Before and After: Feels like Home

You may remember reading about Jim Cook’s trip to India in his March blogs. Visiting sponsored child Shuva Khanra and his family was just one of several important stops along the way.

Strong storms during the monsoon season had damaged many homes, including Shuva’s. Knowing the instability of their home, Nilima, Shuva’s mother, kept her guard up and instructed her children to sleep under their bed on one particularly stormy night. Rain poured in and the very wall that the children slept next to collapsed. Thanks to their mother’s foresight the children were unharmed, but their home was a wreck. The family was forced to construct a temporary shelter to live in.

Not long after, they received wonderful news - Children International would build them a new home thanks to a donation from Gastinger Walker Harden Architects- and best of all, Nilima would no longer have to worry about her children’s safety.

Jim Cook visited the happy family halfway through the construction.

In April this family’s dreams came true when they were finally able to move into their new stable home thanks to the caring donors.

Photos and reporting assistance by Nivedita Moitra, Communications Coordinator in India.

The Power of a Dream

Neeta Goel, Program Director for Children International, shared these thoughts with us about a recent visit she paid to sponsored families in India. We though you’d enjoy her reflections.

Several mothers left their chores to come chat with me excitedly, and question why I have been missing so long. It was the area’s worst summer day so far – the temperature touched 43 degrees centigrade (109.4 degrees Fahrenheit), and as the tin roofs of the homes blazed, I wondered how the families can even survive. Small wonder all kids are down with diarrhea, and are throwing up constantly almost.

The center was cool, since it is made of cement and bricks, and not tin or aluminum. The kids came running in and for the few moments that we had electricity, the fan made the heat a little bearable. One mother spoke to me about her 6 kids – 4 are in school, with younger and older siblings united in the same grade, due to late starts for some. The mother tells me that it is her dream to see that her children don’t stay uneducated and disadvantaged like her. She has several daughters, and wants them all to study, contrary to what her community thinks. She confides that this dream creates problems for her with her extended family, but that she can’t seem to give up.

While I speak to her, in front of us, I watch this other mother and her four-month-old baby. We are providing food for this baby, and yet his arms and legs are little more than sticks. He keeps screwing up his face as though he wants to cry, but can’t seem to find the energy to do so.

The mother smiles shyly at me when I ask what else we can do to make sure her baby is healthy. “Nothing,” she says. “You all have done enough.” She explains her husband sends her some money once in a while, but it is never enough. She wants to work, but her kids are too small. I look at her and see this exhausted young girl with four kids, struggling to come to terms with being a mother, when she is hardly over being a teenager herself.

We sit in silence for a while, as I watch the four kids arrange themselves around her and fall asleep in the heat, each one making sure at least one little hand touches her, almost to reassure themselves that their mother will not suddenly disappear while they are asleep.

I am broken from my reverie when she suddenly she says with uncharacteristic force, “I really want to do something for my children. I want them to grow up and be independent.”

Just for a second the fatigued expression changes, and I see a determined young woman emerge.

Dreams – how powerful they can be.

A Picture Of India: Day 2

Posted on behalf of Jim Cook, President of Children International.

As I look over my notes, I recall with sadness the mother who was holding a child obviously very young and very malnourished...or worse.


I really didn’t need my notes to recall this situation. It’s hard to put it out of my mind.

I entered what she called a home. It was a tiny, dark place with plastic sheets for walls and not much more for a roof. Grim. On a small mat in the center of this “room” was another child…impossibly small, especially considering the one she was holding.

I turned to the field worker with me who was familiar with the mother and she informed me the mom had been told to take the baby to the doctor earlier in the month. When we asked what the doctor said, her unintelligible, illogical answer masked the real story…and at the same time revealed it. She really didn’t believe in, or understand, or could afford it if she did, modern medicine. And she had taken the child to what is referred to, appropriately, as a “quack.”

We made a note to follow up very soon with a more “hands on” intervention. It’s a matter of life and death. Literally.

This sad tale illustrates something that is a frustration yet underscores the value of child sponsorship...that mother is doing the best she knows how to do. She needs to learn how to care for her child. She has never had the luxury of education about how.

Over the years, through our sustained presence, I’ve seen sponsorship change the way individuals in entire communities approach the their own health care and that of their families.

I look forward to seeing that happen here…and the sooner the better! I will be anxiously following this child’s situation. And I’ll keep you posted. But we may have not gotten to her in time, and I’m not sure there will be a happy ending.

