I’m Jim Cook, President of Children International. Through this blog I look forward to exchanging thoughts, comments and ideas with our existing sponsors and contributors and potential ones. It’s really a nice forum…informal, friendly and open.
Often I’m asked about my background and my path to Children International. Like many careers, it was about equal parts random circumstances and providence, I suppose. I’m a small town Kansas boy who obtained a degree in business and accounting at the University of Kansas. I joined an accounting firm and later, a nice family held manufacturing company. While there I was asked to join the Board of Directors of Children International. My first trip to a field location as a Board member made a profound impression on me, and when the job as Executive Vice President was offered to me, I didn’t hesitate.
That was 21 years ago, and I can honestly say that not a day goes by that I don’t appreciate having a job that makes such a difference in the lives of needy children, their families and communities!
Besides that, the people who support this effort never cease to amaze me. It is truly a gift to have made the acquaintance of so many truly unique, remarkable, selfless people.
I see this blog as a way to increase that circle of friends even more, and I hope you enjoy it!
Consumers Digest is a widely read and well-respected publication that really provides a great service to the giving public, enabling people to make informed decisions about where to put their charitable contributions. It is one of a number of organizations that either rank or list charities.
The listings or rankings of all these organizations are necessarily based on quantitative measures; and while those are good indicators, they tell only part of the story.
The full picture is complete when one is able to see the programs in action, preferably over time. That’s when the qualitative aspects can be seen. In our case that plays out in our field locations, most of which are in other countries. There one can see the children we’re helping and how we’re helping them. The conditions in which the families live is also a valuable input to the overall picture and those conditions paint a clear picture as to why the help we’re providing is so necessary.
One of the most impressive things to me every time I travel to the field is the dedication and commitment of our field staffs. Working under often extreme and almost always adverse conditions, they do a great job day in and day out. Again, this isn’t something that lends itself to a ranking system but if it did, I humbly believe we’d be Number 1.
Another interesting measure is impact over time. I vividly remember something said to me by our field director responsible for sponsored children on islands in the Philippines…he said that while sponsorship was making a big difference in the lives of the sponsored children every day, the biggest impact was measured over time—for instance, he said, anyone really evaluating our programs should compare how people manage their health now compared to ten years prior when they were still using very primitive, ineffective cures and techniques compared to a more enlightened approach today. And all that was thanks to persistent teachings and the introduction of modern practices by our staff.
I also believe that the amount of time we are in the communities where we work is a valid program effectiveness measurement. We’ve been in many communities for nearly thirty years. I still think of our Ecuador agencies as “new” ones and we began working there in 1989—twenty years ago! That consistency of presence and service has enabled us to become part of those communities and a steadfast and dependable support for children from a young age to their graduation at age 19.
All that said, we are most appreciative of Consumers Digest’s mention of Children International. Being Number 22 is good…great, really.
But there is so much more!
Jim Cook
There are times, though, when the anecdotes and images are far more difficult to digest, when something doesn't turn out for the best or, here recently, when Mother Nature roars in and takes what is most precious.
As hard as it is to imagine, Typhoon Ketsana took the life of a sponsored child - this is when it hurts the most. By presenting our sponsors with this heartfelt report from Carmelinda Carpio, our communications coordinator in Quezon City, I hope to honor the memory of those who lost their lives in these devastating storms while paying homage to our brave staff in the Philippines who were there in an instant to ease the pain of loss and provide families a bit of relief.
Eight days after losing her life to drowning from typhoon Ketsana’s flood that filled her parents’ home, sponsored child Flordeliza was finally laid to rest along with her paternal grandmother, mother, and 4 younger siblings.
From the wake to the settling of funeral dues to the burial itself, the agency was with Flordeliza’s father, Miguel, along the way to console him…especially during his darkest hours. On Sunday morning, Agency Director Lei Orioste and field officer Marilyn Samolde, who handles Flordeliza’s community, personally attended the funeral rites for all seven of the deceased and gave words of comfort to Miguel and Remedios, the lady who took care of Flordeliza and two other siblings on weekdays.
No word is enough to describe the grief that he is facing now, but Miguel appreciates every little act of concern and comfort for him.
