How To Sponsor A Child

My experience during the International Youth Day conference was to say the least overwhelming. With every sponsored youth’s arrival there was a new feeling of excitement and amazement. I can’t tell you how many times I heard the phrase, “I can’t believe I’m here!” These delegates are a delight to be around. They are so smart, sensitive, determined, caring and without a doubt will achieve every goal they put their mind to. There was no language barrier on this trip; you wouldn’t believe the bonds made by all!

Monday afternoon, after I had the last group in the taxi, we took the subway and made our way to meet the rest of the group at Coney Island. All the kids wanted to do was walk on the sand barefoot!

Tuesday we started our tour early. They were in amazement gazing at the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Rockefeller Center. Everyone really enjoyed the lights and excitement of Times Square! Of course we took in souvenir shopping every chance we could, visited Chinatown and Little Italy and took lots of photos!

Wednesday came with great anticipation, the first day of conferences and workshops at the United Nations. I’m sure I was only one of the many that felt so proud of our youth during the workshop presentations given by Melvin from Manila, LaToya from Little Rock and Jazmin from Guayaquil on Youth Leadership Training. This workshop was so well-received, and the delegates were given an enormous amount of positive feedback by those in attendance. Later that same afternoon our delegate from Honduras, Karen, was selected to speak as president of her youth council during the plenary session. What a tremendous opportunity to speak before the entire assembly!
 

Thursday and Friday were filled with subway rides, conferences at the UN and always, smiles and laughter. We got a big smile out of our delegate from Guatemala, Virginia, too when she won the award for Outstanding Youth Achievement for her community projects. Quite an accomplishment, drawing from a group of 700 kids from around the globe! She was even invited to a special luncheon event at the UN that afternoon.

Friday evening the kids wanted a pajama party. What a great evening! We ordered pizza and bought junk food, a Twister® game - they really bonded. We swapped stories of our most memorable experiences along with who had the most blisters on their feet. Near the end of the evening the tears came, translated goodbyes and long hugs.

I feel lucky to be given the opportunity to be involved in such a special event. Our youth shined - I can’t say that enough. I am so proud to be a part of our organization. It’s hard to express all of the little details in written words; I will never forget these delegates: Chengo, José Adriana, LaToya, Melvin, Ana, Jazmin, Karen, Ranjit, Valeria and Virginia.

Blog by Cheri Watson, Administrative Coordinator for Children International’s Program Services Department. Photo by Vong Hamilton.

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!

As International Youth Day begins to wrap up, here's an opportunity to meet LaToya, Children International's youth representative from the United States.

Our Youth Council talks a lot about being an Agent of Change, so I wrote this poem about becoming an agent of change:

“My Path”
My path is my path paved just for me.
No one can pave it for me.
Not even God.
He can only show me how to pave it.
If I pave my path with anything or something thrown together,
What kind of path would that be?
A path that’s not for me.
My path is paved with success,
So successful that when I walk down it,
You can see success in me and my face, left and right,
And when it’s all over, my God will take me home
Because the path that I paved was the life that I was living.
 

Each year our Communications Coordinator in Guatemala, Javier Cárcamo, trains a new batch of youth reporters to write stories, conduct interviews and take photos and video. Here, 17 year-old youth reporter Edwin Canac Tzaj shares what life is like in his rural community and how sponsorship is giving him an opportunity he never thought he would have.

My community is a small and hidden place. We live at the base of a hill and all of the neighbors are happy, but you always have a desire to have a better life. Even though we are happy, it’s kind of difficult to live here, because there isn’t any work. Some farmers give work to day laborers so they can support their families, but there isn’t enough work for everyone. Some only find work in other villages, so they have to go far away early in the morning and they come home even more tired.

The women help their husbands working in the fields cutting peas and lettuce, and some just do whatever work they can find each day in the markets or at construction sites. Every morning the sun rises and women weave their güipils (a traditional Mayan blouse) to sell, although many women work in the fields too, carrying their babies on their backs.

Even still, life here is beautiful, but everyone hopes to have happier lives with good futures for their children and to be able to enjoy the weekends at church or just taking a walk around town.

Poverty in my community is due to the fact that there aren’t any good salaries or jobs. And that’s why many people can’t afford to send their children to school, much less give youth like us higher education - like my siblings and me, for example. Our parents don’t have any way to support us, although they have always tried very hard. But sometimes it’s been difficult to keep studying. I know we have to struggle and work for our futures, because many desperate youth have thrown themselves into vice, because they have no work, nor the love of a mother or father, or anyone to support them.

