On the 10th Day of Christmas My Sponsor Gave to Me…

Ten Boards for Building

In my last blog post I poked fun at my mom’s compulsion to decorate every last inch of our house for Christmas. Last week, we were all together at my parent’s house and someone brought up the posting. Everybody got a kick out of it – but the one who enjoyed it the most was mom. Of course she tried to say “I’m not as bad as all that,” but it was hard when all around us the house was shedding tinfoil like some great Yuletide dog.

We had gathered to observe our yearly tradition of decorating the tree. When I think back over all those years of Christmas, that day was always one of the highlights. Mom would put on her Sinatra Christmas album, and my dad would call out every few minutes asking us to smile for his camera. As a result, we have hundreds of pictures of me and my siblings hanging decorations, flashing our most cheesy looks of wonder and joy at the camera. We thought it was hilarious. Dad disagreed.

This year, my niece and nephew took our place under the tree. As we sat and watched them, my dad revealed a disturbing family secret. It seems that, late at night after us kids had finished hanging the tree; mom would sneak down and carefully remove all the decorations, re-hanging them in a way that was more aesthetically pleasing. She denied this of course, but even this year, as 6-year old Kaden put a clump of decorations on the same two branches, I saw an uncomfortable twitch in her eye. I wondered how long she would wait after we were gone to make it right.

As much as I enjoy poking fun at my parents’ Christmas idiosyncrasies – I wouldn’t miss it for the world. For years I lived in different states, but I never missed Christmas at home. I remember driving from the airport, recognizing that familiar sickly glow over the distant horizon, and feeling a rush of sublime anticipation. I was going home! If there’s a better feeling, I don’t know what it is.

This year it occurs to me how lucky I was to have a home to return to. A home that protected us from the elements. A home we could decorate for the holidays beyond all bounds of normalcy. What an important part of growing up! When I was young I knew kids who lived in mansions, but as much as I admired their swimming pools and “rumpus rooms”, I wouldn’t have traded our home for a million comic books. It was ours. Some instinctual part of me knew that, and was proud.

When I got older, I had the chance to meet people without homes. It’s always tragic – but the children affected me the most. I can’t imagine what it would be like to grow up never knowing where you were going to sleep at night. To have nowhere to go to escape the world and just be safe.

That’s why I’m so proud that some of our sponsors have helped their children’s families build homes. The impact it has on the child and their family is immeasurable. The home will guard them for generations to come. Everyone in the family will have the physical and psychological advantage of knowing they have a safe haven. Each of them will feel a little extra pride knowing they have a place to call their own.

What a wonderful gift. What wonderful sponsors we have! Maybe it’s something we should all consider doing some day. If that’s not possible, we should all take a few minutes this holiday season to recognize how lucky we are to have homes. Those of us who have never been homeless are truly blessed. May we all stay that way for many years to come. Merry Christmas!

Posted on behalf of Garrett Kenyon.

Meet Yet Another Blogger...

The tension at the intersection was palpable. All traffic had come to a halt in the sweltering heat of early November summer as stern-faced policemen prepared the way for the president and his motorcade to pass.

The year was 1970, the location was Lima, Peru, and urgency seemed to emanate from a gold-colored International Harvester Travelall station wagon that sat marooned in the traffic jam. Inside the car sat an American couple, and the tension seemed to elevate with each gasp from the woman…who was in the advanced stages of labor.

It’s a good thing the Americans were missionaries, because the situation certainly called for someone who knew how to pray. And pray they did…until finally the motorcade was gone, the road opened up, and they set new speed records to the Anglo-American Clinic in the San Isidro neighborhood of the city. The American lady was rushed to the delivery room, where moments later I arrived on the scene – blissfully unaware of the drama I had helped cause.

That was 38 years ago today. Since that time, I’ve lived in Peru, Costa Rica, the United States, Brazil and the United States all over again. Having grown up as the son of missionaries and later served as a missionary myself, I feel a real connection to people in developing countries who struggle daily against overwhelming poverty. After all, they were my playmates when I was growing up.

Today I’m blessed with four healthy children (two teenagers, a “tween” and a right handsome young man who just turned 9). I’m constantly reminded of just how privileged we are to live in a comfortable home where our worst weather-related fear is whether or not the cars will get dings from the hail traditionally dropped by our famous Midwest storms – so unlike the fear that grips poor families’ hearts when it rains…a fear born from the knowledge that, when the rains are over, their houses and belongings may not be there any more.