As bad as it sounds, it actually gets worse. The father is a rickshaw puller…or more accurately, a rickshaw driver as he uses a bicycle rickshaw. Unfortunately he was pedaling his rickshaw in a part of the city that had banned rickshaws and was summarily arrested and jailed. This clear and present “threat to society” was in jail awaiting his fate while his wife and family slowly starved.

This family was also a product of the relocation group I mentioned yesterday. The lack of wisdom and basic human compassion of both the relocation and the jailing of this “lawbreaker” is appalling. Pedaling a rickshaw. Trying to earn a living in a manner that is so hard its incomprehensible to me. Yet he’s jailed for it!

Oh, and one more thing. The woman and her jailed husband are behind on their $10 per month rent and are being threatened by the “landlord” with eviction.

So, the next time you’re thinking you’re having a bad day, consider this poor woman’s plight...a child in her arms on the brink of death, a toddler badly underweight with not a lot of hope for good nutrition, a husband in jail and a landlord trying to throw you out of what is generously described as a hovel.

We’ll do what we can for this family. I will. But we haven’t yet raised a dime that would enable us to help. Their case underscores the need for a vibrant sponsorship effort in this area. Join me in helping if you can. Call a friend. Let’s make a difference.

Update from the field...In a recent email sent to me from Neeta Goel, who is helping keep an eye on this family, she reported that our staff on the ground has been assisting them with food and medical assistance. Here are some excerpts the note she just sent to me: We began giving the mother and child some small quantities of food each day – milk, bananas, bread etc, and monitored her daily to make sure that the mother was actually eating the food, since she wouldn’t be able to nurse the baby otherwise. We monitored quantities too, knowing she would share the food with all her other kids, who were hungry too. There are no doctors in Bawana, except for homeopathic ones, and although we took the baby to these ones too, they refused to treat the child since they thought he was too sick. We then took the child to a hospital that is about six miles away from Bawana. The pediatrician confirmed that the child was severely malnourished and gave some medications that would help him put on weight. Although he still looks skinny to me, Shweta (a qualified nutritionist) confirms he is gaining weight slowly. The biggest change I saw was that he was smiling, and not screaming non-stop as I had seen him do previously. Anyway, that’s the progress within the last 2 weeks. We just completed the baseline survey and the medical exams today for all kids. Once we encode all the data, we will be able to share those reports with you too.

Tomorrow on the blog, Jim shares more thoughts from his recent trip to India. For more photos and to read his journal entries, visit Jim's Journal: At the Heart of Calcutta.

A Portrait Of India: Day 1

Posted on behalf of Jim Cook, President of Children International.

With our excellent field staff, today I visited a neighborhood obviously in the grip of harsh poverty, where we’re supporting the efforts of a badly-needed pre-school.

At this very small school, Shweta Tiwari, the staff teacher, is performing daily miracles with 15 to 20 students age 4 and under, I met with the children and their moms.


As I write this, I’m still stunned and saddened by what I heard from those mothers, one in particular. A striking woman whose clean, ivory colored sari belied the hell she has endured over the past few years.

As the articulate spokesperson for the group, she recounted how four years ago, the municipal powers informed her and the people in her neighborhood that they would be moved to a new location, as their “squatter area” was needed for new development. Progress!

Except the community the city called a squatter area was the only home she and her neighbors had ever known.

Soon the bulldozers came and the people were sent to an area far away, an area none of them had ever heard of, and certainly one to which no one wanted to go.

But go they did. Just like with so many things in their lives, they were left without a choice in the matter. That’s one of the problems of being real poor…choices are made for you. And to you…you’re left to just do your best what those choices are.

What they were in this case included renting a truck with your neighbors and moving what little you had to a new area where the current inhabitants would violently protest your intrusion.

The city provided no documentation of any type of new home or even the lot they might have been assigned. The home didn’t exist and the “lot” was determined by what can only be described as a desperate land grab of a piece of hard scrabble barely 10 feet square.

They received nothing. “Just get out,” they were told. So this poor woman, her mother and child moved out. Her world ripped out from under her.

And yet as she recounted this horror, she didn’t cry. She smiled.

I wanted to hug her and tell her how I hurt for what she has had to endure. I wish I had. But instead I just mumbled how sorry I was that she and her family had to suffer and that I hoped Children International would be able to bring something positive into what had been a pretty bad decade for her so far.

