Share In Their Future

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 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. 

Note from a Project Volunteer

We require our project volunteers to send us regular updates and evaluations, and they often include friendly notes with their reports.  We recently received this message from a volunteer in the Philippines:

“With the help from friends at CI we can do a lot for our children. I am happy to note that the center is really the "center" of the lives of more than 30 families (we have 60 children on our CI program).  So, that totals to about a 100-150 people.  We gather every Sunday morning, and the young people sing and play their music, they also learn to use the computer with the help of the older kids who have had training in computers.  The mothers have English classes and we all have food together many times, especially during birthday celebrations.  The center has become the hub, sort of.  We are so happy to have our very own place, a decent place, a beautiful place, and the people have a sense of ownership, so they keep the place clean and pretty all the time.  The children are there constantly!!  We have plants and ornamentals in pots, even as small place as it is, we can make it very pretty!”

Polly Joson

Director and Co-Founder
Fortune Center
Marikina City, Philippines

Kenyan Project Volunteers Visit CI Offices

Earlier this month, the leaders of two of CI's Kenyan projects visited our headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. 

Henry O. Nyasemi is the director of the St. Charles  Orphanage-School in  the Kisii area of western Kenya.  In addition to running the orphanage, Mr. Nyasemi serves as the project volunteer for the facility's CI program. 

Thomas Marabu is the director of the St. Caroline Orphanage, which is also located in Kisii.  Like Mr. Nyasemi, Mr. Marabu also serves as his orphanage's CI project volunteer.

The men gave a presentation to the entire CI staff in which they described the orphanages they run and the children who live there.  They also toured the offices and met with various staffers to discuss their programs' needs.  Everyone at CI was very pleased to meet them!

From left: Peter Pastore, COO;  Luis Bourdet, Director of the Foreign Division; Thomas Marabu, Director of the St. Caroline Orphanage in Kisii, Kenya; Henry Nyasemi, Director of the St. Charles Orphanage-School in Kisii, Kenya; Marian Cummins, President and CEO; and Carolyn and Chuck Fricke, long-time friends of Children, Incorporated. 

Decades of Service

We were very pleased to recognize two of our most dedicated volunteers at the American Indian Division's recent coordinators' meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Marie Begay (pictured at left with Steve Mitchell, director of the American Indian Division) has volunteered with us for more than 25 years.  Lois Lee (pictured with Steve at right) has contributed more than 30 years of service!  The two women have helped to facilitate hundreds of sponsorships.  Children, Incorporated could not carry out its mission without the unfailing assistance of volunteers like Marie and Lois.