Miguel, who during the first few days of the wake had to go out looking for financial help, was finally able to spend time with his loved ones right after the agency gave its pledge of handling his financial burden.
At the cemetery, sensing that someone had to facilitate the ceremonies and knowing that Miguel could no longer say a word, Lei Orioste told the crowd that they could pay their final respects to the deceased family. She also thanked them for coming and for showering Miguel with support. She then helped organize the burial for each coffin.
At around noon, the coffins were laid to rest beside each other. Although he couldn’t clearly express it, Miguel is thankful that his loved ones were buried close to each other.
No words of comfort can ever equal the amount of sorrow he is currently under, but at least Miguel can now move on and no longer think of where to ask for help. His family can now rest in peace and he can start rebuilding his life. According to Miguel, he will move to another place and take over his family’s old business.
The agency will continue to check on Miguel in the days to come. Our field officer will also pay him another visit during the placing of gravestones on each of his loved ones’ tombs.
Please keep our families and staff in the Philippines in your thoughts and prayers in these indescribably tough times.
- Jim
This is a significant contribution that addresses similarly significant destruction caused by the flooding. Our sponsored families are disproportionately affected because they are forced to live in very marginal locations and situations. Areas that are often prone to flooding with homes not built to withstand the force of floodwaters.
I should also add how proud I/we are of the amazing efforts our staffs there have made. Within three days, under the most difficult of circumstances, they have accounted for all the sponsored children! In addition, they were there almost immediately passing out emergency supplies. One staff member reported a flood victim saying how reassuring it was to see familiar staff there with emergency supplies!
Thanks to all for your interest and support!
Jim Cook
And so it shall be. Gladly.
As I’ve been thinking about this it’s pretty obvious that labor is one of the dominant themes in the lives of our sponsored children and their families.
Those families have at least some kind of chance when Dad and/or Mom is able to find work. Often when I’m visiting the families of the sponsored children, I ask the mothers (the dads are often out working!) what kind of work the husbands do and how much they earn.
As often as not, the answer to what they do is “day laborer,” often some type of job in construction. The answer to “how much does he earn in a month?” is often a dollar amount ranging from not very darn much to just a little more than that. And that answer is invariably, quickly, followed with, “When there is work.” And the dads I’ve met, the few times they’re home and not working or looking for work, don’t expect a handout. They want to work and are happy to find work when it is available.
As far as Mom’s work…if she doesn’t have a “real” job such as doing housekeeping for another family, taking in laundry or doing some type of “cottage industry” such as making anything from hot pads to tortillas, then she is, I guess, what might be called a stay-at-home-mom…except when she stays at home, she works harder than I’d care to…and she does it every day, seven days a week. Her “stay at home” job likely includes cooking not enough food over a wood stove, burning wood that she may have cut, bundled and carried, balanced on her head, for over a half mile.
And the water she uses in cooking she may have had to collect in large buckets and, like the firewood, lugged to the house. Water is about eight pounds per gallon…a family of five goes through a lot of gallons…the math makes my back hurt.
And then there is the typical housework…I’ve seen moms determinedly sweeping dirt floors and most houses I’ve dropped in on are quite orderly and well kept. There’s laundry for the family—often done under very difficult conditions, given the lack of available water. It’s just one hard, often back breaking task, after another. That their spirits are as good as they are is a testimony to the human spirit and a person choosing to have a good attitude.
Children in this environment tend to learn to contribute to the family toil at a young age…I’m sure there isn’t a lot of whining, not that I remember my own kids ever doing that! Our sponsored children are happy to help out when needed…and thankful for the opportunity to be able to attend school and not get a “real job” to help supplement the family income. That’s often a tough choice the families make. But most of our sponsored children are able to attend school and big reason for that is parents typically really believe education is the best chance the kids have for a future better than what the parents are experiencing. And our staffs work hard to reinforce that concept!
So, however you spent your Labor Day, whether enjoying a picnic with the family or “laboring” around the house or in the yard, it’s nice to remember how central labor is to the families you’re helping through sponsorship!
Hope you had a nice and safe Labor Day!
Jim
Jim Cook is the president and CEO of Children International.
Hi, Bloggers! I'm enroute home from attending the International Youth Day at the U.N. Eleven of Children International's sponsored youth attended, along with about 700 youth from around the world.
