On the 2nd Day of Christmas My Sponsor Gave to Me...

Two Leather Shoes

I love shoes, and I have a closet full of them to prove it. I bet if I really wanted to I could wear a different pair each day for a month. Winter boots, tennis shoes, leather Mary Jane heels, pointy-toed stilettos, Grecian-style sandals. My choices are endless.

Sponsored children love shoes too. But they usually only have a pair or two. And if it weren’t for their sponsors and Children International, they might not own any at all.

When we drive through impoverished neighborhoods, we often spot children running around barefoot, exposed to the rocky, dirt terrain of their neighborhoods. When you think about the fact that it’s not unusual to find raw sewage in these areas, it’s enough to make you cringe. It’s easy to understand how children can pick up parasites, which can lead to a host of health problems.

Then we visit Children International’s community centers and watch children being fitted for new shoes – a gift for their birthday, Christmas or Easter. These shoes are often sturdy leather footwear or athletic shoes that can be worn for school activities or at home. They are designed to stand up against wear and tear and offer their feet vital protection.

Luz Fandiño from Barranquilla, Colombia tries on her new shoes.

I’m the first to admit that I take basic necessities like shoes for granted. But since I started sponsoring a child a few years ago, I’ve learned to appreciate everything I have, including my dozens of shoes.

Each morning as I select my pair of shoes for the day, I think of my sponsored child and am grateful he has shoes from Children International. Sponsorship benefits give him – and all the other children in our program – a foot up in the fight against poverty.

Posted on behalf of Erin Anderson.

Q&A with a Boy Named Gift

What is your favorite part of sponsorship?

My favorite part of sponsorship is when I receive things. My favorite was a set of pots I recently got. My mum was very excited and happy to have new pots.

What is your best memory about coming to the community center?

I was happy the first day I was allowed to read the the nice books on the shelves in the library.

What would you like to tell your sponsor?

I would like my sponsor to see my books and also visit my school and see how well I am performing - all because of her help.

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

A Reality Check

Posted on behalf of Deron Denton.

The recent heat wave here has been keeping people from getting outdoors as much as they had been earlier this summer. Therefore I hadn’t seen a neighbor for awhile until we touched base this weekend.

I asked him how he’d been.
“We are really hurting,” he said. He can’t afford to keep making payments on his truck because the grocery and electricity bills are starting to really eat into their budget. And they have home repair work that needs to be done but the cost of materials, he said, has gone up considerably.

I had just returned from filling up my car, so I could relate…but only a little. It does seem, though, like we are all tightening our belts and carefully watching the way we spend money. That conversation has reverberated in my mind, causing a bit of (irrational?) panic to set in regarding finances.

For a couple of years now, one of the first thoughts I have when I feel the pangs of financial insecurity is about a friend of mine named Aaron. He began sponsoring a child while going through his own financial woes. Yes, you read that correctly: he BEGAN sponsoring when he was feeling financially insecure. Granted (and he won’t mind me saying this), Aaron is a little different from many – still, that counter-intuitive reaction has stuck with me. Though I don’t want to tout the specific ways it has impacted my actions, his example has – occasionally – guided me.

I decided to send Aaron an email, asking if he’d explain this unusual philosophy. He opened up his reply with a description of something he calls “baglady” syndrome:

“It is that irrational fear probably based upon all the pressures of modern life to keep up our lifestyles with computers, iPods, TV's, cars, gas, mortgage, food, clothes and everything else whereby we fear we will lose our jobs, become homeless, trade aluminum cans for food money and hold up signs on the side of the road hoping for spare change knowing we will never actually ‘work for food.’
“I was having just such fears when I decided to sponsor a child at Children International. I have spent a lot of time in foreign countries where there is real poverty, even volunteering for years at an orphanage in rural Mexico.

“I have a soft spot for children in these countries and have ever since my first visit to Mexico with my Spanish class in 7th grade. My father gave me $100 for souvenirs but I quickly gave it all away to the beggars in Mexico City before we even got to Tasco or Acapulco. My heart ached for them. It was a sight I had never seen in the States and it tore me up then as it does still today.”


Aaron concluded his answer with this:

“So in my heart and head I knew in this land of plenty I would never be homeless unless I chose to be. And part of overcoming this fear for me was to sponsor a child through Children International. Last year, I called the field officer to see what her family most needed and was able to provide them with a monetary gift to buy these items.

“The letter I received after that tore me up. Genesis relayed to me that at 14-years old, it was the first time in her life she had a bed of her own. They sent me photos of all the new items they were able to buy and told me how much it changed their lives.


“I am still unsure about my future and my job and what life may bring my way, but I do know that as long as I help others I always seem to be provided for myself.”