It seemed a feeble response when placed beside the magnitude of her story.

I visited her home later…it’s hard to describe how bad it was. Inside I was greeted by a goat eating something that looked like stuffing from a pillow. The stench was bad. Rats crawled through the area at night…she showed me the hole they used. I can’t imagine what the home looks like when the rains come, with such a porous roof. No toilet. Ten by ten is probably exaggerating its size. Dark.




Her name is Rafia. Her story is one that will stay with me…like many do.

She doesn’t deserve this. No one does.

I hope we can make a difference in her life…and the life of those other mothers in the room that day. I told them that it was now personal for me…meeting them and hearing their stories and looking into their dark eyes.

We must make a difference for them.

A last thought…as she described the bulldozers entering the area of her previous home, I could only think of the poignant photo of the student standing defiantly in front of the tank at Tiananmen Square in China years ago. And how this poor woman and her neighbors didn’t even have the satisfaction of knowing their plight was, at least, noted by the outside world—by someone who might care when it mattered—as was the case for that lonely student in front of the tank.

Well, even though it was four years ago, it matters now. And we’ll do what we can to help.

Tomorrow on the blog, Jim shares more thoughts from his recent trip to India. For more photos and to read his journal entries, visit Jim's Journal: At the Heart of Calcutta.

Behind the Scenes: Meet Neenee Moitra

Posted on behalf of Kevin Fleming

Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are impacted by sponsorship. In order to discover how sponsorship impacts these people and their communities, Children International depends on dedicated communications professionals.

Our communications coordinators are located in all 11 countries where we work. They are our eyes, ears, noses and hands in the field. They peek under the rug of the earth to deliver to you compelling and touching stories, the small miracles that sponsorship makes possible.

These communications coordinators wear many hats. At once they are beat reporters, photographers, documentarians, videographers, a smile of encouragement and a shoulder to cry on. Without them our work at Children International headquarters would be far more difficult!

Whenever you read a Journeys article, watch a web video and even read blog posts it’s likely that what you are reading was supported by a communications coordinator.


Nivedita (Neenee) Moitra is our “go-to gal” in Calcutta, India, where she has covered sponsorship for several years. She is a superb photographer who captures a unique view of life in the rural Indian villages where many of our sponsored children live.

Check out her "Snapshot in Time" slideshow on our website, www.children.org. She has provided an audio commentary of the beautiful photos that are presented. The slideshow will be available on Tuesday, February 19.

Coming Soon!

Children International works in some of the most fascinating places among some of the most fascinating people you can imagine.

We always look forward to publishing the next edition of our magazine, Journeys, so we can take you along to visit some of these places and meet some of these people. And this edition is no exception.

You'll meet Abhijit, a young boy in India, and take an insightful peek into daily life for families in the rural areas of the country. You'll travel to Guatemala to visit with Sabina, who over two decades ago became the very first child to ever enroll in what was then Children International's new sponsorship program; you'll experience vicariously the sights and incredible smells of the city garbage dumps outside Santiago, in the Dominican Republic, where families work under unimaginable conditions to eke out a living; you'll travel up a mountainside in Guatemala on a dark night in the middle of a tropical storm to see what it's like to be a family living in destitution while nature is at its worst...and you'll ride a motorbike down a smugglers' highway in Honduras with a Children International field officer as he makes his rounds (there's a really cool video to go along with this!).

All this and much more will be coming to your mailbox in the next three or four days. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

Meet Sabana, From India

"I would like to tell my sponsor that I am very lucky to have a friend like you!"


Photos by Niveditra Moitra, the communications coordinator for our agency in Calcutta, India.

One Down, Seven to Go!

Mithu Dinda peers through a massive crack in the wall of her flood-damaged home in India.

BREAKING NEWS…

Thanks to the generosity of our blog readers, in just two days we have received enough donations to cover the repairs to the first of the eight homes that were critically damaged by flooding in India!

As you may recall from my first blog from a couple of days ago, the government in the state of West Bengal, India, has stated that around 400,000 people have been affected by the flooding, and that some 40,000 homes have been either damaged or destroyed. I also mentioned that it is very difficult to obtain land to build new houses, so the most viable option is to repair and rebuild the homes using much more durable materials.

Our goal is $4800, which will allow us to repair the eight homes identified to us by our agency staff as being in the most critical need of repairs. The individual cost breakdown is $500-600 per home. And in the past couple of days, our readers have already contributed $550!