As always, these sponsored youth blew me away with their poise and maturity…to say nothing of their pretty highly developed sense of humor that manages to transcend language barriers. These guys were having fun, and if they were experiencing any culture shock from their first airplane ride, first trip out of their country, New York City etc, they weren't showing it. (I think I experience some shock whenever I'm in New York!)
I was SO proud of these kids…they put on a workshop about leadership yesterday to a roomful of other attendees, and I think those peers were impressed by how much leadership training "our guys" have already practiced in their youth councils.
The theme of this gathering was, Committing Youth Leadership to the Millennium Development Goals, many of which are directly linked to overcoming poverty and enabling youth to develop in a healthier, fairer world. I'm telling just about anyone who will listen that I can't imagine a group more qualified than our sponsored youth to deliver against that theme. They've grown up in the grip of poverty, and they've been focused on leadership in their youth councils the past five-plus years. They are awesome, charismatic young people!
We had a reception for our sponsored youth last night. We heard from each youth…they spoke eloquently about what the sponsorship program has meant to them, and really it was very humbling and gratifying to hear them heap praise on the program and how instrumental it has been in effectively transforming each of them. I would also add that their own initiative and "want to," along with a healthy dose of perseverence, also had something to do with their success to date!
In addition to the youth, we hosted a number of sponsors and "Friends of CI" from the New York area. It was really nice for me to be able to put some faces with names of people I've visited with on the phone over the past few years. It was a fun, vibrant group, all connected by the common thread of making children's lives better!
We’ve recently been doing strategic planning at Children International. I think maybe this is the longest strategic planning process ever experienced by an organization as we began it about ten months ago! Shortly after we began “thinking strategically” way back then, the economic world as we all knew it changed dramatically. And not for the good, in case I need to add that.
And so, rather than try to craft a plan that would take us out the next five to ten years during a time when the playing field was shifting violently, we decided it would be prudent to take our time and keep our eyes on the horizon while not ignoring that big, nasty wave that was about ready to crash over the ship!
And we’ve succeeded in that pretty well, having come up with a pretty sound preliminary plan draft that has the goal of helping more children, better. And obtaining more contributions from more sources to make that happen. Our commitment to one-on-one sponsorship is stronger than ever.
And because of that, many of our strategic goals surround the objective of making the sponsorship experience even more gratifying and enriched for our sponsors, as I have always been committed to rewarding the generosity and commitment they demonstrate with their selfless acts of support for their sponsored children month in and month out.
A very good way of delivering and enhancing that personal sponsorship connection is through the Internet and our site at www.children.org. If you’re reading this blog, you “get” that. But my concern is that a lot of our sponsors don’t, for reasons that no doubt run the gamut, but the fact is, they don’t visit the website where they could enhance and deepen the sponsorship experience through the many opportunities it offers.
Our website has constantly expanded and improved over the past few months and years and, as I hope you agree, has a lot to offer. Even as you read this, we’re hard at work to make it more content-laden, and to take advantage of new and better technology so sponsors can have better information sooner about their sponsored children and the communities where they live—in short, to make visits to the site an even more exciting, texture-rich experience that sponsors want to enjoy often!
Beyond the sponsor’s own experience, a benefit of their greater involvement via the website is, we hope, more and easier advocacy which translates directly into more children being reached through sponsorship. Our challenge, then, is to somehow get as many sponsors as we can to visit www.children.org on a regular basis. Their increased involvement that way can only result in good things for them and for children out there on the waiting list!
If you, our blogging family, have any thoughts about how to better engage sponsors and contributors on www.children.org, we’re very receptive to weave your ideas into our strategies!
Right now here at Children InternationaI we’re into budgets for next year. That generally gets a lot of “ughs” from around the building. Not from me. I kinda like it. Not because I have an abnormal fondness for paperwork involving numbers and columns—no, far from it! Two reasons, really. One, I don’t do a lot of the minute detail that a lot of my associates do better than I could.
Two, and the better reason, is that my part of the budget has me looking ahead at plans and activities for next year. For instance, Budget Princess Danielle and her Budget Sergeant, Barbara, insist on my providing them with my travel schedule for the upcoming year so they can put it in the budget.