I probably wouldn’t make such a suggestion to my neighbor who is feeling financially squeezed. But it is good to be reminded of my reality: I have everything I need – I lack nothing essential.
As our blog audience knows, that places me in a very fortunate position, indeed.

Have you had your eNews today?

Right on schedule, another edition of eNews is making its way to your email inbox. If you can’t wait until then, here’s a little taste of what July eNews has to offer:

- If you’ve ever wondered just what happens when a child goes to the community center to pick up a sponsorship gift, then The Boy of Eternal Smiles has a video (and a smile) to share with you.

-Mayra’s Life after Sponsorship is looking bright thanks to the support she received from her sponsor. Be sure to read what she said about her favorite sponsorship memory - it truly shows how important even the most common item can be to a needy child. (To read more about youth like Mayra, take a look at our Youth Report Card.)

-A powerful story from Mexico about one mother’s struggle with drugs and alcohol and how Children International helped her to sober up so she could be the mother her children always needed.

-In keeping with the Fourth-of-July spirit, Freedom from Poverty is a photo feature about a Guatemalan field officer who worked in a fireworks factory as a child to support himself and his family.

Did this pique your interest? If so, then read on!

Making Christmas Merry

It’s happened. I left the country for less than a week, and when I came back the Christmas season had arrived in Kansas City’s retail outlets.

Christmas has always been a magical time of year. Growing up as an American child in South America, I would read books from back home that were filled with pictures of snow, sleighs and roaring fires under mantles bedecked with decorations and stockings. Then I’d go outside into the 90° heat and see wilting Santas parading around in heavy velvet suits as the perspiration dripped off their faces. But the incongruities never made the season lose its magic.

But there really are kids in another world who never do more than hear about Christmas. Theirs is a world of scant survival, a world where their parents don’t make a big deal about Christmas so they won’t have to explain why there are never any presents; a world where Christmas really is just another day.

I’ve talked to families in the countries where we work about the gifts they receive through Children International and what they mean to them and to their children. Moms’ eyes get suspiciously misty as they invariably burst into fervent words of thanks. And almost without exception, when I ask them what their children would have received for Christmas had our sponsors not given them a gift, the answer is a quiet, “Nothing.”

If you are a Children International eNews subscriber, you’ll love reading next week about a little girl name Mayra and her first experience with a Children International gift distribution. And if you’re not a subscriber, you can become one by clicking here and then selecting the button on the right-hand side of the screen that says, “Sign Up for eNews.”

But what I really want to mention is the letter you most likely have received in the last few days from our CEO, Jim Cook. If you haven’t received it, please be on the lookout for it. Jim has written our sponsors because we’re coming into the Christmas season, and this is a time of year when we need all the help we can get in order to make sure each sponsored child has a magical Christmas.

So please, when you get the letter, give some serious thought to helping us give our sponsored children the best Christmas they’ve ever had. Or if you’d like to help out right now, simply visit the Children International home page and click where it says, “Give the gift of joy this holiday season.”

And…Thanks!

The Pervasiveness of Poverty

Posted on behalf of Erin Fitzgerald

Poverty transcends borders. It’s not bound by language, culture or race. And it’s merciless.

As we drove through neighborhoods in Santiago, Dominican Republic, this week, we could have been driving in any number of communities Children International serves in Latin America.

We walked along dirt roads with typical tiny shacks cobbled together with scrap wood and pieces of corrugated metal. As usual, we spotted children wandering barefoot over trash-strewn streets where animals like dogs, cats and chickens ran freely.

When we entered the homes of our sponsored families, we found what we usually do – a couple beds, a table, a few chairs and not much else. The more fortunate families have a decent bathroom, a stove to cook on and access to clean water. Others go without.

The struggles poor people in Santiago face aren’t unique. They’re the same challenges that families in our agencies across the globe face. They long for decent work so they can adequately feed their children. They struggle with common health conditions like parasites and respiratory infections that unhygienic living conditions breed. And they wish they had money for the little extras that bring so much joy – like a simple gift to celebrate a birthday.

Despite the overwhelming obstacles these families face, they make the most of what they are given and are overwhelmed with gratitude at the support sponsorship provides – medical care, gifts for special occasions and educational programs. I’ve heard more words of thanks on this trip than I can count. These families don’t long for money or success but simply for the tools to achieve a decent way of life and ultimately help others like them.

As Leidy, a sponsored youth served by our Santiago agency explained to me, “It’s not about getting a job where I can have a big house, get rich and have lots of cars. It’s more about helping other people and being able to give back.”

There’s no doubt that poverty is pervasive and indiscriminate. Let’s hope that when we finally put a stop to it, the cure will be too.