So we’re off to a great start. I realize that our blog readers make up a limited – but growing – group, so I’d like to ask you to help in a couple of ways:

1. If you haven’t already contributed toward helping put a roof back over the heads of these families, please consider doing so. You may give any way you prefer: by phone at 1(800) 888-3089, by check (mail to Children International, PO Box 219055, Kansas City, MO 64121) or via our website, www.children.org.

Regardless of which method you choose, it is very important that you email us at blog@children.org to let us know the amount of your donation and that it is intended for the India flooding victims. Be sure to include your account number.

2. How about helping us spread the word? Use the little envelope icon at the bottom of this post (and of the original posts from a couple of days ago) to forward it to your friends and family. Let them know you’re participating in helping repair these families’ homes. Perhaps they’d like to help as well!

You don’t have to do it alone…helping these families in India would make a great project for a class, a group of coworkers or a church group.

Thanks a MILLION for your help! I’ll keep you updated as more donations come in and work begins on the repairs.

More Help Needed in India

The very first thing I want to say is “thanks.”

I wrote yesterday about the victims of the flooding in India in hopes that we’d be able to raise some funds to help them, and you didn’t disappoint me. Some of you responded right away – and we appreciate that!

Today I received a report that damages are more extensive than we first thought. In addition to the two families I wrote about yesterday, at least 6 more children and their families have been severely affected.

So our goal just jumped from $1200 to $4800 ($600 per home x 8 families).

Besides asking our blog readers to help, we’ve also kicked off an initiative here in the office. Our Children International employees are raising money in different ways – some of them quite creative! (Stay tuned…we might be sharing more about this on the blog.)

Wouldn’t it be exciting to put these families into safe, dry houses without lengthy delays? Of course, we as an organization are committed to their wellbeing, so we will make sure they’re taken care of. But I know our sponsors want every possible ounce of our regular sponsorship donations to go to the programs that are so desperately needed to make children’s lives better. So if we can raise these funds as a separate project, much good will have been done.

If you’d like to donate, please email us at blog@children.org. You may donate any way you’d like, but it’s VERY important you specify that your donation is to help the needy families in India that you read about in the blog. So if you donate through the Children International website, it’s still important that you email us at blog@children.org and let us know that you gave, and how much. If you send a check, be sure to include “For Needy Families in India – Blog” on the memo line.

The report I received is so recent that I don’t yet have photos of the specific homes that were affected, but below are some general photos of the flooding.

We’ll keep you posted as to how much we’ve raised as the donations come in.

Thanks again!

Photos by Nivedita Moitra, from our agency in Calcutta, India.
Note: Click on each picture for a larger image.

Families in India Need Your Help Now

No country is guaranteed safety when nature’s fury strikes, be it through volcanoes, hurricanes, typhoons, tornados or earthquakes. So loss of property and even life is a sad – and often recurring – reality in many countries. It hurts worst of all when natural disasters strike developing countries whose people are already struggling to survive.

Many of our readers have been among the first to volunteer to help when we’ve reported on critical situations. That’s why I’m sharing information about a very urgent need.

Recent heavy rains in the area of Calcutta, India, have wrought their yearly havoc. According to government estimates, around 400,000 people in the state of West Bengal have been affected, with some 40,000 homes damaged or destroyed. Predictably, some of those affected are sponsored children and their families.

Many poor families live in homes made of nothing but mud and bamboo, so when heavy rains come the structures are simply unable to hold up. Because of the difficulties surrounding obtaining title to land, Children International’s policy in the region is to help families repair their homes with better materials so they will be more durable in the face of the constant reality of the area’s heavy tropical rains.

Although a number of sponsored families’ homes have been damaged to varying degrees, the local staff has presented us two cases they feel are most critical. These involve damages to the homes of sponsored youths Rakhi Maishal (left) and Kunal Moisal (right).

The bad news is that the families of these sponsored young people are desperately poor and are unable to afford the needed repairs to their homes. The good news is that we can help.


The amount needed per family is relatively small, but it’s beyond the scope of what regular sponsorship contributions can cover. We are committed to helping these families, but any additional assistance we might receive would be greatly appreciated. At a mere $600 per family, I don’t think it will be hard to make a difference.


Will you help us put these two families under a safe, dry roof? If you’d like to contribute part or all of the $600 needed for each family, please contact us at blog@children.org. We’ll put you in touch with our Sponsor Services staff, and they’ll help you complete your donation quickly and easily.