But sponsorship in my community is something that makes things different for many families. In my community there are more than 100 sponsored children and youth, and that has helped us to improve ourselves and have a greater possibility of becoming better people. I am very thankful to all of you, because you have lovingly given us help, and that is such a benefit for each household. You have helped us with school supplies and personal items.

Now that I have the opportunity to be a Youth Reporter, I feel even better about myself, because now I can communicate my community’s feelings. And this is something I never dreamed of before, because it used to be very hard for me to speak Spanish, because I speak an indigenous language. But thanks to the opportunity to go to school, I can write this –although I still get a little nervous. I am learning to take photos and talk to people without feeling embarrassed. And I’m really happy about that, and I’m very satisfied being sponsored by Children International. That’s why I wish you all success in each and everything you do each day.
 

Guatemala's Youth Reporters
 

Did you like this story? Want more? Send us a comment, and let us know. We’ll be sure to make this a regular feature.

Erycah in Lusaka, Zambia Africa discusses how sponsorship helps to ease poverty.

Q: What is your favorite part of sponsorship?
A: My favorite part is gift distribution. My favorite gift was a blanket. I was happy because I didn't have one.

Q: What do you want your sponsor to know about you?
A: I want my sponsor to know that I am very happy. We used to suffer a lot before I was sponsored, but now things are better for my family and me.

Photo and reporting assistance by Clementina Chapusha, Communications Coordinator in Lusaka, Zambia.

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!

Well you can! Children International has teamed up with House Party to help promote child sponsorship. Apply to throw a party at your home to spread the word about our program, and those selected will receive a great activity pack to get the party started.

Have a sponsorship party - Tupperware®-style - at your home and share childhood memories, photographs (yes, that’s me), games, candies and fun. As you take a trip down memory lane, contemplate the realities of children living in poverty and how sponsorship can help make their childhoods a little bit brighter.

Sound like a good time? Apply to host a Children International Sponsorship party in your home today.

By Damon Guinn

Let me start by saying I’m new at this. As of last week, I’ve been a dad for only two years. And even though my second child is in the works, plumping up like a nice little bun in the oven, I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the voice of authority when it comes to fatherhood. I don’t have a collection of ties to prove my tenure as the World’s Best Dad. I don’t even have the coffee mug. What I do have, though, is some fresh perspective, along with eight years of working to support children in need.

During my brief time as a dad, and my history at Children International, I’ve come to understand one principle above all others: the importance of simply “being there.”
 

Before my daughter, Ellie, was born, I racked my brain trying to plan the perfect approach to Papadom. Would I need classes on advanced diaper changing? When should I start teaching her to read? How would I keep my cool when she had her first inexplicable, Chernobyl-sized meltdown in public?

Now I realize fatherhood is mainly about being available for my daughter whenever she needs me – to help instill in her confidence and a sense of security. And that seems to be the same role sponsors serve for the children they support.

Sponsor David Medeiros brought that point home to me during a recent interview. After losing his son in a drunk driving accident, and lapsing into an alcohol-induced depression, David discovered a new purpose in life. He became a sponsor and rekindled those fatherly instincts he thought had died with the premature loss of his son, Bobby.

Sponsorship gave David the break he needed to take the focus off himself and instead place it on a young, innocent child who desperately needed someone to look up to. It’s given him so much joy, in fact, he now sponsors six children.

“I love these children like my own,” David brags, “and I treat each one of them differently. Each letter is different. And it’s personal between each one of them. To do what I’m doing...I love this! It’s a gift!”

A gift indeed. To be given the opportunity to guide the growth and development of a young life who counts on you for support and encouragement is a unique privilege – especially on Father’s Day.

So...if you haven’t bought dad something special for his big day, check out David’s story, “It’s Never too Late,” and then consider giving your own dad a gift sponsorship.  It’s way better than a tie, and it’ll give him the chance to share his wisdom and experience with another boy or girl who could definitely use a positive male role model.

By Garrett Kenyon

PART TWO

In our last posting, we discussed what we could learn from a picture of Paola, an unsponsored, impoverished child. Today, we turn our attention to how Paola’s life will change if someone reading this story decides to sponsor her.