I’ve worked for Children International for the past five years. What we do with the help of our sponsors is truly incredible. In an era when few employees stay with a company more than five years, I’m looking forward to many more fruitful years of working with CI – and with you – as we continue to bring real change to people’s lives around the world.


Helping families can sometimes lead you to be in unusual places at unusual times. This photo was taken while visiting a sponsored family in Santiago, Dominican Republic, during Tropical Storm Noel. The hillside was steep and the rain had turned the ground to slick, soupy mud. One misstep and I would have had a long, fast trip down the hill!

A Time for Action

Blog Action Day is coming soon, and this year’s topic is poverty. We have joined forces with bloggers all over the world to bring attention to poverty and do our own small part to combat it. In the days leading up to October 15th we’ll introduce you to some very special children living in poverty and show you how you can help through Children International’s blog.

Keep checking back for more information as the day approaches. Together we can do great things to alleviate the burden poverty places on children throughout the world.

Bloggers on a Mission: Richard Needs Your Help

Last week we introduced you to Richard, a young man from Tabaco, Philippines (read the original post here).


As you may recall, Richard’s situation is desperate. His family generates only about $30 of income each month, causing them to live under unimaginable circumstances.

Richard still needs a sponsor…and we’re looking for a champion. Will you be the one to help us find him a sponsor?

Let your family…your coworkers…your friends know that the situation is urgent. Tell them how simple and gratifying sponsorship is – and how great a difference it can really make in the life of a poor child and his or her family.

And if you have a Lift One Project, once you find someone to sponsor Richard, drop us a line at blog@children.org. We’ll not only set up the sponsorship personally, but we’ll also make sure Richard’s new sponsor gets credited to your Lift One Project.

We’re standing by to hear from you!

Filthy and Sad...Like Dolls in the Darkness

I’ve spent a lot of time in desperately poor neighborhoods, and I’ve witnessed scenes very similar to this one. You never quite get used to it. In this post, Javier Cárcamo, our Communications Coordinator in Rural Guatemala, shares the stark, ugly reality of poverty. In cases like these, sponsorship just might be the only frail thread that keeps families from total devastation:

I almost turned on my heel, as though I had been halted abruptly by an invisible barrier; it was the penetrating smell of human feces and the buzzing of the flies – more like an enormous beehive. There, inside that tiny house, were volcanoes of diapers and piles of dirty clothes strewn around the floor, emitting a terrible stench and steaming from the suffocating heat under the tin roof.

On the floor, sitting on old, dirty clothes and on the few areas of concrete that could be seen, were two girls and a baby – seated like plastic dolls, the girls with their fingers in their mouths and the baby with a bottle covered in dirt and ants and filled with murky water.

The walls, blackened by filth and damp, are little hiding places for spiders and cockroach eggs. The overpowering smell makes it hard for me to breathe; I can’t even open my mouth. The heat mingles with my desperation at not being able to find a space to step to get close to the children, who remain motionless in the darkness, seated in front of a tiny window that was only opened for my visit.


The oldest girl’s eyes are averted; her dirty face and tangled hair speak of neglect. The white spots on her skin are from poor nutrition. And the children have little sores from their environment – the rocks, bushes and barbed wire that surround the river that gives them the water they need to survive.

Childhood stress has taken on a new meaning for me. Lidia, the oldest child at just 10, is responsible for the younger children, but she has to do the household chores so she won’t be scolded. The time it takes for me to visit worries her, because she’s afraid her parents will come home.

The baby looks like an inanimate object, while the flies and ants celebrate the conquest of the tip of the baby bottle – the same spot where he’s trying to put his mouth. I don’t even want to imagine what experience has motivated him to try to coordinate the hand movement he needs to clean it off, but his little hand is dirty because he’s left on the floor with no care whatsoever. His clothes smell terrible, and from what I can tell he doesn’t have another change of clothes.

Lidia, who is the other children's aunt but is more like a sister to them, shows me the old mattress where she sleeps. It’s covered in unidentifiable stains, and when she tosses it to the floor it releases a cloud of dust and a heavy smell of urine. Volatile…truly indescribable.

I can’t stay inside any longer. I can’t find any space, any angle. All mobility is reduced and the atmosphere inside is dense. Outside the weather is fresh and bright, but the children have to stay inside so they won’t get lost or be robbed.

As I leave I keep trying to explain to myself why there are so many families that can’t overcome poverty even with the help of the organization. Immediately, the answer comes to my head like a chilling sentence. Simply this: without the organization, they’d be even worse off….