If you can lend a hand, thanks in advance for your help. Otherwise, simply keep these families in your thoughts and rest assured we’ll do everything we can to get them back on their feet again.

Ruminations

On www.children.org, we recently featured a slideshow which contained sponsor Marci Wulf's personal photos and her first person account of what it was like for her and her husband Ryan to vist their sponsored child in a village outside of Calcutta, India. Our conversation was so illuminating that we wanted to print a condensed version of Marci expressing her views and outlooks on a variety of subjects.

On Begging:
We got stopped by a train track on our way in, there was about ten little kids tapping on the windows, showing their sad faces and it’s definitely disconcerting to have that happen and probably if that would have been my first experience I would have been really troubled by it, but I’ve done a lot of traveling and have had these kind of experiences before. You know I really believe that if you give a little bit of money it just makes a temporary change, but if you give money in a way that people can use to help themselves through education or community programs, it’ll make a more lasting change and so I had a policy as I travel to not indulge too much in handing out cash as I move along.

I remember the first time I went to Cambodia, going across the border, there were tons of little kids come running up to you and they show you their sad faces and they look dirty and they have their hands out. And instead (of giving them money) I would always play with them, smile back at them or make faces. I was always surprised at how quickly they forgot they were supposed to be getting money and just want to play with you because they are just little kids. We had a really fun time with these kids as we crossed the borders. I would make a point to donate money to an organization that was doing work there, but I’d try not to give money to the kids themselves, because I don’t want their parents to be encouraged to keep sending them out.

On Entering Rinki’s Village:
She’s in a small village, that’s outside of Calcutta that is very green and lush. It was quite poor, there was a lot of little children on our way in that would come running up to the car and beg as we go along. Once we got into her village outside of the little town area and back into where she lived, there was a lot of single or two room homes attached together, that her family members lived in. All of her family was there; aunts and uncles came to meet us. I’d seen these type of living conditions before, so it wasn’t shocking to me by any means, they have a really small, simple home and they do their best to keep it clean and take care of it and make do with what they have.

On Sponsorship:
I definitely believe in the value of education, and I know that the money I give to the organization (Children International) helps her to go to school and get the materials and the uniforms that she needs and so I definitely see an impact in that portion. When I was there they also brought out all the functional gifts that the family had received through being part of the program. Whether it was a blanket or pot or pans, or everyday useful items. And I really believe in that type of charity, I don’t like that word. But I think that functional gifts, things that are going to be used day to day are the kind of things that need to happen.

I was also really impressed, they told me a little bit about some of the community programs that they have there that they have there, the organization (Children International) creates with the moms of the sponsored kids and some of the programs that the moms have come up with to help improve the circumstances of their community and I think that that is really fantastic way to make a lasting change for a group of people and to get moms involved to better their own community. That’s a way to really make changes, to empower people to change it for themselves.

On Rinki’s Future:
I really want her to continue in school and I want her to wait to get married. It’s part of their culture, they get married younger, they have the arranged marriages in India, and her sister just got married and her sister just finished her school, she’s 17 maybe 18. And want Rinki to finish school, and I really want her to go to college and I’m encouraging her in that direction in the letters that I write. Because I want her be able to help improve her circumstances, and the circumstances of those around her and that’s really the way to do it. She writes me letters that she is interested in it and she is learning English. Finishing school and also being able to speak English is really important skills in the world today and in India as well. So, I’d really love to see her to be able to grow up before she gets married and be able to get some information and be in a position to help improve her circumstances in her community, instead of being a victim of the circumstances.

On Children International:
I’m always recommending it to my friends that they sponsor children because it I feel like people who want to make a contribution, it feels more worthwhile when you see what happens with your contribution, when you can actually see the results and talk to a person and have that personal contact. I really think that is an excellent way to involve people in helping.

I like the way that Children International goes about the program. I like that they include everybody in all the activities whether or not their sponsors give extra money. I like that they keep their sponsors involved in what is happening in the country of the kids they are sponsoring. I’ve also been impressed with the way Children International is so forthcoming with their funding. Every year we get a report on how funding comes out. I’ve spent a lot of time working with nonprofits and I really appreciate that transparency in an organization.

I actually have a second child that I sponsor from Zambia now; it’s a younger girl. I’ve been really happy with how Children International runs their programs and we had a great experience in India going with the regional officer directly, and so I would absolutely recommend Children International to everyone. I haven’t seen any flaws so far.

