Flashback to my early days!

This video titled “Sing it to the Mountains” was made during where 32 CI youth from around the world gathered in Kansas City for the 3rd International Youth Conference (IYC) – that was 14yrs ago but will stay long in my memory, going back to the time when I became a sponsor. For a week, the delegates studied leadership, worked on team building and completed exercises to boost their confidence. I believe that was the last time we've seen biennial IYC in action, but the surrounding beautiful park where CI headquarters located was an idyllic place to meet as it's today.

IYC would be a great way for us to connect to the organization as a whole rather than through our individual sponsorship. However, I believe nowadays roadshows like this can be done online with sponsor interaction virtually as it happens to be the case in the corporate world during current Covid lockdown.

Another flashback memory was that of reading a story in Journeys (unfortunately no longer in publication) so vividly and was just searching for the magazine in my archives, but could not find anywhere. It was about an extraordinary sponsor who made an organ donation to save her sponsored child’s life and her trip (to Honduras?) to see where the child is as she had left the program without her knowing. I believe this remarkable story was featured in Spring or Winter edition of 2006. I searched online, but was able to find only a handful of the recent editions but not this one. I'd appreciate if anyone can help locate a copy for me.

Also, while doing my research, I saw this cover page of Summer 2010 edition, which is not the version I received in print. It talks about Uganda, but as far as I know CI never operated there, even though was then exploring prospects of expanding operations to Kenya in Africa. Have you heard of CI Uganda?

Finally, a quiz for anyone interested:

When did CI officially become known as Children International? (hint: When the child sponsorship program started exactly four decades ago in 1980, it was still called the Holy Land Christian Mission)
Who was the very first sponsored child and from where? (hint: Featured in Journeys, Winter 2008)

Comments

As the 2022 draws to a close..

My life devoted to helping the children of this world started exactly 17 years ago on this day with Children International. Initially I was looking for a child sponsorship program through UK based organisation because every $ or £ I donate the UK government would have added 25% on top (as opposed to less Income Tax taken off from your earnings in the USA). In other words, living and working in the UK, yet supporting a charity outside the country won't have any tax benefits to either myself or CI. It was a big decision for me personally. I did my research and decided to go with CI and another international program based here for a year just to compare the services. CI stood up to my expectations despite losing that extra governmental support. It was very different or (should I say) the golden time of this organisation. Today, my sponsorship world spans across 3 continents with CI and 3 other local NGOs based in Bhutan and Sri Lanka. In fact my Bhutanese sponsorship inspired by a sto

World of Delicious Recipes

I recently asked the children in my second 'group letter' to write a recipe for a healthy dish. They were asked to imagine that one day I travel afar from Scotland to come see them, and they are going to make a special dish just for me. Before my travel, a food bag will be delivered to their home, which contains the following items & ingredients costing total of less than $10. 1) Mix vegetable packet, 2) Pack of tomatoes, 3) Packet of red onions, 4) Rice packet, 5) Tinned salmon, 6) Olive oil bottle, 7) Curry powder, 8) Chilli powder, 9) Fresh green chillies, 10) Cooking salt. Assuming they have all the pots/pans/utensils, the challenge was to write a set of instructions for preparing their dish but only using the above list, name the dish and finally, as a paying customer how much would they charge me for the meal. I was looking for their best of culinary skills to prepare a recipe for a nutritious and tasteful dish. To my astonishment, Aaron from Guayaquil has

Visit to Mundo Petapa

After our long awaited reunion voyage, I thought taking back down the memory lane to remember times of joy CI sponsorship brought to us all. The younger sister, Nicole, niece, grandmother and the parents joined Estephanie to celebrate her 9th birthday anniversary at Mundo Petapa , an amusement park in Guatemala City. This park was inaugurated over four decades ago. There the family discovered various fun activities, especially being enjoyed by the father gave enormous boost to excitement, along with a break for the main event in the cafeteria – what a memorable day made possible by the staff at CI Mariscal! (photos added to my SCS blog ) As I learn about the family closely now, they are not just fun loving but well known and respected in the community. I'm full of admiration for their advocacy by getting children involved in every aspect of life. And Estephanie being 'ahijada' (goddaughter) is a very special honor any sponsor can ever dreamed for. Today, my care in h

Children.org Sponsorship

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