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 story I wrote at the height of the pandemic "Missing of school..". Thanks to UNICEF guidance, I was able to help Dechen beyond even I had imagined.. the school principal accompanied by the whole staff going to her house situated in the beautiful Himalayan mountainous terrain to handover my EG items was unprecedented – don't you think?
I take pride in my sponsorship to be enriched by conversations children have with me, speaking of which my two Zambian children being somewhat chatty divas! Let's talk about life in the Kanyama compound in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia.. (Take 1) Simon and (Take 2) Faith.
Both Simon and Faith seem to have only 4hrs a day with a break time at primary school. They are learning to read and write, and I'm tempting to ask Faith who’s 'Faith' is doing well at school – mine or yours! Will she be shy away or forthright? What do you think of Zambian children's attitude be like?
Since I did not receive follow-up photos of Faith's new bed, I'm holding up the same for Simon until Zambia is able to facilitate this (any idea when that will be?) With that in mind, both will find an Atlas useful too.
As the year draws to a close, it's very unusual to hear absolutely nothing from the CI leadership team this year, particularly on whether or not Care Team staff will ever be returning to CIKC (surprisingly all still work from home), which could make a big difference in keeping the morale and delivering great service. I used to send a year-end gift when they all worked together in one place. At least operating in hybrid working patterns would have been the best outcome for CI from Covid legacy before we even address other matters (visitations, physical letters, DP, etc).
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