A new microcredit website for education

After working for Cisco Systems in California's Silicon valley for over nine years, Sunny Mahant moved on to develop a Kiva-like microcredit website. A trip to India inspired Mahant's sudden career change and creation of Janta Loans. Mahant saw the many children who were working instead of attending school to help their parents earn the family's income. So Mahant decided to start a social business to loan the children the money to begin an education.

From this San Jose Mercury News story that we found at Illinois' Belleville News-Democrat, writer Mike Cassidy explains how the new website works.

Mahant's vision: Work with nongovernmental organizations in developing countries to find those in need; and introduce donors to borrowers by posting their photographs and telling their stories at www.jantaloans.org.

Donors lend or contribute to individuals who need money for supplies or tuition, or need money to replace lost income when they go to school instead of work. Financial partners service the loans and keep interest payments. Lenders are repaid the principal and Janta seeks contributions to cover operations.

"We're at what I consider the first stage of the product line," says Mahant, who has a 15-month-old son, Yogi, who sometimes makes him feel like his whole life is in startup mode. "We hope over time, if we can pull this off, we will ourselves be a global microfinance organization."

Microfinance has shown great potential in the developing world, where a little money can go a long way. Ideally, entrepreneurs pay loans back from profits. When it comes to students, the model is slightly different, Mahant says.

He says some who receive loans through Janta will need the money for upfront costs, such as tuition, that they can pay back over the year. Others will need bridge loans to help with expenses between harvests. Some will take loans for trade school. They will presumably find work that will help them pay back the loan. Ideally, some lenders will be willing to make long-term loans or even provide grants.

Mahant, who uses the language of business, says Janta is in beta. The nonprofit itself funded about 125 students in India and Nicaragua to see how its system would work. Mahant says the pilot was encouraging, but he knows starting an enterprise is no easy matter.

Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2010/03/17/1177330/startup-brings-new-vision-to-microlending.html#ixzz0iRiyeo8D

Survey finds higher poverty in Los Angeles county compared to California

The United Way of Greater Los Angeles has released a survey on poverty in Los Angeles County. The United Way finds that the area has a higher poverty rate than the rest of the state of California.

From The Pasadena Star News, we find this summary of the report.

In LA County, 15 percent of people live below poverty - meaning they survive on less than $11,000 for a single person or $22,000 for a family of four - compared with 13 percent nationally.

"Los Angeles County was in crisis before the recent economic downturn. We are now in danger of falling further behind," the report concludes.

LA County fares even worse, comparably, when looking at the population of "working poor" - those with household incomes of less than $44,000 a year.

From 2000 to 2008, the population of working poor ranged from 36 to 40 percent and averaged nearly 6 percentage points higher than the state as a whole, and 7.5 percentage points higher than the rest of the country.

Poverty projections for California

A new study gives projections on children poverty levels for Northern California. The study says that an eighth of the area's children will live in poverty at some time during the year 2010. Also, a quarter of California children statewide will fall below the poverty line.

From KTUV, we read this further breakdown of the projections.

The study projects that as many as 2.7 million children in the state, or 27 percent of California's children, could be living in households below the poverty level at some point in 2010, according to officials with the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health.

The federal poverty level is $22,000 in earnings per year for a family of four. Officials believe families in California need to earn at least twice that amount to cover basic living expenses.

In six Bay Area counties - Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara - the number of children in poverty could rise as high as 15 or 16 percent this year, compared to 8 to 13 percent in those counties in 2008.

The study, done by Duke University sociologist Kenneth Land, followed trends from 1995 to 2006 and projects poverty rates through 2012.

California's Ventura County sees 50% increase in food stamp use

Another story about how bad things became in California during the recession. A huge surge in food stamp use is detected in the affluent towns of Thousand Parks and Simi Valley. California's Ventura County now has 52,000 in the food stamp program, that translates to a 50% increase over the past two years.

From the Ventura County Star, writer Kathleen Wilson crunches the numbers and talks to human service workers.