And that always gets me thinking about the field locations and how much I enjoy visiting them. From my office as I ponder my travels, I think of the joy of visiting children and their parents, seeing our volunteers, meeting with and being blown away by our older sponsored children—our youth.
I think of renewing old friendships with long time field staff, from the director level to the people who clean the offices (the latter being some of my favorites because if I’m real nice to them, they’ll make me a cup of coffee when I visit the field offices!).
Things I conveniently don’t think about as I’m enjoying this travel fantasy are missing my family (and the dogs), the seemingly endless hours waiting in airports, the cancelled flights, jostling lines in security, taking off my belt, my shoes and anything else the rules of the day command before going through the metal detectors…(and then putting everything back on while trying not to hold up the line behind me)! I’ve also forgotten the severe sore throats which usher in severe colds that I get just about when I’ve recovered from jet lag.
And so, as they say, hope springs eternal! It’s a bit like spring training before baseball season…no matter how bad your team’s going to be, you can just about look past the weaknesses and convince yourself you’ve got a pennant contender.
Fortunately, my trips really do end up much better on balance than our local baseball team! Seeing the children and interacting with them and learning anew what a difference sponsorship is making far outweighs the minor annoyances of travel!
“80% of our families [in the area the staff visited] have been affected and amongst them 60% families have lost their homes. Families are still living in camps/flood centres in the night because of the fear of accidents due to wall collapses and snakes and rodents. Families are still wearing the same clothes since Monday. Families are however spending most of the morning time in front of their lost/damaged homes feeling very emotional and attached to their land and damaged house. [italics added by me] Food grains, tarpulins have been purchased locally.”
You can picture this hopelessness and anguish pretty clearly from this description. I’m sure the Children International staff presence helps to provide some comfort…NO ONE wants to face something like this alone!
I can only imagine. That area where Aila (such a sweet name for such a destructive weather event!) made landfall is really a large delta, much of it right at sea level. Storms inflict great damage there as a result of that geography.
And like with so many weather related natural disasters, they tend to single out the poor and affect them disproportionately, due largely to the fact the poor are left to live in the marginal areas that are prone to such disasters because no one else is willing to live there. Land is available to put up a makeshift dwelling, and before long a community is there.
Until it’s scrubbed away by a devastating storm.
I’ve seen it time and time again. Hurricane Mitch and its flooding in Honduras and Guatemala wreaked havoc on the poor living along rivers that escaped their banks and on steep mountainsides that saw home washed hundreds of yards downhill.
More recently, we saw similar devastation in the Philippines as typhoon rains raced down the lava-filled sides of Mount Mayon in the Bicol area, leaving thousands homeless.
The pain I feel for the victims is acute. Imagine having all that you own, modest as that is for our sponsored famililes, washed away along with your home, including any livestock you might have been able to sacrificially acquire over the years, any tools for your trade from which you might eke out a living, and even your entire village with whatever shared resources it represented.
But where we have sponsorship activities in areas hit by these natural disasters we have staffs on the ground that can and do respond…even before the rain stops falling, the winds cease their howling and the waters recede.
Niraj Agrawal, our project director, has been filing reports since even before the storm hit. Our staff is on the scene, accounting for sponsored children and families and delivering much needed supplies such as water, emergency rations, blankets and first aid supplies.
I’m always so impressed by the efforts of our staff…often reduced to communicating by text message on their cell phones as all other communication has been knocked out. And this is even more inspiring as typically, and this event is no exception, the staff has also suffered great loss of personal property.
Watch our website or this blog for more updates on this storm, its aftermath and our response to it.
And, if you’re so inclined, you might whisper a little prayer for those families that will be sleeping under the stars tonight…with whatever scant belongings there were able to take with them to slightly higher ground.
Since it’s the beginning of May, I’m reminded of my very first trip to see one of Children International’s field projects. At the risk of accusations of being a bit dramatic, it was a trip that would change my life.
May, 1986…the Philippines. I was a new member of the Board of Directors of what was then Mission International. We had originally planned to visit the Philippines in February but that February was when citizens of the Philippines united in what was termed “People Power” and ousted long time President Ferdinand Marcos, whose position would be filled by Corazon Aquino as she rode the wave of the populist movement into office.
