Share In Their Future

CI Congratulates Three Outstanding Graduates

Sam (at left), Myron (center), and Noah (right) are among the 124 students on the CI program who graduated from high school this year.  Congratulations to them!

Sam and Noah, who are identical twins, will attend Wilkes Community College to study law enforcement. Each will receive three different types of scholarship assistance: the Allegheny Pride Scholarship, the Dr. Dulin Scholarship (which CI bestows), and a merit-based grant from Wilkes.  After completing their associates degrees, Sam and Noah intend to return to their home town to work as police officers. 

Myron, who is an aspiring small-business owner, will also be a merit scholar at Wilkes Community College.  His honors include the Greene Scholarship, the Allegheny Cares Scholarship, and the Dr. Dulin Scholarship.  He hopes to transfer to a four-year college after graduating from Wilkes. 

Annual Fund Donations and a Special Contribution Provide Food for Family

When you donate to our Annual Fund, you give us the means to meet our children's unforeseen needs as they arise. 

Recently, Travis Shepherd, the father of three of our sponsored children, was laid off.  He is working hard to find new employment, but jobs are scarce in his rural Appalachian county.  Fortunately, we were able to send money from our Annual Fund to help provide food for the Shepherd family.  The sponsor of one of the Shepherd children also contributed $100, and now this family will have sufficient food for the summer.

Here, the Shepherd family stands next to the first shipment of food, which the girls' project volunteer delivered in her truck:

The Brent Kegley Memorial Race

Magda Kegley, Director of our Latin American Division, tragically lost her son Brent Kegley to a car accident on November 12, 2007.  Brent was a highly valued employee of Deer Park Water, and his coworkers have chosen to honor his memory by organizing the first annual Brent Kegley Memorial 5K Run/Walk. The race will take place on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at Quiet Waters Park in Annapolis, Maryland.  Registration will cost $30 in advance and $35 on the day of the event.   All proceeds will be divided between Children, Incorporated and Earth Share.  Click here for more information, and click here to register.  If you have any questions about this event, please contact us at (800) 538-5381 or at inquiries@children-inc.org.

Winter in South America

If you sponsor a child in South America, don't forget that it's currently wintertime in the southern hemisphere. 

Most  of our South American children live in homes that are not equipped with heating systems.  Consequently, there is a great need for blankets, sleeping bags, coats, hats, and other cold-weather items.  You can help us provide these supplies by donating to our Annual Fund, which we use to offset miscellaneous urgent needs, among other expenses.  You can also call our office at (800) 538-5381 to find out whether your particular sponsored child is in need of winter clothing or other materials. 

GoodSearch Makes Good Cents for CI!

You can quickly and easily raise money for Children, Incorporated by searching the internet with GoodSearch.com. 

Simply visit the GoodSearch website, designate CI as your charity of choice, and use the service as you would use any other search engine.  For each search you perform, CI will receive one cent. 

These pennies add up: in just a few weeks and with just a few users, we have raised $60.  If our supporters start using GoodSearch on a regular basis--and encourage all their friends to do the same--the financial benefit to our children could be substantial.  Spread the word, and help us reach $1000 by the end of 2008!

Global Spike in Food Prices Affects Our Children

Between the beginning of 2006 and the end of April 2008, the worldwide average price of food increased dramatically.  According to a recent study, the mean cost of rice is up by 217%, the cost of wheat by 136%, the cost of corn by 125%, and the cost of soybeans by 107%.  Many people who were already struggling to eat are now in truly desperate need of food.  This means that your donations are more important than ever. 

Here are but a few of the alarming statistics that have crossed our desks:

• The cost of food staples has steadily increased in almost every Latin American country, according to a report by the World Bank.  This study revealed that “food prices grew the most in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Trinidad and Tobago, and Uruguay."  Children, Incorporated maintains programs in all of these countries except Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and these increases are directly affecting our children. 
• ReliefWeb stated that "in Ethiopia alone, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 120,000 children have less than one month to live, and that 6 million are at risk for severe acute malnutrition as a result of the current crisis. Given current trends, in the next year, 4 million to 6 million children will die from malnutrition.”
• IRIN reported that in Sri Lanka--as in other countries--the food crisis will affect access to other basic resources, including health care. 