Officials say the 52,000 people in the program are the highest number since the mid-1990s, and perhaps ever. They tie the surge partly to relaxed rules, expanded marketing and a lessening of the stigma associated with food stamps, but mainly to the lingering impact of the recession.

“The recent growth is certainly based on the economy,” said Curtis Updike, deputy director in the county Human Services Agency. “Anecdotally, we have seen people coming in that never thought they would be using our system.”

The increase came in all of the county’s 10 cities as county unemployment more than doubled from 5.2 percent in September 2007 to 11.1 percent in September 2009.

Locally, the cities on the western side of the Conejo Grade — chiefly Ventura and Oxnard — account for the lion’s share of the 22,000 households drawing benefits. But while the caseload has been growing by close to 50 percent in those two cities, it’s doubled in Simi Valley and come close to that in Thousand Oaks.

Marcia Hoffstadt, who interviews applicants from the east county, said many of them are in shock.

“You can see it in their faces,” the intake worker said Monday. “It’s really rough right now.”

From California To Florida; school district poverty levels

The U.S. Census Bureau has released poverty statistics for school districts across the country. We found a couple of stories that focus of the numbers for two different regions; Tallahassee, Florida and Redding, California.

First from Tallahassee Democrat, writer Iricka Berlinger gives the statistics and a summary of the Census Bureau methodology.

The U.S. Census Bureau recently released the poverty estimates of school districts around the country. The Census Bureau uses a set equation that plugs in numbers of family size and income to determine who is in poverty. If a family's total income is less than the family's threshold, then that family and every individual in it is considered in poverty.

The Census Bureau reported that state average of children ages 5 to 17 living in poverty in 2008 was 16.7 percent. In Leon County Schools, 5,896 out of the 37,807 students live in poverty; 15.5 percent of students. In Wakulla County, 15.6 percent; Jefferson County, 20.7 percent; Franklin County, 27.7 percent; and Gadsden County, 29.2 percent of students.

The numbers have grown by about 2 percent more students since 2007 and are only likely to increase more with the decline of the economy.

Shaia Beckwith-James, spokesman for Gadsden County Schools, said she wasn't surprised to hear that Gadsden County has one of the highest rates of poverty in the state.

"It's evident that we have students that come to us and have to deal with a lot of life challenges," she said. "But we don't want them to make excuses. Every student that comes to school is going to be given the chance to succeed."

Now from California's Record Searchlight, writer Amanda Winters breaks down the data for the Redding area.

"There's not a lot of employment here," said Merle Stolz, superintendent of Indian Springs School District, where the Census Bureau estimates 31 percent of children live in poverty.

Stolz said the Big Bend school's participation in the free and reduced-price lunch program is near 100 percent. During the 2008-2009 school year, 11 of the school's 14 students were enrolled in the program.

But the highest estimated percentage of children living in poverty in Shasta County is in the Cascade Union Elementary School District in Anderson, according to the data. The district has a child poverty rate of 34 percent, but close to 83 percent of the district's estimated 1,400 children receive discounted meals.

That's a 5 percent increase over last year, said Debby Andrew, the district's director of child nutrition.

"There are kids that can't afford to have food," Andrew said. "I've had parents call me and say they don't have the money to send kids to school with their meals."

Child well-being improves in California except for family income

An index on the well-being of California's children finds improvements in the past ten years. The researchers who conducted the study do fear that the global recession could hurt those improvements.

Five different measurements were tracked over the past ten years including education, emotions, health, economics and teen pregnancy. All areas saw improvement except for family economics and the numbers of children living below the poverty level.

From the Press Enterprise, writer Lora Hines unpacks the report's details.

A new index released today by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health, a Palo Alto-based charity, shows how children have lived based on data, such as poverty and teen birth rates, tracked from 1995 to 2006. Researchers calculated that the overall measure of child health and well-being improved by 16 percent in California.

