What is LCW?
Little Children of the World Incorporated (LCW) is an international and interdominational Christian agency dedicated to helping develop caring communities for children at risk. Incorporated in Atlanta Georgia , in 1987, LCW seeks to address the plight of street children and those who are victims of extreme poverty in developing countries.
Little Children of the Philippines (LCP), a subsidiary of LCW, was incorporated in 1989 in Dumaguete City on the island of Negros. LCP has grown significantly in the number of people served and the comprehensive nature of its programs. As of July, 2003 another LCW project was launched in the Phillipines, in Ingan on the island of Leyte, and administered by a Filipino-American, Marciana Hope, living in Vancouver, Washington.
These at-risk children often go unnoticed except by those who use them for economic gain or exploitation. An estimated 150 million worldwide, according to UNICEF, due to adverse circumstances spend much of their childhood on the streets, vending or begging, and are vulnerable to all kinds of abuse.
The more fortunate LCP families in Dumaguete live at the LCP Bloomington Farm Housing project or in Habitat for Humanity housing. Otherwise, most of the families live in nipa huts and must fetch their water from a neighborhood pump. Others live in squatter areas where they built shelters of scrap wood and thatch. Raw sewage often runs between the houses, and prostitution and gambling are common. The children of misfortune who grow up under these conditions have much less chance of survival than children in developed countries, due to limited government resources and few non-government organizations. Furthermore, children who survive often suffer permanent damage to their health and well being.
LCP, a subsidiary of LCW, now has a ministry to more than 5,000 people in 14 communities on Negros Island who participate in and benefit from the LCP project. They are supported by child sponsors from 40 states and 9 countries around the world. The following distinctive features make this program unique: (1) family centered, (2) community based, (3) participatory (i.e. managed largely by the beneficiaries), (4) comprehensive (covering the basic needs of the children). LCW has two boards: a Board of Directors and an Advisory Council.
Why should you get involved?
-There are an estimated 150 million street children worldwide. 1.5 million are currently in the Phillipines.
-35,000 children worldwide die of starvation, malnutrition, or related diseases every day.
-An estimated 2.2 million Filipino preschoolers suffer from malnutrition.
-Every day 300 Filipino children die of preventable or curable diseases like pneumonia, diarrhea, and measles.
LCW encourages you to invest a portion of your life in helping to rescue children from the dire effects of poverty, neglect, or abuse.
Accountability
Little Children of the World, Inc. is strictly accountable for all funds received. It is incorporated as a not-for-profit service organization and holds the 501{c}3 status with the Internal Revenue Service. The money received for child sponsorships is sent, in monthly remittances, directly to the overseas project site for child services. All accounts are computerized at the Treasurer’s Office in Barnesville, Georgia. An annual audited report is prepared by Robyn Underwood, Auditor, Barnesville, Georgia.
A list of donors is published annually and mailed to all LCW donors together with the quarterly newsletter. A list of child sponsors is printed monthly on an Excel spread sheet, including the children currently sponsored and the type of payment arrangement chosen by each sponsor. The audited report is available upon request, and lists of donors are mailed to sponsors and donors once a year.
The LCW Financial/Sponsorship Office is located in Barnesville, Georgia under the leadership of Glenna Waller, LCW President/CFO. This office is responsible for receipting all donations and preparing financial reports and budgets. The Barnesville Office also manages the Sponsorship Program, Publishes newsletters, Overseas Volunteer Program, and is responsible for website updates.
Dumaguete and the communities
LCP serves the following Communities in Dumaguete: Balugo, Buntod, Cadawinonan, Calindagan, Candauay, Candayong, Looc, Mangnao, Maslog, Smoky Mountain, Taclobo, Talay, Ticala, and Timbao.
Little Children of the World Office (Barnesville, GA)
LCW International Headquarters (Barnesville, Georgia)
LCW International Headquarters (Barnesville, Georgia)
The Barnesville Office, located at 333 Sims Street, is a six room brick building purchased by Dean and Peggy Houk and leased to LCW. It has a reception room, a large multipurpose room, administration offices, and publication room. The office has six work stations. It also has a large outside building used for storage of donated items to be shipped to LCP.