Sponsorship would drastically change this picture. Paola would be examined by a medical professional, and if she were suffering malnutrition or other medical conditions, she’d be treated and given medicine until her health stabilizes. She would be given vitamins and monitored by health professionals, and even have access to a dentist when she needs one. She would receive gifts her family could use – like clothing, kitchen utensils and warm blankets.

Next, her education would begin. She’d be enrolled in school, and provided with a uniform, books and pens, and other supplies. For those hours of the day when school is in session, Paola could escape that alley, her mind able to run free. Education would awaken her mind and give her the opportunity to make new friends. She’d gain self-esteem, and a chance to dream of a better life. From the day she became sponsored, her odds of getting out of that alley would increase greatly.

Most importantly, sponsorship will show Paola that someone out there cares about her. This would change the way she sees the world and herself. It’s amazing that for just $22 a month, someone can enter Paola’s sad story and instantly change things for the better. Whoever decides to sponsor Paola will see many more pictures of her. In each one, the effects of sponsorship will become more apparent. Before long, Paola will be a healthy, confident young lady. Her sponsor will see pictures of her and think back to this sad little girl standing in an alley, unable to smile, and think, “Did I do that?”

The answer will be “Yes”.

To sponsor Paola, please call 1-800-888-3089.

By Garrett Kenyon

Strolling through the halls of Children International, the first thing one notices are pictures of children adorning every wall and decorating individual cubicles. It’s hard to be negative with dozens of beaming, beautiful kids smiling down at you. But not all the pictures show happy children.

As a writer, I’m faced each day with images of a different kind: hundreds, sometimes thousands, of poor, unsponsored children. Looking at so many sad kids can eventually inure one to the emotions such images generate. But occasionally, a picture brings all those feelings back again. You put the picture aside and try to get back to work, but find your eyes repeatedly slipping back for another look. You stare into the child’s sad eyes and try to imagine what their life might be like.



Each child has their own story, a unique set of harsh circumstances that has stolen the ubiquitous smile of childhood from their face. The photographs tell that story, and with a little practice, you learn to read the image like an open book.

The picture of Paola Mendez that arrived on my desk yesterday had that effect. Her image stayed in my mind all day, until I had to see the picture again. I examined it more carefully this time, letting my eyes go deeper to see what information I could glean about her life from the photograph.

The picture appears to have been taken in an alley. In the background, you can see canvas that serves as walls for Paola’s home. With scant protection from the elements, her nights must be cold and sometimes wet. A large metal post is visible, supporting a structure barely visible overhead, suggesting that the family lives under a bridge or in the shadow of an industrial structure. There are cooking utensils visible – hinting that the family has no kitchen. Kitchens are generally the second most important room in the house, so we can speculate that the members of this family do their living and sleeping in one room.

As if to highlight the unsanitary conditions, a puddle of what looks like urine snakes up to the foreground, just over Paola’s shoulder.

Next, we look at Paola. She wears a hair band, indicating that someone cares for her. However, the band has slipped and her hair is tangled and frizzy, suggesting she might not be getting the attention she needs. The dirt on her face and hands isn’t the kind a child picks up playing, but the kind that comes from being unwashed for days. This means the family probably has no bathroom or running water. Paola wears a thin, faded shirt, and her eyes are moist, as if she was recently crying.

Most disturbing is Paola’s expression. If joy was ever reflected in her face – it’s long gone. She seems unable to muster even the hint of a smile. The happiness that most of us associate with youth seems to have been stolen from this child.

From these observations, we can make some assumptions about Paola’s situation. The lack of sanitary facilities or a solid home indicates poverty at its most extreme. Her family struggles to survive, and she could be facing malnutrition and frequent illness. But disease and starvation aren’t the only dangers facing Paola.

On the streets of her city, she’s like a minnow among sharks. Mexico is home to some of the world’s largest and most violent drug cartels. The violence associated with such gangs often spills over into urban neighborhoods, where innocent bystanders get caught in the crossfire. Nearly half the population of Mexico lives in poverty, and poor families are often the hardest hit by crime and violence. When you add drugs and social diseases into the mix, a grim picture develops. Without help, Paola could be doomed to live her life in this alley, devoid of hope.

Luckily, that’s not how this story has to end...

Check back on Thursday to see the drastic changes that would occur in Paola’s life when she becomes sponsored.

To become part of Paola’s story by giving her the gift of sponsorship, call: 1-800-888-3089.