But receiving that envelope in your mailbox is just the culmination of a pretty involved process – a process that begins at a Children International community center half a world away. In today’s post I want to give you a peek at what it takes for you to receive a letter from your sponsored child.
Often, the journey begins when your sponsored child visits the Children International community center in his or her area to write you a letter. Children who are too young to write will be accompanied by an older family member who will do the writing for them, but older children write the letters themselves. Many of our community centers serve around 5,000 children, so you can imagine the hustle and bustle at letter writing time!
When all the children have written their letters, the letters are collected and taken to the agency’s central office for scanning. Then they are boxed up and shipped to Kansas City. Just to give you an idea of the volume of letters, Jessica estimates that she handles 40-60,000 pieces of child-related correspondence every month!
Once Jessica receives the shipments of letters from the agencies (all 18 of them), she launches a complex process that involves scanning the letters again, creating an envelope file, printing the envelopes, folding the letters and matching letters with envelopes. To ensure accuracy and quality, each child letter envelope is hand-stuffed and double-checked before finally being mailed out to the sponsor.
You might think that, after handling so many letters from children to sponsors, child letters might lose their magic for our employees who handle the mail – many of whom are sponsors themselves. But Jessica assures us that’s not the case. “[The letters from my sponsored child] would have to be the letters that really touch me personally and I read over and over, and I can’t wait for the next one to come in the mail,” she insists.
There’s another unique angle to Jessica’s work, though. She is not the first person in her family to handle letters from children to sponsors. Until her retirement late last year after 41 years of service, Jessica’s grandmother, Dorothy Koch, also worked with child correspondence. And besides making sure you received your child’s letters, Dorothy always took care of another very important responsibility here at Children International: She was the one who put the coffee on to brew in the morning!
“I like to think that I have filled her shoes well,” says Jessica of her grandmother. “I think that she has helped me become the hard worker that I am today. Children International has a special place in her heart and I believe it does hold the same special place in mine.”
Jessica is carrying on her grandmother’s work in more ways than one. Your child’s letters are still reaching you safe and sound…and the coffee is still brewed fresh every morning.
Top: Jessica is a vital link between sponsors and their sponsored children.
Middle: Jessica and the smiling "Letter Ladies" of Children International.
Bottom: Dorothy seals 41 years of faithful service with a cake and the best wishes of all her co-workers.