Easter Shoes

Posted on behalf of Arlene De Vera, Manila, Philippines

For over a year now I have been the communications coordinator for Children International-Manila, and I have seen poverty in many shapes and forms, and to different depths and extent. Our agency assists over 23,000 needy children. I get a lot of opportunities to interact with them and learn about their triumphs and challenges, and each time the experience either leaves a familiar dull pain in my heart or I rejoice with them.

As I entered Rio’s home last week I didn’t feel the usual impact. Rio Beltran is a 34-year-old volunteer area leader helping the agency operate its largest center in Quezon City (near Manila) and a father of two sponsored children, Lovely Sophia, 7, and Richelle Joy, 8. They live on a meager allowance, which Rio receives from the government as barangay tanod (village watcher) and for doing errands for their neighbors.

As he graciously welcomed us, I got disoriented and was unsure of where he was leading us. Were we in a covered entrance or in the house already? It was 10:00 a.m., yet it was very dark inside because they don’t have electricity. He opened a window, the only one they have, and slowly I was able to see the whole place.

The old house is literally bare; it’s clean, but it looks – and reeks – like a pigpen. The smell could be coming from a canal just feet away from their door that serves as their convenient multi-purpose washing area where they brush their teeth and bathe. Aside from a dilapidated cabinet where their kitchen utensils and other things precious to them are kept, and a rundown, wooden bed in their bedroom (which can be entered only by going in sideways through a very narrow opening), the family has nothing else.

This picture was stuck in my head even after we joined other sponsored children and youth at SM Mall, where they do their Easter Gift shopping. My heart aches for these two children and I couldn’t imagine how they are able to live under such pitiful condition.

When Lovely Sophia happily showed to her father a pair of black boots, it was like showing the best find in the whole world! “The Lord has been so good! I just got a new pair of shoes and I could even buy slippers to replace my old pair!” I got goose bumps upon hearing these words. For a child who watches TV from someone else’s window (that is often closed upon learning that she is there), drinks from salvaged cups of instant noodles, and is only able to taste a good meal on her birthdays because she visits her godmother who cooks for her, it was a concrete demonstration of unfaltering faith not many people could muster.

It was the first time the two children received material benefits from Children International, so I asked Rio how it was accompanying the kids to shop. There was a lull and when I looked at him, he was holding back his tears but could not hide his emotions. “I was like on air seeing that joy in their eyes which I realized I had not seen since their mother passed away almost four years ago. I’m thankful that what I couldn’t provide for my children is generously given to them by people we don’t even know!” said Rio in between sobs. He got one of each of his daughters’ slippers and showed them to me. “These slippers should have long been discarded but I repair them every now and then so my children will have something to use. I’m so happy that finally they will wear new ones!”

I froze when I realized how a pair of new shoes and slippers could make such a difference, while Mabel, an officemate who was with me to help cover the Easter Gift distribution, couldn’t hold back her tears.


There are nights that I think about Lovely Sophia and Richelle Joy. I imagine them lying on their wooden bed which squeaks whenever they move while their father wonders how to make ends meet the next day. I sigh in relief thinking that although sponsorship cannot not provide everything this family needs (they are grateful just to have a bowl of rice and salt), it could very well take away the fear of a father that his children might not have a chance to finish school.

So, if you ask me about the significance of Easter to the children we help…? It’s about raising hope for Lovely Sophia, Richelle Joy and the 23,000 other children and youth they represent. And I thank all of you for making this possible.

Arlene De Vera is the communications coordinator for Children International's agency in Manila, Philippines.

Living Letters

Last week we posted about the opening of the Nicole Lyn Anderson community center in Colombia. In today's post, we want to share with you the story of Nicole's visit with her sponsored child, Luz, during a November 2004 trip to Barranquilla. This story was written by Damon Guinn and appeared in the May 2006 Children International eNews.

Tomorrow, Nicole's husband, Brian, shares his emotional journey as the center named in his wife's memory was inaugruated.

“I know this family is going to make it,” Nicole Anderson confides while pointing to a picture of exuberant Colombians.

Nicole, anxious to talk about her trip to Barranquilla, Colombia, had recently returned from visiting her sponsored child, Luz, after dropping off some gifts for a relative’s sponsored child, Carolina.

“When I arrived at Carolina’s home, her little sister, Stephany, leaped into my arms,” Nicole says, still clearly excited about the experience. Her entire family came out in celebration.

“It was so much fun to see how happy they were,” she exclaims, especially after presenting the girls with art supplies, stuffed animals, and a photo album of her family. “Their mother, Jacqueline, was so moved by the photographs and presents, she gave me a very special picture of her family. It was probably one of their only photos.”

The visit convinced Nicole to sponsor Stephany once she returned home to Kansas City. Soon after returning, she sent the family the pictures she had taken during her visit. In a matter of weeks, a letter from Jacqueline arrived in her mailbox.

