Tag Archives: children

The Best Gift Parents Can Give

By Carolyn | Published December 17, 2015

This holiday season, Guin and Nate are giving a very special present to their baby and Guin’s two older children, who they raise together: themselves. It used to be that this young couple from rural western Washington state wouldn’t spend much time with the kids. They would hide in their room with the door […]

Posted in Education | Also tagged early ed, early education, early steps to school success, education, family, parenting, save the children Leave a comment

How A Silent Girl Named Serenity Finally Found Her Words

By Carolyn | Published September 8, 2014

This blog originally appeared in The Huffington Post. An early start on learning means everything when it comes to a child’s future. Yet too many children living in poverty in America and around the world don’t have access to a quality early education. In fact, children from low-income homes hear an average of […]

Posted in Education, General, United States | Also tagged children's education, education Comments Off

Gaza’s Miracle Tomatoes

By Carolyn | Published July 8, 2014

Crossing through the Israel’s Erez Crossing checkpoint and seeing the bleak landscape as you pass through the Fatah and Hamas checkpoints inside Gaza, it’s hard to imagine anything growing at all—let alone a flourishing garden. As we walked down the narrow pathway enclosed in wire mesh in the “no man’s land” of the Access Restricted […]

Posted in Foreign Travel, On the Road | Also tagged Gaza, tomato, USAID, vegetables Comments Off

Living in Limbo

By Carolyn | Published June 18, 2014

Syrian children across the region have it very tough. There are now almost three million refugees who have fled Syria since the war started more than three years ago and an estimated 50% of them are children. They spread across five countries, with the highest number in Lebanon—nearly 1 million refugees living there in informal […]

Posted in Foreign Travel, On the Road | Also tagged school, Syria, Turkey Comments Off

Moms are the Heroes

By Carolyn | Published March 28, 2014

We’ve all heard it before in one form or another: “Don’t get between a mother and her baby,” “There is nothing better (or worse depending on your position!) than a fired up mom” or “Mothers are their kids’ best advocates. However you phrase it, I see evidence of this everywhere I go for my work […]

Posted in Foreign Travel, General, Health, On the Road | Also tagged breastfeeding, Health, maternal health, Mothers Day, Nepal, save the children, USAID Comments Off

From the Philippines, With Love

By Carolyn | Published February 14, 2014

The following blog first appeared on The Huffington Post. _______________________ Love. If there is a single word that best describes what I witnessed during my visit to the Philippines last week, then that’s it. Love of family. Love of community. Love of people. Love of life. So what better day than Valentine’s Day […]

Posted in Education, Emergency Response, Foreign Travel | Also tagged education, Emergency response, Philippines, reading, school Comments Off

Guatemala: Heroes against Hunger

By Carolyn | Published February 7, 2014

It’s hard to reconcile the beautiful highlands of Guatemala, where I was in mid-January, with this stark fact: the child malnutrition rate here is the highest in the Western hemisphere. Roughly 5 out of every 10 Guatemalan children suffer from chronic malnutrition. All

Posted in Foreign Travel, Nutrition | Also tagged early childhood development, goats, Green Mountain Coffee, Guatemala, Starbucks, USAID Comments Off

Syrian Kids, Lebanese Schools: A New “Normal”

By Carolyn | Published January 31, 2014

When we came inside the tent, the Syrian family of eight welcomed us warmly and urged us to sit close to the small stove in the center for warmth. While the weather had improved from the previous weeks when a winter storm dropped several inches of snow and temperatures dropped below freezing, it […]

Posted in Emergency Response, Foreign Travel, On the Road | Also tagged Lebanon, refugee, school, Syria Comments Off

New Boots Bring Hope in Jordan

By Carolyn | Published January 28, 2014

The kindergarten inside the Za’atari camp in Jordan is a little island of happiness inside a place that is full of tragedy. Here, 3-5 year-old Syrian children living in the huge camp are able to come three times per week in the morning or afternoon to have fun, build social skills and start learning. The […]

Posted in Emergency Response, Foreign Travel, On the Road | Also tagged Jordan, refugee, shoes, Syria, TOMS, Za’atari Comments Off

2014 Must be a Better Year for Kids

By Carolyn | Published December 31, 2013

This past year, like so many other years, saw its share of challenges for children around the world. There were the more than one million refugee children who fled Syria, the tens of thousands of young children who lost their homes and loved ones in Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and the over 300,000 babies […]

Posted in General | Also tagged 2014, kids, New Year, save the children Comments Off

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