However, estimates suggest that next year more than one in four children in California will be living below the poverty line.

"This index gives California a solid benchmark to gauge progress in advancing the health of children," said Dr. David Alexander, the foundation's president and chief executive officer. "We have made slow, steady progress, but present economic conditions now threaten these gains."

Duke University sociologist Kenneth Land created the index based on a national model he developed for the foundation, which it has released annually since 2004. He reviewed an estimated 250 indicators and analyzed five areas, educational achievement, emotional well-being, family economics, health and behavioral concerns, to come up with his findings. Land tracked improvements in almost all five areas except for family economics, which dropped dramatically.

"Although it's impossible to determine just how much poverty will affect the overall California index, poverty rates are likely to weigh down what, at least until 2006, were general improvements in child well-being," Land said.

More than 1.2 million children live in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. In 2008, 17 percent of Riverside County children lived in poverty, according to U.S. Census data. Almost 21 percent of San Bernardino County lived in poverty.

Video: Freezing against poverty in sunny California

With the thousands of "Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now" events that took place over the weekend, we find this unconventional event from California. Dozens of college students took on Santa Barbara's streets and stood frozen for five minutes.

Below is a video of the students and the passers by wondering what is going on. We found the video at KEYT.

Free school lunch enrollment increases in California

School districts across the states often use free or reduced cost school lunches to determine poverty in their districts. For the state of California, the students applying for free meals has increased at a dramatic rate, the largest increase in a decade.

From the Palo Alto Online, writer Chris Kenrick looks at a new report issued from the Lucile Packard Foundation.

Nearly 19,000 more California children enrolled in the federally subsidized meal program over the last school year, pushing the total enrollment to 53 percent of California public school students, according to the Palo Alto-based Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health.

Locally, 7.7 percent of Palo Alto school children qualified for the program this year, up from 6.6 percent in 2007.

In East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, which is served by the Ravenswood City School District, 85.2 percent of children qualified for the program, up from 84.3 percent in 2007.

In Menlo Park and Los Altos, the number of children qualifying for the program was less than 5 percent.

Countywide, 37.7 percent of school children in Santa Clara County qualified for the program, as did 33.7 percent of school children in San Mateo County.

To qualify for the federal lunch subsidy program, a child's family income must fall below 185 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $40,793 for a family of four in 2009.

The numbers were made available through Kidsdata, a project of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health that aims to provide reliable data on the health and well-being of children. Most of the data is from public sources, though some comes from the foundation's Bay Area Parent Poll.

New initiative to help the poor in the San Francisco Bay area

A San Francisco Bay area charity has announced more money to go into programs to help the poor in the are. The Marin Community Foundation announced a five year, 15 million dollar funding for various programs. Programs include a savings program that will match the money people save. Other programs include job training skills and micro-enterprise start-ups.

From the Marin Independent Journal, reporter Richard Halstead talks to the foundation about the efforts.

"Through this new initiative," said foundation President Thomas Peters, "we'll fund efforts to help people learn new job skills, understand personal finances, benefit from financial services that meet their needs, receive support to start their own business and avoid economic crises."

Peters said Marin's high cost of living makes it difficult for the working poor to move out of poverty. According to the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, there are nearly 23,000 families in Marin who have trouble covering such basic needs as housing, food and health care.

"A parent with two children needs an annual income of $68,000 to be regarded as fully self-sufficient," Peter said. "But since that would require the earnings equivalent of working four minimum-wage jobs, many Marin families can't reach that goal."

Peters said the foundation will spend about $3 million per year on the effort. It has already awarded $600,000 in grants to two San Francisco-based nonprofits.

Earned Assets Resource Network, which helps low-income families establish savings accounts by matching families' personal contributions with philanthropic and federal government funds, will receive a one-year, $350,000 grant from the foundation, Peters said.

Women's Initiative for Self Employment, which provides low-income women with training and ongoing support to start their own businesses, will receive a one-year $250,000 grant. WISE has a Novato training office.