On International Connections:
I think everybody should do more travels and especially if you can go to a place where you can know somebody who lives there and make a relationship with that person, I think that that would do a lot to help improve the circumstances in our world. You know, I’m optimistic.

Meet Sumana from India

“I want to be a nurse when I grow up and look after people in my village. That way I do not have to leave my village, which I love very much.”


Photos by Nivedita Moitra, our communications coordinator in Calcutta (Kolkata), India.

Netting A Profit

By Deron Denton



The full moon sinks over the horizon as six men leave shore. Like an unseen fog, the smell of saltwater and fish hangs in the humid air. The mighty Ganges River bleeds into the Indian Ocean just south of here. All signs indicate it will be a good day for fishing: the sky and the waters are calm and clear.

Life is not easy on this small Indian island of Maipith, in the Bay of Bengal. The poverty here is rampant and ruthless. Opportunities to overcome it are scarce. Many heads of households struggle as daily laborers…considering it a good day when they earn enough to feed their children a second meal.

For years, the ineffectual grind of bare subsistence was a daily fact for six fathers and their families. And although the sponsorship program made life better for their children, it appeared dire poverty would be a reality for the rest of their lives.

Tossing the Net

Today – thanks to the generosity of a sponsor’s donation – these men are leaving shore as self-employed fishermen in a boat they jointly own. Their catches and the ensuing profits are also equally distributed. As a result of the families’ improved standards of living, their children also stand a better chance of breaking through the barriers of poverty.

Jaime “Jay” Rubin, a long-time Children International sponsor, funded this unique community project. The fishing boat gift is just one example of how proactive his philanthropic spirit is: Jay has funded numerous community projects in the past.

Ratan Bairagi, one of Jay’s six sponsored children, is the son of a fisherman. Last year, Jay inquired with Eric Newman, from Children International’s Sponsor Services department, if there were any community projects that needed funding in Ratan’s neighborhood.

The six fathers had all been fishermen in the past, but none owned a boat. Ratan’s father, Bholanath, explained, “Sometimes I would go out on the river in other people’s boats to help with the fishing. But my earnings would be very low.” So, he continues, when the staff asked “whether I had any special need which I could also share with others, I voted for a boat and net.”

The other parents enthusiastically agreed this would be the most productive and economical use of community funding. When the proposal was submitted for the sponsor’s approval, Jay readily endorsed and financed the project.

Since receiving the boat and fishing net in December 2004, six families – a total of 29 persons – have seen their household incomes nearly double. It was a compassionate donation of about $1,500…not a terribly large sum to many, but a life-altering gift to those who received it.

Reeling It In

With the sun setting over the bay, the men are exhausted and sore…but content. It has been a good day for fishing. Though they’ve had larger catches, they have also had smaller ones. Such is life as a fisherman. And it is a life these men and their families are grateful to be living.

“Feeding a big family is always very hard,” said Bholanath, “but now I feel lighter and happier.”

Returning to shore in their motorized boat, a small yellow sign catches the light of the sun. The sign serves as a reminder of how this dream became real: Painted in the color of ocean blue, Jaime Rubin’s name glows brightly.

Meet Subhajit from India...

Subhajit, age 10, is one of our sponsored children from our Sahay agency in Kolkata (Calcutta), India. When asked what he would most like to tell his sponsor, Subhajit said, "I would like to tell my sponsor thank you and that I send them lots of love."

Have a wonderful Monday!

A World of Thanks

“Synergy” is one of those buzz words that runs the risk of losing its credibility because it is so often overused (and abused). But when viewed objectively, it presents a concept that is powerful: many people working together can accomplish exponentially more than the same number of people working by themselves.

Working for Children International has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. Knowledge of poverty by itself only breeds greater misery; but knowledge of poverty coupled with the ability to do something about it brings the satisfaction of knowing you are making a real difference, one life at a time.

Here at CI we are keenly aware that our ability to change lives is predicated entirely on the generosity and engagement of our sponsors. That’s why I want to take a moment to stop and say “thanks” to you, our critical team members and partners in change.

Children International operates in 11 countries. (Can you name them? Colombia, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Mexico, the Philippines, the United States, and Zambia.) By working together with our sponsors and our field staff, we are positively affecting the lives of over 320,000 children and their families in these countries.

