Saturday, September 17, 2011

Good Mail Day

It's a new day in letter writing to the Compassion kids! Compassion has made templates avalable so that you can write on a patterned piece of paper, upload photos and it's all printed electronically and sent off. Makes it quicker to send photos, since you don't have to print them.

Here's a test letter I sent out today. I actually sent ten of these because you can keep the basic letter and use it to write to another child.

ComLtr.jpg  (73860 bytes)

This is only page 1. The actual letter is 2 pages long. I write to the kids frequently, but now I think I will probably write more often because I can take pictures and send them instantly, without having to worry about getting them printed (my printer does a lousy job on color photos).

I will still write once a month to send little goodies like coloring books or stories or stickers or something else made of paper. But all of the sponsors I've been hearing from today are very excited about this improved method of communication with our kids. In the first hour nearly 200 letters were sent, the report goes! (And, amazingly, they weren't all from me!)

Another improvement Compassion is making on its web site is that they are starting to post videos from different centers, starting with two centers in Ghana. The videos seem to run about 9 minutes and take the viewer through the center and explain what happens on a typical day or week. Along with that, there are individual videos of children who are hoping for sponsors.

Low blow! Who is going to be able to resist those sweet faces.

Someone on the Compassion social networking site suggested that we make it a project to get all the kids in the center sponsors. Several people have either agreed to add one or two to their family of Compassion kids or they have spread the word to their friends and relatives.

I just recently completed a year-long sponsorship of Clarisse Niyonsaba in Rwanda, who was trying to get back her life after atrocities committed against her and other women in that country. I never had much interaction with Clarisse. I wrote regularly every month and I got kind of a generic brief thank you note from her a few months ago. I decided that with so many children needing help, I would consider using the funding that had gone to Clarisse for another child, so I wandered over to Compassion's "sponsor a child" page--always dangerous.

Theresa.jpg  (11579 bytes)The first child who caught my eye was this cutie. Now I generally prefer the older children, who have more difficulty finding sponsors...but the look on her face won my heart instantly.

This is Theresa. She is 4-1/2 years old and she is from that particular project in Ghana.

She lives with her father and her mother. Her duties at home include running errands. There are 3 children in the family. Her father is sometimes employed as a farmer and her mother is also sometimes employed as a farmer.

Theresa is not presently attending school. Playing house and playing group games are her favorite activities. She also attends church activities and Bible class regularly.

So...what the heck. I sponsored her. I mean...look at that face! Sponsoring her not only insures that she will continue at the center, but it also means that all these little girl gifts I've bought for little girls over the years will now have someone to go to, since my "little girls" are getting too old for some of them!


Walt is over halfway to his goal of $600 in the October 1 ALS Walk. Thanks to those who have sponsored him already!

1 comment:

phonelady said...

Yeah to you for sponsoring those sweet faced kids and yeah to walt for walking . take care .