Handing Out Hugs

Today is Special Hug Day, the day we set aside each year to honor the families of our sponsored children. Each family receives practical items to make their daily lives easier and more comfortable.

Take a moment to view this slideshow of last year’s Special Hug celebration. And please accept our heartfelt thanks for helping us send our sponsored children and their families a useful token of our appreciation for them.

Have You Hugged Your (Sponsored) Child Today?

Chances are, you’ve heard from us by mail, email or both in the last few days about something we call “Special Hug.”

And you may be asking yourself, “What in the world is Special Hug?”

Most of our activities center specifically around our sponsored children. However, once a year -- September 17 -- we give them a gift that is designed to help their whole family.


For most of us, it’s hard to imagine a plastic chair, a laundry bucket or a set of dishes being a major investment. But that’s exactly what it would be for most of our sponsored children’s families.

By giving them items similar to these each year, we let the moms and dads of sponsored children know we think about them as well…and we want to make their lives just a little bit easier.

I hope you’ll take a moment if you haven’t already – either through our website, www.children.org, or by filling in the form you receive in the mail – to send a small gift for the children and their families.

It may be a small gift – but it’s a big deal for them.

The Comfort of a Hug

September 17 is a special day at Children International. It’s the day we celebrate each year as “Special Hug Day”…and chances are you’ve received something in the mail about it.

Special Hug Day is probably one of the Children International initiatives people know the least about. But for the families of our sponsored children, it’s a big deal. Our sponsorship program unites a single sponsor with a single child, so most of what we do is necessarily child-centered; however, on Special Hug Day we do something special for the whole family. Because the children are so poor, they rarely if ever are able to give gifts to their parents and siblings, so this is the one day each year they can feel like they are directly responsible for something good coming to their families.

The gifts we give for Special Hug Day are practical items – so practical, in fact, that some might wonder why they’re so special. We might not find chairs, shelves, pans, dishes or other household supplies very exciting, but just last week I saw some things that put it all in perspective.

I just returned from Cartagena, Colombia, where we spent several days working in La Ciénaga de la Virgen (the Swamp of the Virgin), one of the poorest and most desolate areas of Cartagena. This is an area that routinely floods to depths of 3 or 4 feet during the rainy season…and the flimsy shacks the families of our sponsored children live in are demolished by the floods, leaving the families to start over from scratch each year.

Children swarmed around us, practically fighting over our empty plastic water bottles. I asked one little girl who very politely asked if she could have mine what she wanted it for. She told me she wanted it so she could take a drink to school.

In another community we met a sweet little girl named Veronica. Veronica’s dad was murdered a couple of years ago, and her mom was in the hospital when we met her. Her family has a single bed to sleep in and only one chair.

That’s why Special Hug Day is such a big deal.

By giving families items that provide a basic level of comfort, we increase their dignity and make their incredibly difficult lives just a little bit easier. So why not swing by Children International’s website and learn more about Special Hug Day and how you can send someone needy the comfort of a hug?