You can help by:

• Sponsoring a child.  Your monthly donation helps to pay for food and other necessities.
• Donating to our Haven Fund.  This fund provides immediate support to unsponsored children.
• Donating to our Annual Fund.  We use this unrestricted fund to provide crisis relief throughout the world. 

Ratnam School Dedication

The new building at the Ratnam School in Guntur, India opened in January of this year, and it was dedicated during Foreign Division Director Luis Bourdet's recent visit to India. 

Luis brought back these photos:

 

Progress and Planning in Augusta, Georgia

Augusta, Georgia is famous for hosting the Masters Tournament each spring.  Known as "the Garden City," Augusta boasts lush parks, historic buildings, and thriving recreational centers. 

But alongside this wealth are significant economic and social problems.  As of 2007, more than 27% of Augusta's children lived in poverty.  29% of the adults in Augusta have not completed high school.  The city's rate of AIDS cases is the second highest in the state, and 78% of these infections occur among African Americans.  The Augusta Chronicle reported in February of this year that gang violence is a constant threat in many of the city's neighborhoods. 

These and other factors make life extremely challenging for the children who live in the troubled areas of the city--but Children, Incorporated aims to assist these children by ensuring that their basic needs are met on a daily basis.  We opened our first Augusta project in August of 2007, and in the past ten months we have added two more.  Our Augusta outreach is made possible by a partnership with Communities in Schools (CIS).  At each of our three Augusta projects, a CIS employee volunteers to administer our program. 

Today, we have sixty Augusta children on our rolls, and thirty-five of these children are sponsored.  We hope to expand our reach into all of Augusta's low-income areas.  To facilitate this expansion, Ron Carter, Director of the Inner City Division, recently traveled to Augusta to meet with CIS staff.  Their discussions focused on the state of the city's low-income neighborhoods, the issues that affect Augusta's impoverished children, and the ways that CIS and Children, Incorporated can best work together to achieve their common goals.  We anticipate a marked increase in our presence in Augusta during the next several years.

To sponsor an Augusta child, please call (800) 538-5381 or visit our website at www.childrenincorporated.org. 

Ron Carter (right) is the director of our Inner City Division.  During his trip to Augusta, he met with Charles Bush (left) and Mary Crawford (center), among other employees of CIS-Augusta.  Mr. Bush is a program assistant, and Ms. Crawford is the organization's executive director. 

Classes Under Way at New Nairobi School

By means of a grant from philanthropist Barry Greenstein, CI recently helped to fund extensive renovations to the St. John Community Center School in the Pumwani district of Nairobi, Kenya.  Classes began in the new building on May 5, and the school's principal sent us this update:

Dear Children, Incorporated,

Congratulations!  We have made it to the end.  We are delighted after the completion of Phase II of the new building.

The children are very excited in their new classes, workshops, and laboratories.  Children are running all over now that the school has opened for this term.  You can tell how happy the children are in their classes, and this is a great service to these children from the slum.  The poverty in their new homes is forgotten the moment they step into their new classrooms.  The school serves 305 children, and if St. John's and its partners were not there for them, they would be in the streets begging and being abused.

As a result of these new facilities, the school will offer grade 8 and will enable children who would otherwise have dropped out after grade 7 to sit for their grade 8 exams, which are very important.  Children are very excited since they will now complete their primary education with teachers they are used to.  We expect that this will boost their academic performance.

This is a great milestone, and we are happy with the support we have received from Mr. Barry Greenstein through Children, Incorporated.  Our partners have made this dream a reality.    We are sincerely grateful and appreciate our partnership.

Best regards,
Peter Njuguna
Manager, St. John's Community Center and School

Photo Essay: Our Peruvian Children (Part 2)