On the fourth day of Christmas, my sponsor gave to me...

Four gifts throughout the year

I remember it like it was yesterday...

The Sears catalog would arrive in the mail, and my brothers and I – in an act of unusual solidarity – would spend day after day researching the toy section, dog-earing pages and itemizing must-haves. Lists were drawn up, meticulously revised and then narrowed down by the process of elimination.

Our excitement could hardly be contained when we finally reached the wee hours of Christmas morning. The record player would start to skip through its fourth rotation of “Silent Night,” and we would lie wide-eyed in bed listening to the sound of scissors slicing through wrapping paper, trying to visualize how large our gifts were.

A few unbearable hours later, we’d throw back the sheets, go rouse our parents from a brief night’s slumber, and beg our dad to go downstairs and make sure Santa had remembered to stop by. Finally, we’d hear the words we’d waited for all year long…“Okay, it’s all clear!”

Tumbling down the stairs and into the living room, we’d discover a picture-perfect Christmas setting full of shiny new toys and packages glimmering in the golden haze of Christmas lights. It was every child’s dream come true.

Seeing sponsored children receive gifts during our four annual gift distributions is like being a child at Christmas all over again. I see the same excitement and sense of wonder that I myself experienced as a child.

Blessings Changwe couldn’t stop smiling when she received her Christmas gift last year. “I want to tell my sponsor thank you very much and that I hope she had a happy Christmas,” Blessings said. “This gift means that I now have something to keep me warm at night.”

Weeks before a gift distribution takes place – no matter if it’s Christmas, Easter, Birthdays or Special Hug Day – sponsored children start begging their parents to tell them what they’re going to receive. That’s because their parents, like Secret Santas, help us choose what gifts their children need and want most.

And boys and girls are usually so excited they can barely sleep the night before. They even wake up earlier than normal so they can be first in line. Running to the center, their eyes light up the moment they see their friends and neighbors clutching packages that contain gifts like colorful new clothes or shoes, backpacks, books and art kits.

The gifts children receive may not be as lavish as what I was fortunate to find waiting for me on Christmas morning, but they are just as excited about what they receive – and far more grateful.

On those special days when we host gift distributions, sponsored children are the center of attention – and unlike so many other days filled with poverty and hardship – everything seems right with the world.

Posted on behalf of Damon Guinn

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.