Help Starving Children

“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age...The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.”

These wise words were spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 45 years ago, yet here we are today, still struggling to end poverty.

At Children International we are optimistic that the battle can be won – we have to be. And we have reason to be. Every day our field staff witnesses these small victories. A child trading in his old flip-flops for his first pair of new shoes. Youth teaching each other about resisting peer pressure that could lead them down the wrong path. Children waiting in our community centers to be seen by a doctor for the first time in their lives...

And even those of us in the office who don’t work on the proverbial front lines see the barriers of poverty being broken. When a person cares enough to take the first step and requests free information about sponsorship. When someone makes a call and sponsors a child living in poverty. When a sponsor writes a letter to a child encouraging her to stay in school, telling her how proud she makes them feel.

As King put it, “We cannot be content to see hunger, to see [people] victimized with ill health, when we have the means to help them...The agony of the poor impoverishes the rich...Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.” Perhaps we still have a long way to go to achieve one of Dr King’s many dreams, but sponsorship matters and so does your support. You care about a child living in poverty, and for that, we thank you.