Turning to a letter now pasted in her photo album, Nicole reads, “We remember the day you were here with us a lot. Stephany is very happy with all the pictures where you appear. She shows them to everybody that comes to our house.”

And that was just the first visit, the one that was supposed to be a quick stopover, Nicole continues. Her trip to see Luz, her first sponsored child, was even more gratifying.

“Luz ran out of her house yelling, ‘Mí madre! Mí madre!’” (My mother! My mother!) Nicole pantomimes while flipping to a picture of the slightly cross-eyed girl beaming at the camera. “She jumped into my arms, wrapped her legs around my waist and gave me a big kiss on the cheek.”

Despite the ragged conditions of the house and the family’s obvious hardship, she says Luz was all smiles and remained draped around her neck throughout the visit.

Pointing to a picture of Luz wearing a Carnival mask Nicole had given her, she turns to her most cherished letter. In uneven, curlicue letters, the happy-go-lucky girl has penned, “I am very happy to have met you…I also wish to see you again very soon to hug you and give you lots of kisses.”

“These letters are like love letters – they’re read over and over again,” admits Nicole, clearly smitten.

Even if other sponsors don’t have the opportunity to visit their children, she encourages them to write and send pictures so they, too, will experience the joy of connecting with their sponsored children.

“It’s life-changing,” she concludes. “That’s all I can say.”

Inauguration of the Nicole Lyn Anderson Community Center

On Wednesday, March 21, 2007 we officially inaugurated the newly constructed Nicole Lyn Anderson Community Center in Barranquilla, Colombia, in the community of Soledad.

The center is designed to provide services and benefits to at least 5,000 sponsored children – many of whom represent generations of the poor here in Soledad. The word soledad means “loneliness” – but it is lonely no longer. Happiness and hope arrived in the form of an incredible community center, which will serve children and families in need for decades.

Children International was not alone in its dedication to this project. Agency director Hermelinda Guarín succeeded in obtaining many local donations including building supplies, installation of electrical and water services and more. Of particular note, the Rotary Club donated a 99 year lease on the property.

An important feature of the center is its library. The library has been dedicated to a life long member of the Children International family: Dorothy Koch, who retired just a few months ago after 41 years of service!

Dignitaries, invited guests, children and their families arrived late in the afternoon while the sun was still hot, but the wind provided a breeze to keep everyone cool. The center has a large area in front of the main entrance paved with donated brick and the labor of volunteers. Hundreds of white chairs were placed under a large tent to shade the guests. The festive air was completed by the Navy band who treated the crowd to a very lively musical set complete with horns and percussion.

Also in attendance were several Children International staff from Kansas City including President Jim Cook. Representing Children International’s Kansas City board were Larry Lee and Joan Horan.

Make sure to visit us again next week to learn more about the woman the center is named after, Nicole Lyn Anderson, as her family shares their experience from this overwhelming and emotional event.

Brian Anderson, husband of Nicole Lyn Anderson, poses with their three sponsored children.

A Party for Lizzy

As a photographer for Children International, I’ve met hundreds -- if not thousands -- of sponsored children around the world. I was excited to learn that my next assignment would take me to Lusaka, Zambia, where I would meet my own sponsored child, Lizzy, for the first time.

I became Lizzy’s sponsor last summer after my sponsored child of 13 years, Karl, graduated from the sponsorship program. Upon realizing that I would be in Lusaka on her birthday, I started planning how I could make this special day for Lizzy.

When I met 6-year-old Lizzy at her aunt's home, she was quiet and shy. Her mother had passed away only a few months earlier and her father was no longer around. She now lives with her aunt and cousins, who have taken Lizzy and her siblings into their own family. With so many children who’ve been orphaned due to AIDS and forced to live on the streets, I was comforted by the fact that her family was caring and she had a safe place to call home.

I arrived in Lusaka hoping for two suitcases to come off the plane, but found that only one had made it to Zambia with me. Although clean clothes would’ve been nice, I was thankful it was the suitcase full of gifts that my friends, family and I had purchased and carefully packed for Lizzy and her family. It would be five days before the suitcase with clean clothes would finally catch up with me!

Later, we arrived at the new CI community center for an afternoon of birthday fun. The staff had cheerfully decorated one of the rooms and had snacks and treats for everyone to enjoy. With her first birthday party ever in full swing, the cake and gifts arrived and Lizzy’s face glowed with smiles. And so did mine...for I had received the best gift of all...a huge hug from Lizzy.

Posted on behalf of Greg, a long-time Children International photographer who has traveled around the world capturing the essence of our sponsored children and their communities in hopes of giving sponsors a glimpse into our children's daily lives. Look for more from Greg next week as he, Damon (a staff writer for Children International) and I travel to Honduras.