Please take a moment to check out this video about Children International’s work around the world, and then take another moment to give yourself a pat on the back from your teammates at CI.

Sow a Thought

After being a freelance writer in New York City for a couple years my wife and I decided to slow life down a little bit and move closer to family in Kansas City. Upon our return I had a conversation with an old friend who had recently returned from two years of Peace Corp service. He told me about Children International.

As a journalist I was intrigued and researched Children International’s writings, videos, slideshows and magazines. I liked the fact that their help was not conditional and stayed away from pity. It was authentic and respected the dignity, pride, self-respect and power of all the people they helped and wish to help. I was determined to become a part of their organization and as fate would have it a writer position became available.

I have been a writer at Children International for one month. Beyond a world map and a small zebra plant I have not been able to decorate my office much. In between stubborn sentences, I stare at the map. I gaze upon the regions where Children International works, Ecuador…India…(my eyes scan east) the Philippines. I imagine children and their parents walking through the front door of a local Children International Community Center.

A field worker is there every day to listen and act. Housing assistance, nutritional rehabilitation, clothing, medical and education aid are available. A safety net that was never there before provides genuine piece of mind. I imagine our sponsors and their connections and affections for these far-flung people and places. I’m proud to be a part of this organization…this solution…this wonderful idea that works. Half the world is okay, and half the world could use a hand. If we all just help one person what a difference that would make.

Everyone here at Children International wants to work so hard and do such a good job that we no longer have a job. We want to accomplish this by giving a child a chance to maximize their potential on the earth. To invest in a child brimming with potential is a great gift for the world.

From the mailroom to the boardroom this place is a beehive of activity. I am in awe of the scope and scale of our work. Seventy-one years ago this place was just a thought. Because of this thought; and because of the sponsors; and because the efforts of the people who work in and have passed through this building, and because of our eighty-seven community centers throughout the world, over 300,000 desperately poor children will be helped this year.

What legacy will our thoughts leave seventy-one years from now?

To be able to help tell the Children International story is an honor. It’s empowering to know that my thoughts and my words can become actions and positively impact people’s lives.

Top: Our intrepid new writer on a past trip to Nepal.

Bottom: New Children International staff writer Kevin Fleming.

The Language of Angels

Posted on behalf of Nivedita Moitra

Even as the tempo of the dance beats increased, sweat glistened on the faces of the young students as they followed Jacqueline Porter's moves and instructions -- different language or cultures posing no threat to great communication between them. The wise men have rightly said -- music is the language of angels.

The instructor, Jacqueline Porter, is a professional dancer, a dance teacher, and an entrepreneur; she is also a sponsor, and her students were comprised of sponsored children from the two community centers of Children International-SAHAY.

While no stranger to the Bollywood song and dance numbers that blare from tiny shops located in the narrow alleys of Kolkata, lessons from a professional had remained a distant dream to these children…till they met Jacquie. A graduate of Smith College, Jacquie always wanted to dance, and apart from having done shows on Broadway and National Tour she has also taught more than 3000 children internationally. But to go beyond her usual sponsor visit and spend so much of her valuable time with more sponsored children and conduct a very enjoyable workshop for them was a gesture that overwhelmed everyone at CI-SAHAY, especially as this was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of a treat for many of the children.

The workshop was conducted at the Jorasanko community center, and the children who attended it belonged to the slums near the center. The workshop was divided into two age groups of 5-6 years and 7-11 years. There were between 8 and 10 children in the first age group and 14 in the second. The two sponsored children of Jacquie also participated in the workshop. Jacquie taught the class stretching, as well as learning to clap with music, walk with music, jump to music, take running leaps and turns, and do a basic little hip hop dance. The responses of the children were overwhelming and it was a wonderful evening all round, one where all present witnessed that music is truly the outburst of emotion from the soul.

In fact, the children did not want the evening to end, and towards the end of the workshop emotions ran high with the children saying goodbye to Jacquie with tearful eyes.

The admiration, love and respect were mutual as is apparent through Jacquie's quote: "I have taught 3000-odd children, but this group is the fastest in learning and the most cooperative." And we at the agency would like to add that we look forward to an encore soon.

Nivedita Moitra is the communications coordinator for Children International’s agency in Kolkata, India.

Hope Through Housing: Part 2 of 3

Posted on behalf of Tom Owens

Sponsorship provides the platform that allows CI to work in other areas of importance to the children and their families, such as housing. The community knows us and trusts us for our long-term commitment. Established networks like our volunteers and partnerships with local organizations are all part of our built-in capacity to do housing on a large scale.