Multiplying Efforts to Subtract from Poverty

One of the most powerful things the sponsorship program does to combat poverty is help children have the supplies they need so they can go to or stay in school.

Now one of our great sponsors, Heather, would like to go the extra mile. She is organizing a drive to help gather large quantities of school supplies for sponsored children…and she’d like your help.

“I need people that are willing to organize a drive (or maybe willing to donate a lot by themselves). They can contact me regarding what they can collect and by what time (and where I need to meet them to get the stuff),” says Heather.

The items Heather is looking for are school supplies, pencils, pens, notebooks, coloring books, crayons, children’s books and backpacks. So if you’re up to the challenge, contact her at heatherlecount@yahoo.com.

Thanks, Heather!

Building Bridges

When Belkis tripped and fell while she was playing, it should have been a case of getting up, brushing off the dirt and going on with the fun. But when she began to scream in agony, onlookers knew something was very wrong.

That was four years ago, when she was only four years old. A trip to the hospital revealed that she had broken her leg…but it also revealed the reason why. A benign cyst had weakened the bone so it snapped under pressure.


I met this brave little girl as she lay in the hospital awaiting surgery. Then, we didn’t know what the outlook was for her recovery. But when I visited Colombia a few weeks ago, I met a smiling young lady who now runs and plays like any other child.

It was gratitude for the help her daughter received from Children International and her sponsor in this crisis that inspired her mother, Ada María, to become a CI volunteer. Life isn’t easy for this single mom, who was abandoned by her husband shortly after Belkis had her surgery. In fact, her makeshift wooden home collapsed last winter, and they’ve been living in a single room while they wait to rebuild it.

Belkis is not finished with her ordeal. She’s already had surgery for another bone cyst, and she’s scheduled for yet another. Her condition is genetic.

But Ada María is not complaining. She is excited about the sponsorship program and about Belkis’ future. Because of all the help she received in the hospital, Belkis dreams of going to college and becoming a doctor…and Ada María dreams that her daughter will get her wish.

“Education is the bridge between our current reality and my daughter’s future,” asserts Ada María.

And here at Children International, with the help of our family of sponsors – we’re in the business of building bridges.

Defying the Swamp

"I keep thinking, 'I get to leave...but these people live here.'"

Lisa (the sponsor who traveled to Cartagena, Colombia, last week to join us on the filming trip) looked pretty sober when she said that. Not one of us in the group felt any differently, either.

Cartagena's La Ciénaga de la Virgen ("The Swamp of the Virgin") has got to be one of the grimmest places I've ever visited -- and I've been to some pretty grim places. It's amazing that even plants -- much less animals and people -- are able to survive in its fetid wastelands. That's why I couldn't help but grin when I read a travel brochure's glowing description of the ecological wonders of the swamp. That's one travel writer that's obviously never been to the parts of the swamp I'm familiar with.

People too desperately poor to locate elsewhere buy "plots" in the back recesses of the swamp. The problem is, more often than not, when they buy these plots they are still under water. So before they can even begin to raise up the stark shacks of plastic sheeting or lumber scraps that become their homes, they must first pay for truckloads of dirt to be brought in and then transferred by wheelbarrow so they can have a semi-firm footing on which to build.


And every year the rains come...the water rises...and their flimsy houses are destroyed. They evacuate to schools or other temporary shelters until the water recedes, and then they come back and build again, knowing that in a few months they'll be repeating the process.


Stinking piles of trash...thick, green, bubbling water...and dogs. Everywhere you look are dogs. The trails are literally covered in feces. Watching the children run and play barefoot through all of this makes it crystal clear why our antiparasite campaign is so vital to communities like this one.

Crime is rampant. Differences here in the swamp are settled with guns, knives and machetes. The evil tentacles of the drug trade have crept all the way back here.

Luznery is a lovely 5-year-old girl whose mother is fighting hard to get her three children out of the swamp. Her mom walks over 14 kilometers each morning (varicose veins make each step agony) selling coffee so she can try to feed her children, but has so little left over after she buys tomorrow's coffee that she sometimes doesn't get to eat at all. At this rate, leaving the swamp is just a distant dream...but she's desperate. Tragedy has touched her children once, and she's determined it won't happen again.

Please keep Luznery and her family in your thoughts and prayers. Sponsorship just came to them last week. I watched as her mom repeated over and over, "I feel like I'm dreaming." And when she was told that Mark, from our film crew, was Luznery's new sponsor, she stood there dazed and said, "I think I'm going to faint."

It was a great ending to a great trip.

