Sponsor a child

I went to Plan international and I actually sponsored a child. It was amazing to see her little picture on the website and know that I will soon be exchanging letters with her and donating to help her get access to clean water and go to school.

The Plan website says most of the sponsored children live in such poverty that sending them a gift of a frisbee or a jump rope is likely to be the highlight of their year. I definitely plan to send her something like that. The site says that most of these kids never even have their own pens or pencils. I am so happy that I have the opportunity to help this one little girl.

My newest goal: sponsor a needy child. I make enough now that the suggested monthly donations for places like WorldVision and Plan USA sound like a pittance. Knowing that I could give up so little to send a child to school and provide her or him with medical care makes me want to do this more than ever!

I have talked to someone who does this and I’m going through the organization they use. I have to put this one in my budget to see how I can do it.

Also for December… get a 4.0 (and then decide what I’m going to do: more grad school, get another undergrad, or take a break.)

This has to be on hold for awhile. Since I work for the state of California I am one of the furloughed bunch and have to extra money at the time.

I just heard from Plan Canada that the little girl we were sponsoring just died of malaria. It’s kind of a shock, and I feel a little empty inside, but we’d only been sponsoring her a month, and we hadn’t even sent her a letter or anything yet. Which, come to think of it, makes me feel worse…

They asked us if we wanted to sponsor another child in the same village, and we said yes, so we’ll be getting another package in the mail. It’ll be sad to open it, but I’m glad we’re sticking with it. Getting news like that makes me think that we could actually be helping with our little donations. And makes me regret not doing it sooner. Ah well, let’s not get depressed about it: I’ll remember her little face and use it as a reminder not to get too complacent about things, and look forward to the future.

Well, since I am in the process of moving, I think I should delay my plans to Sponsor, just for a month or two. Just so I know if I can really budget. I’m sure I can, but I don’t want to rush into everything so fast, and it wouldn’t be fair to the child, especially.

So, this is on hiatus, as much as it breaks my heart.

I don’t know how to choose!
I think I might just allow a random choice to be brought up and sponsor him/her. Fate, right?

Last month, I went to a World Vision booth at my school, and chose a child to sponsor. Now, in my bedroom, there is a checkbook. There is also, however, a tornado that springs up every week and trashes the place. Thus… I could not find said checkbook.

HOWEVER…

I was diligent, and eventually found it. But once I had, I realized that I really didn’t want to send my check through the mail, because on the card of the girl I want to sponsor there is an “expiration date” for when I can sponsor her, and it is fast-approaching!

So, I quickly went online to request that I be able to sponsor her directly from the internet, but have yet to receive a response.

I shall update you once I do receive one, as I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seat…

=]

I opened the mailbox yesterday and found the Plan Canada new sponsor envelope waiting for me inside. My wife and I opened it up together, and found that we are now “officially” sponsoring a beautiful little girl from Guinea. I use quotation marks around “official”, because I know that technically our monthly donation goes to the community and not specifically to that particular child, but we’re still making a (small) difference, and it’ll be nice to learn about the culture and try to develop a relationship. Besides, $35 a month isn’t really that much money, and they can use it more effectively than we could.

(I know I can’t talk specifically about our sponsored child, but I wish I could post a picture of her. She is both cute and very wary of the cameraman. It is awesome.)

I almost set up the child sponsorship last night, but when they asked who they wanted it addressed to, I froze. My wife kept her name when we got married, so I don’t know how to fill that part out; I would have asked her but she’s away this week. So hopefully she calls me tonight or tomorrow and I can ask and we can start helping out very soon!