Helping those who help themselves: Children International partners with prospective homeowners, who provide the labor to build their own homes.

Hope reborn: the “Renacer” (Rebirth) housing project in Honduras.

We began a formal housing effort at Children International in Honduras in 1999 following Hurricane Mitch. During the three years after Mitch we built nearly 700 houses for Honduran families, most of them with children sponsored through Children International.

Better than before: secure housing emerges after the floodwaters in India.

Other disasters have moved us to provide urgently needed assistance for shelter in other countries. CI built more that 500 houses in India in 2001-2002 following destructive floods and cyclones. We built still another 72 houses for families in Quezon City, Philippines, that lost their homes in a fire.

Our next challenge is once again in the Philippines, where a series of four brutal typhoons caused widespread destruction last year. Over 300,000 homes in the region around the cities of Legaspi and Tabaco were demolished and about the same number were partially damaged. We are currently securing land and seeking funding that will allow us to mount a response to this dire situation.

Through all these projects CI has maintained the principal of “building back better than before.” The idea has always been to help the families create something of lasting value. That’s why we ensure that we use the best quality materials available at the best price and used tested construction techniques to strengthen the homes against severe weather. We also take simple, inexpensive measures – such as good cross ventilation – to make the houses more comfortable in hot climates.

Our Home Improvement Loan Program grew out of these new construction projects and has helped hundreds of families make incremental improvements to their homes. Again, the beneficiaries provide the unskilled labor for the improvements, develop construction skills and take a genuine pride in their homes.

Tom Owens is the Director of Grants for Children International. Check back tomorrow for part 3 of this 3-part post on Children International’s efforts to improve housing for sponsored children around the world.

India: A Rich Tapestry

Posted on behalf of Deron Denton...

Among the many images I recall from our staff trip to India last year, one remains with me the most: a trash heap by the side of the road. It stood 2 or 3 feet high and must have been 8 or 10 feet long. The first thing I distinguished was a cow: it had found something to eat in the pile and was chewing lazily. Then I noticed a person was also rummaging through the same mound of refuse. As we passed by in the van, I was startled to see a large crow as well as a mangy-looking dog…all of them sorting through the trash for something they could eat or use.

It was a sad scene, to be sure - it left me feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me. It was also symbolic of the India I experienced: an amazing kaleidoscope of cultures and religions and eras…seemingly chaotic and random yet amazingly harmonious and…well, functional. Over a billion people living (mostly) peaceably in the world’s largest democracy. A truly ancient culture quickly adapting to globalization and a world economy.

What touched me most deeply, of course, were the people we met. The people – on your behalf – we were there to help. Particularly, I was moved by the strength, courage and perseverance of the girls and women we met in India…

…women like Sahida, mother of 5-year-old Rukhsar. Rukhsar had entered our sponsorship program the year before our visit. The girl’s father died when she was just a year old, leaving the household without a definitive breadwinner. Sahida had been forced into an arranged marriage at the age of 12. Now, because of Rukhsar’s sponsorship, Sahida had been given the courage of hope…hope for her daughter’s future. Despite her own numerous hardships, Sahida expressed confidence that her daughter would now be able to stay in school, receive a good education and live a happy life. These were opportunities Sahida didn’t have.

The problem of early, arranged marriages arose often in India. And it is a challenge that youth leaders and our staff are successfully confronting. Rukmini, who is now 21, was a sponsored child for 16 years. She became active in our youth program, eventually becoming a youth council leader. She now works as co-facilitator of our Youth Health Corps.

As a sponsored youth, Rukmini told me she received a great deal of training on leadership, reproductive and sexual health, and nutrition. “I then began giving that training and the knowledge I acquired to others in the community,” she said. Rukmini led seminars and workshops for youth and mothers, helping to empower them. “Now the girls have started coming out as a visible force in the community,” she added.

Rukmini, and others like her, are shaping the future of India. By helping prevent early marriages, empowering women, and educating those who will listen, they are elevating our India sponsorship program in ways that were probably unimaginable 10 or 15 years ago.

I am so grateful to have witnessed all the wonderful changes taking place in India. And it genuinely touches my heart to be a small thread in the colorful tapestry that we – our sponsored children, their families, our sponsors and our staff – are weaving…enriching the lives of everyone involved.