Happy Birthday! Children International Celebrates One Year of Blogging

Poverty is a worldwide problem of truly epic proportions. Here at Children International, we are proud to add our voices and efforts to those of the dedicated non-profits from many nations who have made it their business to take on this insidious foe.

But of far greater importance than our efforts alone is the host of caring members of our sponsorship family who supply the financial support that is driving the changes we are bringing about. We help over 300,000 children…and that’s thanks to each of you, our sponsors.

As you know, we use a number of different media to keep you informed of our activities, the challenges we face, and the victories that are won along the way. But some time ago, we recognized that many of you wanted more. After all, you are part of the family; it’s important you have a means of interacting with us in a way that suits you.

So on January 22, 2007, we made the very first post to the Children International blog…and the response told us that our readers were eager to participate. In a few weeks we hope to hit our 200th post!

As moderators of the Children International blog, Jennifer and I enjoy bringing our sponsors and friends behind the scenes.

Through the blog, our readers are able to look at what we do from the perspective of the staff…share inside accounts from our communications coordinators in the field…become acquainted with critical cases of children in urgent need of medical assistance, housing or other special support…get the inside scoop when natural disasters affect areas where we work…become virtual team members when our staff from Kansas City – and even our president, Jim Cook – visits the field…meet our team of writers and other Children International employees…interact with other sponsors…and the list goes on.

And what is really exciting is how time after time our blog readers have taken the challenge to personally help children and families whose plight they’ve learned about through the blog. I can think of a family who no longer lives in a cemetery, a girl who has the wheelchair and other items she needs to deal with her disability, a family in Mexico who is climbing out of desperate poverty, and a family in India whose monsoon-damaged home is being repaired – all because our blog readers stepped up to the plate.

Thanks in great part to our blog readers, Awilda (pictured here with her mom and CI staff) now has a new wheelchair -- and a much brighter prognosis. Awilda hates to sit down low, so she always rides on top of her wheelchair!

Join in and make your voice heard today! Browse through our archives of past entries and read the latest posts. Then take a moment to introduce yourself and let us know what you think. We’re looking forward to meeting you! And to all the friends we've made over the past year...thanks.

Photos by David Nebel and Dayanara Reyes.