"These are the kinds of efforts that help families become more stable and economically secure for the long term," Peters said.

Report confirms increased use of food banks in Southern California

A new hunger report shows that use of food banks in Southern California is up an average of 24 percent. Some local food banks have seen increases as much at 40 percent.

From The Pasadena Star News, writer Robert S. Hong visited some of the food banks for his story.

In El Monte, the pantry at Our Saviour Center has seen a daily increase of about 43 percent, according to Dorris Dann, director of volunteers. The center serves 180 to 300 people a day, compared with about 145 people a year ago.

"Some days, the people never seem to stop coming," Dann said. "It's really telling when they open the bag of food before they get out of the parking lot to feed their children."

In Orange County, demand has gone up 30 percent to 35 percent. Even people from more affluent neighborhoods have had to turn to food pantries, said Joe Schoeningh, director of the Second Harvest Food Bank of Orange County.

"All is not bleak, although it is very difficult to make ends meet at this point," Schoeningh said.

One bright spot is that Americans continue to give, even during tough economic times, and that has helped food pantries struggle through, he said.

Food donations are still needed. Donors and volunteers can visit www.lafoodbank.org to find out how to help, Flood said.

Maria Bermudez has been coming to Our Saviour Center's pantry for five years. She cleans homes and her husband does construction, but work has been scarce, she said. At times, they don't have enough food to get through the week, Bermudez said.

"It is a great help," she said. "When we come here, we get food for a couple of days."

Muhammad Yunus visits a Californian University

A new school for social business is about to open at a Californian State University. Social Business is a concept that Muhammad Yunus began to popularize through his idea of microcredit. Social Business strives to provide benefits to the people to fix social ills instead of maximizing profit.

From the Ventura County Star, reporter Jean Cowden Moore recorded Yunus' visit.

Muhammad Yunus, an economist who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, spoke at CSU Channel Islands in Camarillo, which is planning to form an Institute for Social Business. The institute, which could open this winter, would teach and research social business — an increasingly popular business model that promotes social responsibility along with profit.

“It’s a new idea of business,” Yunus said in an interview Monday afternoon. “It’s something they should understand — that business can be done for maximizing social impact.”

Yunus shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Grameen Bank, which he founded in Bangladesh in 1983 to provide small loans to impoverished people, mostly women, so they could start their own businesses. The bank now operates in Bangladesh, Kosovo, Turkey, China, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the United States, among other countries.

The idea behind the CSUCI institute is that business can be motivated not just by profit, but also by corporate responsibility — whether it’s providing services in impoverished rural communities, empowering women or offering on-site day care, said Ashish Vaidya, dean of faculty.

“These ideas are becoming more popular, more discussed around the world,” Vaidya said. “We’re asking, ‘How do we make an impact in the region, as well as from a global perspective?’ ”

Similar institutes, often called the Grameen Creative Lab, have been formed at universities around the world, including Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Glasgow Caledonian University in Scotland and the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Yunus said. He is not directly involved in CSUCI’s institute but came to answer questions from faculty.

The Family Independence Initiative of San Francisco

Despite a tight budget, San Francisco's mayor Gavin Newsom plans on expanding a cash transfer program that helps families in poverty. The Family Independence Initiative gives money to families who improve their lives through education, health or savings.

From this KGO story, reporter Carolyn Tyler describes how the program works.

Food pantry in California looks for a new home

Anyone have a building to lend? From the San Gabriel Tribune, comes this story of a Californian food bank looking for a new home. Writer Amanda Baumfeld explains why the food bank is looking for a new place.

The San Gabriel Unified School District plans to evict an emergency food pantry used by low income families to make way for a fitness center at Del Mar High School, authorities said.

Now, the People for People food pantry must find a new home - and a place to store 70 tons of food. The non-profit organization has inhabited a rent-free warehouse on the campus for the past 10 years.