Click below to visit the Swamp of the Virgin:

Behind the Scenes: Meet the Writer

Posted on behalf of Damon Guinn

Damon Guinn is a Senior Staff Writer for Children International. You've most likely read his work in our various print publications and on our website, www.children.org. Here's an opportunity to meet him...

I’ve worked for Children International for more than six years now: first as a Sponsor Services Representative, then as a Proofreader, and now as a Writer. To say it’s been a learning experience is an understatement.

When I tell people that I work for a child sponsorship organization, the usual reply is...“Wow! That must be very rewarding!” No doubt it is, but I always pause before responding. There’s no simple way to describe the depth and scope of work like this – so full of tragedy and triumph, heartache and hope.

Damon with children at our agency in Lusaka, Zambia

Sharing the stories of the poor and disenfranchised is a cause I’ve been committed to ever since I volunteered at an orphanage in Bulgaria 12 years ago. That’s where I first came face-to-face with children in dire need of help.

Fresh out of college, with no idea what the future had in store, my time at the orphanage was a crash course in humanity. Interaction with Gypsy children taught me what it means to be absolutely marginalized by society. Seeing boys and girls covered in sores from skin infections, I learned how essential good hygiene and health care are to young children. And teaching basic English to boys and girls starved for knowledge was a lesson in enlightenment no university setting could ever replicate.

These days, my teachers are numerous and spread all over the world. I now have more than 300,000 young boys and girls in 11 different developing countries teaching me what it means to be truly, and sometimes desperately, human.

All of that to say this...on Tuesday, November 20, fellow writer Deron Denton and I will post a report on the anniversary of Typhoon Durian on http://www.children.org/. It’s an examination of those lives fatally touched by one of the worst typhoons in Philippines history. We hope you’ll take a look at the article and video – if for no other reason than to glean some insight into the human condition.

Stories from sponsored youth who lost everything in the disaster – including loved ones – will no doubt give you a fresh perspective on life and another reason to be thankful at this time of year. You can also see for yourself how a new housing community being built by Children International and contributors like you will give typhoon survivors hope for the future.

Tragedies like Typhoon Durian are lessons in humility and heroism, and all of us should study the experience if we hope to gain the wisdom that comes only from a struggle for survival.

I, for one, am grateful to my young teachers for the grace and dignity they continue to impart while battling the tests of life.

Making Christmas Merry

It’s happened. I left the country for less than a week, and when I came back the Christmas season had arrived in Kansas City’s retail outlets.

Christmas has always been a magical time of year. Growing up as an American child in South America, I would read books from back home that were filled with pictures of snow, sleighs and roaring fires under mantles bedecked with decorations and stockings. Then I’d go outside into the 90° heat and see wilting Santas parading around in heavy velvet suits as the perspiration dripped off their faces. But the incongruities never made the season lose its magic.

But there really are kids in another world who never do more than hear about Christmas. Theirs is a world of scant survival, a world where their parents don’t make a big deal about Christmas so they won’t have to explain why there are never any presents; a world where Christmas really is just another day.

I’ve talked to families in the countries where we work about the gifts they receive through Children International and what they mean to them and to their children. Moms’ eyes get suspiciously misty as they invariably burst into fervent words of thanks. And almost without exception, when I ask them what their children would have received for Christmas had our sponsors not given them a gift, the answer is a quiet, “Nothing.”

If you are a Children International eNews subscriber, you’ll love reading next week about a little girl name Mayra and her first experience with a Children International gift distribution. And if you’re not a subscriber, you can become one by clicking here and then selecting the button on the right-hand side of the screen that says, “Sign Up for eNews.”

But what I really want to mention is the letter you most likely have received in the last few days from our CEO, Jim Cook. If you haven’t received it, please be on the lookout for it. Jim has written our sponsors because we’re coming into the Christmas season, and this is a time of year when we need all the help we can get in order to make sure each sponsored child has a magical Christmas.

So please, when you get the letter, give some serious thought to helping us give our sponsored children the best Christmas they’ve ever had. Or if you’d like to help out right now, simply visit the Children International home page and click where it says, “Give the gift of joy this holiday season.”

And…Thanks!

A Sad Ending

Posted on behalf of Erin Fitzgerald


As gratifying as our work is at Children International, at times it can be emotionally wearing. For me, last week was especially heartbreaking. I was shocked to learn that Monica Mvula, a stone crusher we featured in the Winter 2007 issue of Journeys magazine, passed away. Some of you may recall that Monica hammered rocks into gravel to sell for construction work in Lusaka, Zambia.

