A Place to Call Home

The Philippines, home to 7,641 islands where Juliana lives is a place of constant battle against the elements – typhoons, earthquakes, flooding and volcanic eruptions. Any child's upbringing in this environment defines not only the challenges of nature but also the poverty looming around. Yet, I'm truly inspired by her spirited determination to overcome and be force for change in the world. At tender age of 9, she understands the importance of protecting our environment and species living on the planet.

Some of you may know that Juliana has been the face of CI marketing campaigns to raise funds for dental care and awareness of mental wellbeing. As her sponsor, the inevitable fame of her sensational "acting career" has put me in a responsible position to do something special for the family.

The family of Juliana lives in the house of their paternal grandparents since she was born. In 2018, the family decided to have their own home just beside the grandparents’ house. Relatives who own the land have allowed them to construct a house as part of their land inheritance. Every time the family would save some money, they secure materials for its construction. They were able to construct posts with unfinished walling.

Late last year, I decided to help fund the continuation of the unfinished work of the family’s dream house, which was their top priority at the time. While we are not yet out of the woods with Covid, the house construction was a great opportunity for people who were struggling to find work during this time.

As planned, the family and staff went ahead with the project to construct the walls plus windows, install metal sheets for the roofing, and concreting the floor. They already identified skilled labor to do the work, and the hardware materials were purchased through the CI agency accredited vendors.

When I just received the final report, I was overwhelmed to see Juliana in her new home.. a more comfortable and safer place to live; can feel myself living inside right there! I wasn’t expecting things to have progressed at such rapid pace, and for the housewarming how wonderful to bring full of food inside to an auspicious moment of celebration.

And finally I’m blessed to have and support this beautiful family in the program. A massive thanks to everyone involved in overseeing and persevering with the project at this very difficult time.

Comments

DP to Zambia

MSC archived stories - January 18, 2025 Usually the turnaround time for DP is 4 weeks. It's been a month to next Sunday (Jan 26th) since UPS collected and successfully delivered my DPs to Dulce and the twins. Two years later, last night Simon appeared in my profile as a grown up man. As we aren't getting follow up photos from Zambia anymore, for the first time thought trying DPs to Faith and Simon there, so they will have to come to CC to collect it, where the staff will have a camera to take photos. I remember Zambia used to have the whole family gatherings for EG photoshoot out. So, are there anything special they would be more excited receiving? For example, a football or cricket bat & ball set for Simon, and for Faith.. (no idea!.. may be something to make her elegant hairstyle she has in the latest photo..?). Help me make the list, of course, I don't want to make staff jealous

Pause for Thought! – The value of sponsorship

MSC archived stories - March 2, 2019 As we know the sponsorship does not demand us to write, send special needs or extra gifts to our children, but being a "silent" sponsor does your monthly contribution bring real value (for money) – especially if you live outside the USA, you or CI don't even get tax benefits of your charitable donation? Is this because most sponsors can't afford anymore than the monthly fee to sponsor a child or trust CI so much that they do not feel needing to play an active role in their sponsored child(ren)'s lives to have an impact? The sponsorship rewards both sponsor and the child through exchange of letters. Then we have social media platforms, like MSC to share our experiences with fellow sponsors – all can be done for free and bring closer understanding of each other and building friendships for life! But above all sponsorship motivates your child to attend their community center more often not only for letter reading/writing but a...

A step in a higher level journey

Estephanie is my former sponsored child through Children International, whom I cared for four and a half years since she was just 6yrs old. She is a gifted and bright child brought up in a loving family of four in Guatemala. Her abrupt departure from the sponsorship program in June 2019 was totally unexpected, even though I was acutely aware of their situation in the family a s well as the city leading up to this moment. Estephanie is not just any sponsored child, but someone who changed my life forever devoting to children in need. For that reason, I call her ‘my miracle little princess’ and she calls me ‘padrino’ (her godfather). In August 2020, fourteen months after her leaving CI, we met again and reunited with the family. It was our momentous encounter of this lifetime. The family has moved on leaving everything behind to start a new life abroad. More importantly , I was fortunate enough to see Estephanie growing up fast in a new world since I last saw her back home. At age...

Children.org Sponsorship

Search This Blog