"The school district has been great; they need their space," said Wathena Morrison , People for People treasurer. "We are just hoping someone can loan us a place for a year or two to give us a chance to find something else."

The school district needs the L-shaped building to proceed with a construction project that will provide additional classrooms and a fitness center for the high school, according to Marla Nadolney , district project manager. About 60 students in grades 9 through 12 attend the tiny high school, according to county records.

The project is being paid for with bond money approved by residents a year ago, Nadolney added.

Although they have until July, People for People is scrambling to find a building before May 9 when the annual Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is held by the Post Office.

The food pantry gets 70 to 90 tons of food as a result of the drive which last them about a year.

"The problem is where are we going to put that food," asked Norene Rand , executive director.

Saturday Missions: Ag Against Hunger

A great charity in California grabs unharvested food from area farming fields to feed the hungry. Ag Against Hunger from California gather volunteers to grab the food that was missed by harvesters before it gets turned over into the soil.

From the Californian, Rusten Hogness gets dirty with the volunteers.

This Saturday will mark the start of Ag Against Hunger's new gleaning season, in a field near San Juan Bautista. No word on what the crop will be, but volunteers can be sure of harvesting satisfaction, knowing they are helping to feed hungry families.

Gleaners salvage lettuce, broccoli, onions, celery - whatever is left in the field after the harvest before the tractors roll in to till it all back into the soil.

Whatever is gathered will go back to the Ag Against Hunger coolers in Salinas. Within a couple of days, it will be on trucks going to food banks as far away as Sacramento, though most of it will stay here in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties.

Last year, according to Ananda Jimenez, who coordinates the

gleaning for Ag Against Hunger, gleaners picked and gathered more than 120,000 pounds of fresh produce that went to food banks instead of getting tilled into the soil.

"We really need to give more to the food community that supplies food for the needy because I know there's an increasing need," said Schapper, who will soon be a supervising nurse at Salinas Valley State Prison after working at Natividad Medical Center for 27 years as a nurse manager.

"Lots of employees I see are really hurting. They have to hit the food banks to make ends meet."

It would be hard not to see the need, she said. "It's in the media, it's in my workplace, it's in the neighborhood, it's everywhere."

School children raise money for water

Children in San Mateo, California are raising money for Water Partners International, a charity that develops safe drinking water and sanitation for the underdeveloped world. Not only are the children raising money for safe water, but they are also learning about the importance of water especially for other parts of the world.

From the San Mateo Daily Journal, Heather Murtagh details the fund raising effort.

Looking for a class project, eighth grade students at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Day School found clean water to be an interesting topic — and, as it turns out, an enlightening one.

A person can get clean water for life for $25, according to WaterPartners International, a U.S. nonprofit committed to providing safe drinking water and sanitation to people in developing countries. The St. Matthew’s community set a goal of raising $10,000 — enough to provide clean water for a village in India. Efforts kicked off in March on World Water Day and ended yesterday, Earth Day. Through a change drive, an Indian dinner feast and other activities students raised cash for the cause. Money raised will be tallied today.

Students needed a class project and learned about the need in other countries for clean water, explained 13-year-old Nate Mooi.

A St. Matthew’s parent, Tony Stayner, is on the board for WaterPartners and had taken his two eighth-grade children to India to see the work in November. The trip provided a firsthand experience with poverty and effects of not having clean water.

“I didn’t think about how much we have and other’s don’t,” said seventh grade student Nicole Crisci.

Thirteen-year-old Nicki Williams agreed, adding how often water is used daily without a thought. Brushing your teeth or taking a shower are routine here.

“It’s a luxury if you put yourselves in their shoes,” she said.

Fifth grade student Polly Finch takes a shower in the morning and evening. She thought the idea of a shower must be amazing to those in impoverished countries.

Through the project, students began to learn about the effects of water. For example, a five-gallon water jug weighs about 40 pounds. In areas without clean water, children often must carry these jugs three to four miles. As a result, the children end up missing opportunities for education.