Each and every day she, her husband and seven children struggled. Rarely was there enough nutritious food, but at least sponsorship was easing the burden by providing essentials like basic health care and educational support.

Still, Monica worried about the future of her children. “The biggest challenge in my life is the children who depend solely on me,” she once said. “I sometimes imagine if I were in no position to provide for them how their lives would become....”

Then the unthinkable occurred. Monica was diagnosed with tuberculosis and advised to no longer crush stones. Just when it seemed life couldn’t get any worse, a generous donor stepped in to help Monica start a small business. At last, the sense of security she had been grasping at for decades suddenly seemed within her reach.

Although I never met Monica, I felt like I knew her. I read quotes from her describing her life, looked through dozens of photos of her and her family, and watched video footage of her smiling and laughing. Like so many others, she was just a mom trying to support her kids – and give them the best life possible.

The news of her death hit me hard. I immediately emailed Clementina, our communications coordinator in Lusaka, Zambia, for an update. Here’s what she had to say:

“I visited the home of the late Monica Mvula. I found the widower in bed and very sick. He has a very bad cough. I had a short discussion with him because he could not stand for too long. He is not working because he is too weak to do so. He is not receiving any medical attention because he has no money.


"Monica's health had improved greatly after the first course of the TB [tuberculosis] treatment but soon after she started the second course of the TB treatment she had a stroke and her condition worsened. She was then admitted in the intensive care unit of the University Teaching Hospital until her death.

"Her children Ronica, James and Brenda who are on the program have been taken to another town…to live with their aunt because their father is too sick to look after them. Lemmy and Shadreck [both sponsored] together with their elder brother are the ones looking after their sick father....”

Clementina’s update was worse than I had feared. I wonder how Monica’s last days were spent and how she felt knowing she was leaving behind her children and a husband who couldn’t support them. Monica dedicated her life to her kids. I can’t imagine what she must have gone through.

Now poverty and sickness have torn the family apart. Fortunately, Ronica, James and Brenda have their aunt to look after them.

But I worry about Lemmy and Shadreck. What will become of them? I’m comforted by the fact that they will continue receiving the benefits of sponsorship.

Monica worked so hard, yet had nothing to show for it. Like countless other Zambians with little education and few resources, she battled for survival. Despite the support of Children International and a special donation, a better life was still out of reach for Monica. I’m hopeful that it won’t be for her children.

Stand Up Against Poverty

“Wherever men and women are condemned to live in extreme poverty, human rights are violated. To come together to ensure that these rights be respected is our solemn duty.”

– Joseph Wresinski

Today celebrates the 20th anniversary of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The first commemoration in 1987 was held in Paris, France where 100,000 people gathered to give a voice to those who live in extreme poverty. Officially recognized by the United Nations in 1992, the event has grown in partnership with other organizations and events are held around the world each year.

This year at the United Nations, delegates and staff members will be asked to participate in the “Stand Up” event, in which 23.5 million people in more than 100 countries participated last year, setting a Guinness World Record. The organizers hope to break that record, with people all over the world standing up to remind their Governments of the commitments they undertook in the 2000 Millennium Declaration to halve the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015. According to the United Nations, some 980 million people still live in extreme poverty, or on less than $1 a day.

Children International is proud to be partners with over 250,000 committed sponsors. With your generous support, we will continue to serve children and their families who suffer from poverty. Together, we will give them a voice to tell their stories. That’s our commitment. So, stand with us as we fight to end poverty.

How are you going to stand up against poverty?

Painting by former sponsored child, Carlo Orcena, from the Philippines.

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.

International Teachers' Day

In my mind, their is no more noble pursuit than being a teacher. Many in the profession look at it more as a calling, than a job. I come from a family of teachers. My grandma was a teacher, I have five aunts that are educators, my mother and father are teachers and my older brother just left this morning for a year of teaching English in rural Korea. With this said, I apologize if my grammar and punctuation are not precise. It's a blog, Mom.

Teachers around the world rise with the sun, standing in front of hungry minds and imparting knowledge. What a gift! Right this minute...imagine the children smiling as they are introduced to new worlds.

One generation, passing the flame of knowledge to the next. May the flame grow ever brighter.

The encouragement and supplies that your sponsored child receives from your support are instrumental in keeping them in the classroom. And education really is the best way to break the cycle of poverty. It's been said that for every year of school that a child completes, his or her earning potential increases 10%.

Today is a great day to think about and thank some of the educators that enrich our lives, and enrich our world.