LCW Staff (L-R) – Leah Sneed (Sponsorship Coordinator/Director of Publications), Glenna Houk Waller (President/CEO), Margie Mangham (Fundraing Coordinator), Marie Lou Abbott (Administrative Assistant), Jennifer Grant (Secretary), and Melanie Foster (Bookkeeper) – Not Pictured
Retreat and Conference Center (Etowah, Tennessee)
The Christian Retreat and Conference Center facilities include three buildings with kitchens, laundry rooms, a pavilion and amphitheater. Overnight guests can visit nearby scenic spots that include the Ocoee River Rapids, Parksville Lake, Hiwassee and Ocoee Rivers, the Tennessee Aquarium, the Southern Belle Riverboat, Ruby Falls, Rock City, the Lost Sea, and more. Accommodations for churches or groups for conferences, retreats, vacations, or as a home base for area activities. Options are available for group camps, family camps, grandparents and grandchildren’s camp, or to serve as a base camp to provide the tools and opportunities for youth and adult leaders to design their own specific themes and activities like whitewater rafting. Group, family, or intergenerational work camps may provide opportunity to build a prayer garden, volleyball court, clear trails or creek bed, landscape, community outreach or a wide variety of other projects where the fees for the visit are determined by the project or activities chosen. Enjoy the 28-acre wooded area nestled in a beautiful valley at the foot of star mountain. Sponsors/Donors have the first night free.
Please contact us for more information:
Bettie Elwood
361 County Road #475
Etowah, TN 37331
(423) 572-0574
All donations go to an interdenominational not-for-profit children’s ministry incorporated in 1987 under the name “Little Children of the World.”
History of LCW
Little Children of the Philippines (LCP) was incorporated in Cebu City in December of 1989 as a subsidiary of Little Children of the World (LCW). At about the same time, property was acquired in Claytown, Daro in Dumaguete City where LCP’s center of operations is located. A Mission House was built in 1990 on the newly acquired property in order to provide housing for LCP offices and classrooms and as a guest house for local and international volunteers. This was soon followed by an open-air auditorium/chapel and a girls’ dormitory, a health clinic in Taclobo, and a farm in Candau-ay for livelihood training. LCP’s mission was from the beginning to help develop “caring communities for children at risk,” with primary emphasis on education and Christian training.
Little Children of the World (LCW), LCP’s USA-based sponsoring agency, is a not-for-profit Christian service organization incorporated in October of 1987 in Atlanta, Georgia for the purpose of addressing the plight of street children in the developing world. LCW seeks financial support for LCP programs and provides management oversight and program guidance. It promotes and publicizes LCW programs, activities and achievements, investment management, and facilitates communication between sponsors and sponsored children. Two governing boards were created: a Board of Directors composed of incorporators and charter members and an Advisory Council. The LCW Advisory Council represents a broad geographical expanse ranging from Hawaii and Washington in the West to Massachusetts and North Carolina in the East. Advisory Council members are child sponsors and most have been volunteers in the Philippines and North America. A LCW Endowment Fund was established for sustainability. Following the establishment of Little Children of the Philippines, members of the Board of Directors of Little Children of the World made two trips in 1988 to Americus, Georgia to submit a proposal to Habitat for Humanity to build 100 houses in Dumaguete for the poorest of the poor. The proposal was approved in April of 1989. Today, twenty one years later (2010), Habitat has built more than 800 houses, which led Millard Fuller, after visiting the site, to declare it “the most successful Habitat Project in the world.”
In 1990, land was purchased in Claytown, Daro, Dumaguete City as a center of operations. A mission House was constructed and financed by Luther Carroll, Bettie Elwood, and Dean and Peggy Houk. A LCP Board of Directors was soon created, which is presently composed of representatives from the business, educational and governmental sectors of the city, LCP youth and parent representatives, Little Children of the World, and Consuelo Foundation. A Child Sponsorship program was expanded, whereas sponsors from around the world are matched with needy children. Once sponsored, a child has access to all the benefits of the LCP programs. A self-HELP strategy was developed, highlighting the basic needs of the children, including Health, Housing, Education, Livelihood, and Peace and Faith (Christian values formation). A Parent Empowerment program (PEP) and a Youth Empowerment program (YEP) were launched the same year in order to train community people for positions of leadership in LCP.
A farm was purchased in Candau-ay in 1990, through the generosity of Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Illinois, and thus came to be called the Bloomington Farm. About the same time, a church in Sudbury, Massachusetts began long-term funding for the LCP preschools. During this same year, the LCP Survival School was begun as a nonformal educational program for young girls at risk, called Wee Womens program. This program was later expanded to include boys, known as Taclobo I and Taclobo II Dorms.
The following year, 1992, a Memorandum of Agreement was drawn up between LCP and the Nonformal Education Division of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports, to which the Division agreed to provide teachers for LCP’s Survival School. An LCW International Volunteers program was launched, beginning with the arrival of a team from Westmont College, Santa Barbara, California. At this time a tutoring program was introduced as one of the services of volunteers. A three story building was completed in Etowah, Tennesse, for a LCW office and was built by Luther Carroll.
