their lives. This culture of benevolence often perpetuates itself, and those who have received give back when they are able. Such is the case of a humble and sincere gentleman who visited the Children Incorporated headquarters in North Chesterfield, Virginia over the summer to tell us his story.

Reverend Solomon belonged to the first generation of Children Incorporated kids at our affiliated project the J. Calvitt Clarke Home, named after our founder’s father, in Dornakal, Telangana in India. From 1967 to 1976, Reverend Solomon’s sponsor – an individual to whom he attributes the enriched life he leads today – helped to support his education. He went on to graduate from high school and college, and returned to the same organization that manages the home that offered him invaluable assistance throughout his childhood, working as an accountant from 1980 to 1982. Dedicating his studies to theology, he became a pastor about a decade later, and started working with Word and Deed India, an organization that provides rehabilitation and treatment to those suffering from leprosy, as well as runs schools and hostels for underprivileged children.

Reverend Solomon in Dornakal as young man

Through the years, Reverend Solomon has thought of his sponsor often, and continues to do so to this very day. He treasures what a gift his sponsorship was, as it meant better lives for him and his family – and ultimately, better lives for so many more children in India. Reverend Solomon went on to found the nonprofit organization Oikonomos Ministries India with his wife Naomi in his home state in 2001. It began with 63 kids, and currently serves 610 orphaned and impoverished kids in the area.

“I didn’t hear from my sponsor, but I knew they were there for me,” Reverend Solomon told us. He is there for the Oikonomos children in the same way his sponsor was there for him, ensuring they receive basic necessities. He also pastors at Beth-EL Baptist Church and ministers locally, offering spiritual care and counseling as well as career guidance to the young adults of Oikonomos who are pursuing university studies.

“You must make use of this opportunity”

On this trip, his first trip to the United States for a pastoral training conference, Reverend Solomon made it a priority to stop by the Children Incorporated headquarters to tell us – and you – how sponsorship positioned him and seven other kids from his village on a marked path to success. “I remember hearing in school that Children Incorporated was in Richmond, Virginia,” he said. So when he discovered that he would be traveling to Virginia, he made the decision to pay us a visit.

Through the years, Reverend Solomon has thought of his sponsor often, and continues to do so to this very day.

Reverend Solomon proudly showed us photographs of other former sponsored children who had become bank managers, top-ranking police officers, and other successful professionals. “Poverty drove us to study well,” he said. “We thought, ‘You must make use of this opportunity and succeed in life.’” He told us of the extreme poverty from which his family suffered greatly, and he recounted to us an incredibly touching story:

When he would leave for the J. Calvitt Clarke Home as a boy, his family would give him enough money to travel to and from the home – and if they had it, a bit more for spending money while he was away. On one occasion, upon arriving to his house from the home, Reverend Solomon found that his mother was not there. When he asked his father where she was, he was told that she had gone out looking for some change for rice, because she wanted to be able to feed her child while he was visiting from school. Reverend Solomon felt awful about this, and upon his mother’s return, gave her the money she had given him months before; he had managed to save it, because his sponsorship covered all of his needs while he was away. His family was able to eat that night.

Mr. Solomon holding a younger photo of himself

Years later, married with two daughters, and the executive director of a nonprofit organization, Reverend Solomon finished his story with tears in his eyes, and with such a grace that can only reverberate from raw gratitude. The cracking of his voice as he became emotional and the earnest air about him revealed the kindness that resides in his heart as a result of the compassion shown to him.

Our common mission comes full circle

Reverend Solomon closed his visit by telling us about a question he had asked himself on his way here: “What can I do for Children Incorporated, because Children Incorporated has done so much for me?” Both our work and his is made possible by sponsors and donors. So it didn’t take him long to come to the conclusion that he would thank us by sponsoring a child in India himself. While his organization transforms hundreds of young lives there, he wishes to transform the life of a child through the same organization that linked his sponsor to him so many years ago.

From one sponsor having made a difference in the life of just one child, hundreds of people – children and communities alike – are now benefitting. Reverend Solomon takes great pride is how instrumental his own life has been in lifting up his village, as he is a living example of what its people’s lives can become when they are presented with possibility. Little could Reverend Solomon’s sponsor ever have imagined: the support that began fifty years ago and lasted for a decade is now a driving force pushing an entire community forward in Telangana, India.

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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 donation portal, create an account, and search for a child in India that is available for sponsorship.

SPONSOR A CHILD