My husband and I first began sponsoring a child through ChildFund Australia in 1988 when we were just newlyweds. We started sponsoring Sarita when she was just eight years old. We’ve now been sponsoring her for almost 10 years and she is about to turn 17 years old in December.
I am a lecturer and tutor at the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC). I teach a few first-year subjects from the School of Communications and one first-year subject from the School of Business. I first came to USC in 1996 when I enrolled as a mature-age student when the university first opened. There weren’t many of us back then, though there were always a lot of kangaroos around campus! I finished my honours then took a short break before coming back to do my PhD. I began tutoring at USC in 2003 and have been teaching here ever since.
I was at work when I read about the Trip of a Lifetime competition and just decided to enter, not really thinking about the fact that I could actually win. I just really liked the question — what inspired you to sponsor a child? — because it made me think about my sponsored children and how much I’ve enjoyed being a ChildFund sponsor for the past 25 years.
Once I sent in my entry I didn’t really give the competition a second thought so I think I went into shock when ChildFund called to tell me I had won. I was feeling so many emotions all at once: utterly surprised that I had actually won, amazed that I had the opportunity to meet Sarita and completely terrified at the idea of going to India. I just kept thinking: India!
My husband and I have only recently started travelling. We’ve been to the usual “safe”, Western destinations, Europe and the US, so I was really worried about the idea of going to India as it was definitely out of our comfort zone. Everyone who travels to India seems to either love or hate it because it is a country of extreme contrasts and such an assault on your senses. So we just started madly watching as many documentaries and reading as many books as we could find on India to try to prepare ourselves.
From all that I’ve read and watched I’ve come to the conclusion that I do not want to judge India from my Westernised perspective of how things should be. I want to love the country and its people for what it is, not for what I think it could be. I know that I am going to encounter things that will make me feel uncomfortable, maybe even sick, but I don’t want to come to India with this attitude of how things could be improved. I just want to take it in and appreciate what I see.
After I calmed down from the shock of actually winning I started to feel a sense of guilt. I just knew that there were so many ChildFund sponsors who would have loved to have won the competition and be given this wonderful opportunity. So I just want to keep it in mind that I am representing ChildFund and I am representing all of ChildFund Australia’s sponsors. I want to make it the best experience I can for everyone: us, Sarita and her family, ChildFund Australia and their other sponsors.
My husband and I are really excited now, especially as our work winds down it feels like the countdown is really on for the trip! I just cannot wait to see Sarita for the first time in real life.
I recently went through all of the letters and photos Sarita has sent me over the years. I am going to take them with me on the trip to show her that I’ve I kept them all. It has been truly wonderful to watch her grow up into a healthy and educated young woman.
When Guadalupe, better known as Lupita, was about four years old, a woman from the United States sponsored her. But they had a communication problem because Lupita’s mother was illiterate. So, the four-year-old dictated her messages to a volunteer in her Mexican community.
This is a story of change, through the eyes of a sponsored child.
Lupita learned to write to her sponsor
But Lupita wanted to write to her sponsor herself, so she would trace and copy the letters one by one to form words that became sentences that eventually created a letter to her sponsor.
This was a couple of decades ago, and Lupita eventually was able to write for herself as her relationship continued with her ChildFund sponsor until she was 22. Over the years, she wrote about her community and herself.
The special relationship between sponsor and sponsored child
Her sponsor also sent Lupita $1 for Christmas, Easter, her birthday and the day of her saint. Lupita became known as the ‘dollar girl’ in her community, and that dollar was worth so much to her. It was enough to buy a piece of chocolate and also to boost her self-esteem year after year.
Lupita, who is now 26, is proud that when she graduated from ChildFund, her sponsor agreed to support another child in her community.
As sponsorship coordinator, Lupita sees herself in the children she now helps
Today, Lupita works as the sponsorship coordinator for one of ChildFund Mexico’s local partner organisations a few hours away from where she grew up. The children she now assists remind her of herself many years ago. Lupita manages a team of eight volunteers who work with over 600 children.
“Now, I help children who have difficulty writing to their sponsors,” she says. “I have to have a lot of patience to help as much as possible, just like I learned with the support of my sponsor.” Lupita hopes all of the children in the community will be sponsored one day so they can feel what she felt: the love, encouragement and support of a faraway friend.
Why it’s important for a child and sponsor to communicate
Communication between sponsors and sponsored children is very important, Lupita says, because you get to know people from other places that you never even imagined existed, with whom you can share traditions, customs, your way of life and how you are developing. Often, that person becomes a part of your bigger family.
“My sponsors always cared about what was happening in my life and always encouraged me to grow personally and academically,” says Lupita. “They always inspired my confidence and encouraged me to tell them my problems and said that they were there to morally support me.”
In addition to the emotional support she received through sponsorship, there was a definite developmental value to her experience as well. Through the various writing exercises and reading letters from her sponsors, Lupita improved her literacy skills and learned to write and express herself clearly.
“It was important because it taught me to write and to learn something new every day that I didnt already know, and then I wanted to learn as quickly as possible so I could write to my sponsors myself,” she says.
To this day, Lupita still has all of the letters, postcards and photos her sponsor sent her.
Change the life of a child by becoming a child sponsor
It only takes one person to change the life of a child forever, that person is you. Our child sponsorship program isn’t just a monthly donation, it’s a journey of change you’ll take with your sponsored child, and their family.
Learn how you can begin your journey with child sponsorship here, or read more about our program, and see all the meaningful ways you’ll interact and stay in touch with your sponsored child.