Also in 1992, a partnership was established with Teen Missions International of Merritt Island, Florida. They built and partly financed a girls’ dormitory at the Daro property, especially for young girls from dysfunctional families. Teen Missions also made it possible for LCP to begin sending a youth delegation each year to their Boot Camp in the Philippines. During the same year an auditorium/chapel was built, which came to be called the Chapel of the Doves, through funds raised by a Swedish volunteer.
Another team from Teen Missions returned in 1993 to build a boys’ dormitory at the farm, which was completed later by the boys who lived in it as part of their on-the-job training, and with a grant from the Consuelo Foundation. In the same year a team from Grace Church, Santa Barbara, organized by Chris Elwood, built and largely financed a health clinic in Taclobo on property donated by one of LCW’s child sponsors, Betty Goodell, from Newark, Delaware.
In 1994 the Consuelo Foundation began assisting LCP with its Survival School program, which included substantial improvements in the buildings at the Daro property. During the same year a team from Teen Missions International enlarged the auditorium/chapel. An international volunteer and her mother initiated a successful Eyeglasses Project for children and their parents in Dumaguete, with the cooperation of a local Filipino optometrist. About the same time a SWAP program (Service with a Purpose) was introduced whereby LCP families of sponsored children contribute 10 hours a month of community service to an LCP program or project of their choice. This program encourages recipients to “give back” in the form of service a portion of what they have received in sponsorship. It makes sponsorship a “hand up and not a handout.”
In 1995, when Mayor Agustin Perdices spoke at LCP’s Survival School Recognition Day, he was informed of an expressed interest of the Consuelo Foundation in building houses for low-income families and said he was willing for the city to provide land for the houses, as was done for Habitat for Humanity. Thus, the seed was planted for the linkage between the City of Dumaguete and the Consuelo Foundation, which resulted in the Foundation helping to fund a housing project in Catawinonan.
An LCP Handclasp program for children with disabilities from low-income families, established in 1996, was managed by a Filipino volunteer from Dumaguete. Interplast Medical Missions and Consuelo Foundation began to provide free harelip and cleft palate operations. During this same year international volunteers started a Nutrition program for malnourished children, including a milk supplement and vitamins. About the same time, a successful Lice Treatment program began in cooperation with the USA-based Lice Inc., also initiated by a volunteer. A survey of street children was conducted by volunteers and youth assistants for the purpose of expanding the existing program for street children.
An agreement was made in 1998 with the Netherlands-based Stichting Liliane Foundation to cover the expense of surgery for children with an inborn disability. Meanwhile, a Smoky Mountain Project was started for families living at, and off, the city garbage dump, which resulted in one child sponsorship per family and roof repairs for their shacks while waiting for resettlement. This program was implemented largely by international volunteers. In the same year LCW Board members, Lee Betts and Glenna Waller, and volunteer Program Analyst helped to develop a College Scholarship Fund for deserving college-age youth.
In April of 1999 a Memorandum of Agreement was signed by Patti Lyons, President of Consuelo Foundation, for the construction of 32 houses for low-income families at LCP’s Bloomington Farm. Scheduled to be completed in October of 2000, the project is more than construction of houses; it is an experiment in developing a model community, using such indicators as self-reliance, interdependence and mutual caring. During this same year the School on Wheels began as a pilot study under the guidance and through the financial assistance of an LCW Advisory Board member. International volunteers also helped with the pilot study. The project takes education to the out-of-school youth in the barrios. Also, street children are brought by bus to LCP communities for special classes. Using the School of Tomorrow teaching materials, this is a program that gives the children an opportunity to take placement tests for enrollment in public school at their ability level. Twenty-two children are currently enrolled in this project (2009). Later an In School SOW Program was added.
Meanwhile, the health clinic in Taclobo was converted into a dormitory for Street Boys, and the clinic was moved to the LCP compound in Daro. This was done largely by international volunteers. The Taclobo Boys’ Dorm is a residential home for boys off the street, which provides them a place to live while they are being tutored to prepare them to enter or re-enter public school. Later in the year a Soup Kitchen was started for malnourished kids in Looc, initiated by an international volunteer through funding from her church, family and friends back home. The long-term goal of this project is to impact the lives of these children, from Dumaguete’s most blighted community, so they will be healthier and happier and able to attend school. Later a second soup kitchen was begun by Webster Presbyterian Church located in Webster, New York.