That trip was unbelievably impressive to me for a number of reasons….while I had traveled extensively to Europe in my former job, Asia and the Philippines were a brand new experience, unlike any I’d ever had before. The airplane ride was seemingly endless—after finally arriving in Manila I vowed that after the return I wouldn’t sign up for one of those again!
The Filipino people also represented a new experience…but a great one. I still recall how friendly everyone was—and every trip since has only reinforced that.
The geography also made a big impression on me. I had seen a lot of footage of Southeast Asia in coverage of the Vietnam War, but seeing the stunning beauty of the main island and the many islands that comprise this archipelago represented an amazing perspective-broadening experience for this guy from the Midwest. The variety of palm trees (and VERY fresh coconut), the mango trees, the lush vegetation, the miles and miles of shoreline, the active volcanoes and the rich, red sunsets into the South China Sea were brand new to me.
But most of all I was impressed with and by the poverty I saw. To this day, the slums I walked through on that trip formed a basis for interpretation and comparison with every slum, barrio and poverty-stricken area I’ve seen since. I was overwhelmed, to say the least.
As oppressive as the poverty was, I remember being very impressed by the spirit of the sponsored children! That youthful zest for life is something that I’ve seen time and time again and it continues to be a big motivator for me as we work hard to try to nurture that vibrant spirit with which every child seems to be born. Giving hope and dreams to that spirit is one of my goals for every child in the sponsorship program.
Finally, the staff in the Philippines made a huge impression on me. Just like our staffs do everywhere ever since. The Philippine staff’s familiarity with the children, their parents and the community impressed me then and impresses me now. The commitment to the children by the staff was and is amazing…they do so much under such difficult conditions that I am always inspired by them…just as I was 23 years ago this month.
And by the way, I think since vowing to never make an airplane trip as long as that first one to the Philippines, I’ve now made over thirty of them and have actually come to enjoy them!
Hooking up with Mohua and Sujata, our two staff of the Disha agency, Appu and I toured the neighborhood around the community center, making home visits to a number of sponsored children. As I’ve probably too often stated, this is my favorite part of my job…visiting the children where they live, talking to them, their parents, seeing how and where they live, truly experiencing it with about every sense I have…seeing, touching, hearing, smelling, feeling the pulse of the neighborhood…the slum.
And speaking of that, I visited shortly after the Indian-based movie, Slumdog Millionaire, walked away with 8 Oscars. In India, they did everything but make it a national holiday…and that may still be in the works. Most here agree that movie’s depiction of the conditions in the slum is pretty realistic. Sad to say.
The home visits were great. We began in the home of a sponsored little girl, the first in the area, whose mother’s brother was sponsored through SAHAY, the oldest continuously operating Children International sponsorship agency in Calcutta. He’s now 24 and working as a television technician. His sister (the mother of the sponsored child) spoke glowingly about what sponsorship had meant to her brother and her family! Very interesting and nice to hear!
Poverty abounds in this area. Average monthly income is $50 for a typical family of five. No home I visited was larger than 10’ by 10’ for the five or so people living there. The term “dense pack” comes to mind.
The concept of space is different here.
Also the concept of bathrooms. I asked one mother about the bathroom/latrine situation…she indicated that five families share one latrine. I asked if that created conflict at times. No hesitation: YES. No surprise. Can you imagine?
The moms and dads in this new sponsorship area are all very excited about Children International being there. The kids were great…happy little guys and girls who need a hand and some help—desperately—but who have all the potential you can imagine!
Meeting children on the “waiting list” to be sponsored brings a very real urgency to me…one that will guide my thinking and my decisions in the days, weeks and months ahead.
Our bad economy is not helping us grow any, but these children waiting have never experienced anything but a bad economy…and their extreme need isn’t taking a day off while we get our problems sorted out. So if you’d like to help one of these children, be my guest. Or if you know someone who would like to help, that works, too! Call our sponsor line at 800-888-3089 and indicate you’d like to help one of the waiting Disha children—they will be very happy you did!!!
This was my first day back in Calcutta, India seeing child sponsorship activities here. During my visit here last year I was informed that March 1st of this year would be the celebration of 20 years for our SAHAY field operations in and around Calcutta. Since I was there at the beginning of SAHAY, I thought I should return to mark its 20th year. And here I am. Slightly (?) jet-lagged but otherwise enthusiastic.
