These are a Few of My Favorite Things...about Sponsorship

I have fond childhood memories of sitting down with my family, the Trapp family, and watching the The Sound of Music together. Listening to Julie Andrews happily singing “My Favorite Things,” we couldn’t help but join in too. “Silver-white winters that melt into spring, these are few of my favorite things...” It’s a catchy tune.

Sponsorship is no doubt one of my favorite things too. Now, I know I’m a little biased since I work for Children International, but I’m also a sponsor. I sponsor a little boy in Mexico, and a group of my coworkers and I sponsor a young lady in Rural Guatemala. While I’m not going to sing about it, I thought I would take a moment today to share just a few of my favorite things about sponsorship:

-Letters from my sponsored child. I love getting mail, and if it comes from my sponsored kiddos, all the better.

- The pictures of course. I always get a kick out of their toothy grins (or seeing how many teeth they’ve lost since the last photo.)

-Knowing that I’m helping a needy child.

If you’d like to share your favorite things about sponsorship, we’d love to hear from you. Open a thread on our Google Groups page and tell us your story.

It’s so much more than design... It’s creativity!

Every wonder what’s behind the design of the child letters you receive? Javier Cárcamo, the Communications Coordinator at our agency in rural Guatemala, explains how the letters from children at his agency reach their finished form.

The forms that children use to write letters to their sponsors are something more than just graphic design. In our agency, these forms are an exercise in creativity that go through many processes to guarantee that the letter templates are attractive and functional. We keep the sponsors who receive them in mind, as well as the children who must feel motivated to write.

The process begins when the bilingual assistants give their recommendations based on their translation methods in order to maximize their output.

The Communications Coordinator immediately gets to work interpreting their suggestions into graphic designs. These designs are based on several factors: the appearance that the agency decides upon, educational principles that are sensitive to the rural Guatemalan culture, achievements and limitations, as well as the social obligation to make the letters have an educational function. All of the above must respect the guidelines set by Children International. The templates are then proofed by children, youth and Field Officers who make their observations.

Once the changes are made, our Director supervises and checks the final designs so that the Sponsor Relations Departments in both the Regional Office and in Kansas City can authorize their printing. Then follow up work is performed in color mixing and in the actual printing of the letter templates. Now that’s TEAM WORK!

Paper Treasures

Things that seem small to you and me can mean the world to a child who has virtually nothing of her own. When we asked Faith, from Manila, Philippines, what was the first thing she would show her sponsor if she came to visit, her simple reply spoke volumes:

“I will show them all their letters to me which I read over and over again.”

Photo by Arlene De Vera, from Children International’s agency in Manila.