Tuberculosis amongst the homeless in America

Most often the disease tuberculosis is associated with poverty in the under-developed world. But it does exist in America, and our homeless population is often at risk.

From the Stockton Record, writer Jennifer Torres details a new tuberculosis scanning program that is ongoing in California homeless shelters.

Tuberculosis affects far fewer Americans than it does residents of developing countries. Still, the United States has experienced somewhat recent epidemics; the number of tuberculosis cases reported nationally rose sharply in the late 1980s and early 1990s, an increase linked in part to the spread of HIV as well as increased immigration, poverty and homelessness.

Rates of tuberculosis - a contagious disease caused by bacteria, which typically affects the lungs - have dropped in the years since, but progress, at least in California, has slowed.

Now, as poverty continues to spread and funding for prevention programs is threatened, some public health advocates warn that gains in fighting the treatable disease could be lost.

San Joaquin County has the fourth-highest tuberculosis rate in California, according to the most recent data available from the state Public Health Department. It is one of 10 counties with a tuberculosis rate higher than the statewide average of 7.2 cases per 100,000 residents. (That rate, meanwhile, is much higher than the U.S. average of 4.4.)

"I think it's good that they check us for tuberculosis," Carlos Salazar said as he put his public health card back into his wallet and carried his backpack to a bed at the homeless shelter. Salazar, originally from Guatemala, has lived in the United States for 19 years and at the homeless shelter for about two months. "If they find out you have it, you can get the right treatment."

Since fall 2007, single men at the Stockton shelter have been required to be tested for tuberculosis through the county public health office within three days of checking in. If their test comes back negative, they receive a clearance with their photo on it.

A new survey finds more poor Californian senior that previously thought

A new survey conducted by UCLA finds more poor seniors in California than many had realized. Almost half of California seniors are poor, according to the research.

The University used a different methodology in measuring which seniors struggle to make ends meet in the state. Now, some California congressmen want to use the same methods in determining who is eligible for benefits.

From her story in the Silcon Valley Mercury News, Karen de Sa tells us more about the research.

The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research report measured economic stability by the real costs to eat, travel and pay for medical costs and housing in each of California's 58 counties.

Its findings reveal 47 percent of state residents 65 and older are unable to pay for their basic needs. That's 864,000 seniors, more than half of whom struggle at home alone.

The new data reveal far deeper poverty rates among seniors than was previously known. According to the decades-old standard of measuring poverty, only 9 to 10 percent of California seniors were considered poor, that is, earning less than $10,000 a year. Researchers note that amount is peanuts in high-cost California, failing to reflect the true cost of survival.

"For us, what's striking is that these numbers are not even taking into account the latest economic crisis," said co-author Susie Smith, a program director at the nonprofit Insight Center for Community Economic Development. She noted the report used 2007 census data. "We can only imagine when we update this information next year, what the numbers are going to look like."

One additional hardship is already known: The recently passed state budget cuts aid to thousands of seniors.

In Silicon Valley, more than 48 percent of seniors fell below the survival standard. In Santa Clara County — where homeownership for many has shifted from a poverty-buffer to a neck yoke — there are signs that homeowners face particularly dire trade-offs as nonhousing costs grow making mortgages more difficult to meet.

Sending animals overseas

The charity that comes to the top of the mind when talking about providing animals for the poor is Heifer International. A story from a Californian newspaper tells us of a smaller group that does the same thing.

The Redlands branch of the American Association of University Women have sent animals to Kosovo and Tanzania. The Redlands Daily Facts tells us about the organizations latest contribution.

The International Affairs group meets once a month for a meal based on the cuisine of various countries. Meetings also include speakers such as Carla Berlington, who recently talked about Burma, also known as Myanmar, where she rescues children as young as 5 who she said would be trained as soldiers for radical groups.

Berlington's group gives food, shelter, clothing and a safe haven to those children. She said she is in constant danger there, many times under live fire.

Members of the International Affairs group not only listen to stories about people in other countries, but also try to help those people.