In addition to marking 20 years here with SAHAY, we’ll also be cutting the ribbon on a new community center of a brand new sponsorship field agency, one known as Disha, also here in Calcutta. So we have the maturation of one agency and the birth of another, all within one busy week. I’m excited for both!
Today, our Regional Director, Mr. Ramdas “Appu” Pai, and I toured the Disha building which I had seen last year just after we purchased it. The transformation of that building, under the watchful eye of our resident engineer, Mr. Suhbro Dey, has been nothing short of miraculous. And it seems our renovation and painting of the building has had not just a positive impact but also a positive influence on the community…a number of other buildings on the same street have seen their first coat of paint since many a season! Funny how that works...
Come back tomorrow to read more about Jim Cook's visit to our child sponsorship agencies in India.
It’s President’s Day. Therefore Sarah and Kelly, our “blogmasters” suggested I write something about what it means to be president of an organization that helps children living in extreme poverty. I reluctantly agreed to do so. Reluctantly because it feels pretty presumptuous to even give the hint of a suggestion that there is any resemblance whatsoever between me and those esteemed leaders this day was established to honor.
But, in the interest of doing what I was told to do, here goes…
First of all, I have a great deal of respect for the office of president of Children International. I also have a very healthy respect for the responsibility it carries with it…primarily to make sure this organization is healthy and able to continue to provide important, life-changing benefits to children and their families AND to make the sponsorship experience a fulfilling and satisfying one for each and every sponsor and contributor.
The greatest thing about being president of this organization is knowing, at the end of a day that could feel like one of any other office worker or even any other company president, I can feel the warm satisfaction that comes from knowing my efforts, no matter how seemingly far removed I might be from the barrios and slums where our children live, have been invested in helping those children, their families and their communities in a way that makes their lives easier, better and more hopeful! It’s a nice feeling.
I’d like to tell you that all day everyday I am able to spend time thinking only about helping children. While a lot of my time and the time of the associates with whom I work is spent that way, much of any given day is also devoted to pretty mundane activities, including budgeting, fundraising, personnel issues and keeping up with trends in charitable giving and benefit delivery.
My real payoff comes when I get to make a trip to the field to see the work our sponsors make possible. Meeting children, moms, dads and key people in the communities really brings home what we here at Children International and you make possible for so many.
“Showing the flag” for the local staff and getting to sit down and chat with them is always fun and inspiring to me! They accomplish so much, often under very difficult conditions. Maybe when I’m doing whatever I can to motivate them is when I feel my most “presidential,” to keep in the spirit of this President’s Day. I will say that what often happens is that I end up being more motivated by the children and by the staff. And that’s great. Maybe even presidential…
I’m pretty sure I didn’t want the first entry to my new, regular blog offering to be about the economy, but like they say, it’s really hard to ignore that elephant in the room. So I think I’ll just get it out of the way…
Today as I was getting ready to come into the office I made the mistake of having the radio on. A lead news story was the fact that Sprint, the phone company based here in Kansas City, announced it would lay off 8,000 employees in the first quarter of this year. OUCH!
When I arrived at the office, I went to a news website to learn more about that and to my further disappointment I noted Caterpillar, Home Depot and GM also announced layoffs. Enough of that, I quickly closed that browser and got back to what I could do something about…working with our sponsors and their sponsored children to make sure we’re doing all we can for both groups!
But part of this job is to do my part to help this organization navigate choppy economic seas, because the world of our sponsored children really is one of economic depression at all times! They don’t have the luxury of simply enduring a bad economic cycle and waiting for the upturn…their upturn doesn’t happen!
Except to the extent a sponsor steps in and makes a difference in that needy child’s life and that child’s family’s life! And one of the most gratifying things to me has been how steadfast our sponsors have remained in their support of their sponsored children during these challenging times! Our sponsors and contributors are remarkably insightful about the conditions and the need their sponsored children face every day—and the fact those needs don’t subside just because the world’s economy is on a roller coaster ride!
I think tomorrow I’ll tune my radio to the weather channel. The weather here isn’t all that great, but at least I have some control there—I can always throw on a heavier coat! Until next time, my best to you!
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