We received our anticipated envelope from World Help’s Child Sponsorship Program . . . I knew exactly what it was when I pulled it from our mailbox. It was an envelope filled with our annual updates, letters, and drawings from our two sponsored children. It is incredible to look at their photos and see how much each of them has grown.
It is an exciting time not only because of the investment we’ve made in their lives, but also because we get to see them develop as individuals, hear about their educational achievements, and learn how they are maturing in their faith. Child sponsorship is truly a life-changing investment and an opportunity to provide help for today and hope for tomorrow.
Christmas has already come and gone, and now many of us are preparing for the New Year and have begun making our resolutions and goals for 2015. As I reflect back on the Christmas season, I continue to remember the value of a child . . . that God sent His own son in the form of a child to live among us and ultimately save the world.
From Guatemala to India, Africa to the Philippines—children are in need. What if this year, in 2015, each of us chose to invest in a life by sponsoring a child? Together, we could impact thousands of young lives around the world, investing in future generations of leaders.
Here are three reasons to sponsor a child in 2015:
- Child sponsorship enables us to provide basic necessities for children in need.
For those living in poverty, every day can be a challenge just to secure the most basic of necessities. Children lack access to durable clothing, basic medical care, clean water, and nutritious food. More often than not, these children wake up hungry and go to sleep having only eaten one meal that day . . . some may even go several days without eating a single meal.
For these children, malnutrition is a serious threat. The United Nations estimates that malnutrition alone is responsible for 3.1 million deaths per year in children under the age of five. While we live in a nation with immediate access to life’s most basic necessities, children worldwide are dying from hunger, malnutrition, water-related illnesses, and preventable diseases. Through sponsorship, you can help provide these basic resources to boys and girls in dire need around the world.
- Child sponsorship provides opportunities for education and sustainability.
Children are born into a cycle of generational poverty every day. Time and time again we see that children can become trapped in this cycle of poverty, and tragically, education is the first resource to be eliminated. Yet this is the very tool they need to pursue a career and build a future that will allow them to succeed and support their families.
By investing in sponsorship, you can provide an education to a child who never before dreamed of having the opportunity. Education opens the door for these children to break the cycle of poverty and dream of a brighter future they never thought possible. They each have the potential to accomplish great things . . . and through sponsorship, we can unlock that potential.
- Child sponsorship not only changes a child’s life . . . it changes your own life.
My husband and I now sponsor two children. Jenny-Love, a young girl who lives in Haiti, and a young man in India named Vebhav. It has truly been an honor to sponsor these precious children and see how much they’ve changed in the few years we’ve sponsored them. We started out wanting to make a difference in the world and invest in a single child’s life. It turns out, they’ve completely changed our own.
By sponsoring a child, we have the opportunity to turn our thoughts from inward to outward . . . from our own needs to the needs of others. By changing our mindset, we can be part of the solution the world so desperately needs. Today’s children are our future leaders, and all around the world, there are special boys and girls that need to realize their worth and potential. We are privileged to play a small role by investing in their lives and helping to provide opportunities they may not have had otherwise.
Each letter and update we receive, we treasure. Vebhav’s letters telling us how he’s doing in school and that he’s praying that God would bless us for loving and supporting him are so impactful each time we read them. Without even knowing it, Jenny-Love and Vebhav have changed our lives.
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Will you make it your New Year’s resolution to invest in an impoverished child’s life, providing them with the resources and support they desperately need?
Your sponsorship will give these children access to basic necessities, a quality education, and the opportunity to be cared for by our loving international partners. This generosity and love is literally transforming the lives of children just like Vebhav and Jenny-Love. And World Help believes it’s an investment that can change the world . . . one child at a time.