This year the group has contributed to Berlington's program and to Heifer International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to relieving hunger and poverty through gifts of livestock and plants.

Through their contributions to Heifer International, members of the International Affairs group sent a goat to a family in the village of Muribe in northwest Tanzania. The goat will provide protein and income from milk and other dairy products that people can use to pay for medicine, housing and school for their children.

The group also sent 20 chickens to a family in Kosovo. The chickens will provide the family with a steady supply of protein-rich eggs and meat and a natural way of controlling disease-bearing insects.

Helping a young women's school in Nairobi

A Catholic Church in California has ties to Nairobi, and uses those connections to help a girls school there. The relationship across borders began in 2002, since then the church has been raising money for the school and the young women who attend it. A nun from Nairobi is currently visiting the church in California to show the parishioners how their fund raising has helped.

Kerana Todorov from the Napa Valley Register writes of how the relationship started and gives us more details on the school. The story of the school can also be found on it's blog. The school needs $600 for each child per year.

The Rev. Pat Stephenson, leader of Holy Family Parish, began to raise money for Kenya’s children in 2002. He visited the country to go on a safari, but was moved by what he saw on Nairobi streets: hundreds of children, including pregnant teens and young mothers, begging in the streets.

When Stephenson told Schneiders of his experience, Schneiders offered to help raise money for Sister Christine. He also agreed to come along on three fact-finding trips to Kenya to find out what the parish could do to help Kenya’s abandoned children.

The trips were not for the faint of heart.

Post-election violence erupted in Kenya shortly before they landed in Nairobi on their most recent trip together, in December 2007. Despite the danger and uncertainty, they returned safely and plan to go back in a year.

The Cardinal Maurice Otunga Empowerment Center for Girls opened in mid-2004 on a property donated by Kenya’s Catholic church, a few months after the Schneiders and Stephenson presented a $5,000 donation from parish members to the Archbishop of Nairobi, Rafael Ndingi.

Stephenson asked that the money be used to help needy children.

About three months later, Sister Christine, a member of the order of the Sisters of the Assumption and a high school teacher by training, proposed to use Holy Family Parish’s donation to open the center for girls.

About 80 girls between the ages of 13 and 19 live at the school for two years. Some arrive suffering from AIDS after turning to prostitution to support their families. Many have been beaten or raped or suffered from homelessness.

At the school, the teens receive counseling and medical care and learn how to sew, cook and knit. They also train in how to use computers and make arts and crafts. The students work in shifts to feed staff and colleagues and maintain the property.

Poverty in San Joaquin Schools larger than rest of the country

An area of California has found that poverty is greater in their school district than the rest of the country. The San Joaquin Schools have 53% percent of their students in the free or discount lunch program. The numbers enrolled in such programs here in the States are used as a indicator of poverty within a school district.

Jennifer Torres from the San Joaquin Record reports on the figures in San Joaquin and the concern from school officials.

According to figures from the California Department of Education, 53 percent of children in the county qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches based on their parents' low incomes. In some school districts, that percentage is even higher.

Statewide, about 51 percent of children qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. Generally the county's school poverty rate has tended to match the statewide average, even falling below it for the first years of this decade.

The percentage of children qualifying for subsidized meals - commonly used to gauge the socioeconomic status of a school's population - has been increasing in the county since 2004. In 2005, it broke the halfway mark.

The statistic is of particular concern because poverty is strongly associated with student achievement; schools with higher numbers of financially struggling families tend to have lower overall test scores.

"Everybody who works in schools needs to be really aware of the impact of poverty on kids," said Lynn Beck, dean of University of the Pacific's Gladys L. Benerd School of Education. "It's quite complex. It's everything from the inability of parents to come to meetings because of second jobs to issues of having enough food."

Educators said confronting the challenges of poverty and improving the academic success of children in the region require an approach that considers what children are doing in their classrooms but also the lives to which they return when the afternoon bell rings.