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A change of strategy

MSC archived stories - May 13, 2023

Tlajomulco Community Center in Chulavista, Jalisco is the latest of 5 CI Community Centers in Mexico, which was inaugurated over a decade ago in 2012 [youtu.be/A4cNbIKADlc]. I'm new to this CC, not had a child from there until now. The area is well known for houses in abandonment and violence.

 

With my own experiences of children's untimely departure along with a girl in extreme poverty who recently got married at teens (the news broke to me this week) and about to graduate from the program, or families bringing more children into the world during your sponsorship – all have a common theme of children "living with parents", which plays a big role in shaping their future beyond a sponsor can possibly envisage. Yet, I'm very fortunate to bare witness to hopeful faces of CI, whose lives have truly changed for the better through sponsorship… by you and me being part of this!

 

Coming out of a global pandemic, I was pleasantly surprised to see the full swing of CI activities resumed in earnest at the Lawrence T. Phelan Community Center in the Dominican Republic [youtu.be/ZPKd_1F8QLc]. It was filmed around 9:30am. How amazing to see the youth take part in the program activities during school vacation and the staff dedication is simply incomprehensible!

 

On the back of the aforementioned, a change of strategy is required for me to move forward. Neyli and indeed my unexpected two gems from Chulavista – born at the height of the pandemic and just joined me this week are all from 'single parent' families, giving much valued presence of me in their lives.

 

What can I say, definitely need some guidance on how to approach the twins. After all, most of us will never be called the wrong name in error, most of us can never look at a mirror image of ourselves and then turnaround to see the same image but in 3D standing right behind you! Without even realising isn't this going to be the scariest of all sponsorship I have ever embarked on? But one thing is for sure, if one decides to leave the program early I can assure you that the other will too but how can I cope with the double loss at an instance.. help!!

 

Lastly, as I'm acutely mindful of the danger of writing too often, especially if children are too young and the parent(s) don't have much time to adhere to sponsorship responsibilities of writing back to the sponsor, so shall happily leave the CI to do its wonders!

Comments

  1. You are sponsoring twins!! That is so cool, Chelaka— they will adore you. I don't have any advice except to be yourself, with your kind heart. How can you go wrong?

    May 15, 2023

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  2. Ohh what a lovely set of twins! I wonder how they got such different names..I am used to twins having almost the same name.. my lovely Wenderlis has an identical twin sister called Wirlanis.. she mentions her in a lot of letters.

    May 16, 2023

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  3. They are super adorable! How fun will it be to watch them grow up and see how they are different and similar?? Congratulations on your new journey!

    May 16, 2023

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  4. I hope that you will keep the twins and keep us updated! I sponsored a girl named Orianna in Colombia for a short time who is also a twin, but then I decided that I did not want to sponsor her. My reason for not sponsoring her was because CI had said that the girl did Sign Language, but that was corrected to Spanish later on.

    May 16, 2023

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  5. Welcome to Neyli and your darling little twins. I love your perseverance!

    May 17, 2023

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  6. Thank you for the interest! They're my youngest as well as siblings to sponsor ever; both turning 3 on May 28, no better time to start receiving benefits. As they develop, instead of me looking at by 'sameness' I wish to let individual characters define who they are!

    May 18, 2023

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  7. I don't sponsor twins but I sponsor siblings (Jesus and Nalloby). I like to be involved with the family even more and see the children growing up.

    May 19, 2023

    ReplyDelete

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