MSC archived stories - June 12, 2022
South African award-winning singer, songwriter, model, entrepreneur and author. The first African to be honoured with a one-of-a-kind Barbie doll made in her likeness.
All these new to me, but thanks to Juliana I learned who this person is because…
When Juliana joined me 5 years ago (age 6), I organised my welcome gift to her through a company based in the UK. The plan was to get them to ship it directly to the Philippines.
A lot of back and forth discussion went on between us for 2 weeks before I made up my mind to go ahead. As agreed, the order was placed online with my note to Juliana.
Also, soon afterward I emailed (Pat) my letter to Juliana, who was in charge of the shipment to be printed and put inside the package.
What happened next is anyone's guess...
I was waiting anxiously a response from Pat to find out how things went. 2 days went by with no news, so wrote to their customer services only to find that Pat was off-sick and the package had already gone but no letter inside.
On Pat's return I told her what has happened and she felt so bad after all preparation done and it was a gift to my newly sponsored child. She decided to kindly initiate a new order by herself at their expense, not only the doll and the art materials but also a cuddly bear with Juliana's name imprinted to go with it.
Pat took photos of everything and asked me if I'm happy with it before proceeding to shipment. On the same afternoon, the box left the UK. To this day, I don't know what did Juliana make of getting 2 dolls one after another, perhaps thought that I could not express enough the joy of having her in my life!
In her recent letter, Juliana drew a picture of a girl and named 'Lira', so I checked her family record to see if a new addition to the family, yes there are two more but none called by this name. I wrote back and asked Juliana who's Lira – she replied, which led me to know the real Lira. And I then enjoyed listening to her beautiful yet meaningful songs.
Now I know, no matter how famous she is a doll name ‘Lira’ too lives with Juliana, and not to mention Pat's much appreciation for the work I do.
(photos, etc added to media)
This is lovely, Chelaka. You are such a caring sponsor! (And I’m going to have to look this singer up :)
ReplyDeleteJune 14, 2022
barbmc
ReplyDeleteI don't understand what reasons a sponsor has for asking an employee of some business to include a second letter in a sealed package that comes directly from the manufacturer, business , or third parties instead of sending it through CI? I don't feel like it's their job to facilitate letters between sponsors and their sponsored children. Does the staff open and check these DPs like they do DPs that are sent directly from sponsors? I've never heard of a sponsor doing this before, and want to be sure that it's an acceptable and appropriate thing to do and the information, privacy and safety of children and sponsors is protected..
June 14, 2022
All DP's (no matter from where/whom they arrive from) are opened and checked at the Central Office to ensure all items enclosed, including letters or cards, are appropriate prior to being given to the youth and the family.
ReplyDeleteJune 14, 2022
It was a custom made doll, apron with her name embroidered in the factory, where all my requirements were discussed beforehand. If you scroll down my media to the very beginning you will see a picture of Juliana (in different outfit) receiving first dispatch and a few days later the identical second package with a bonus bear (Pat's choice). What puzzled me was that she drew only one picture of the twin dolls (albeit gone through a significant makeover in the past 5yrs!) what could have happened to Lira's twin sister. I can only imagine when playing with Lira, Juliana must have developed empathy for her new born sister and given it to her. (read this interesting article – https://blog.frontiersin.org/2020/10/01/human-neuroscience-child-play-dolls-cognitive-social-benefits-children)
ReplyDeleteJune 14, 2022