Calissa and Nathan were fortunate enough to be able to meet their sponsored child in Kenya before their wedding.
“Upon visiting the community we saw the great work that ChildFund was doing and were impressed to find the community leading the way with development plans to improve their standard of living. One of their priorities was to complete the building of a well so they could become more self sustaining and less reliant on donations” commented Nathan.
Upon returning to Australia the couple had a burning desire to help the community achieve their goal of providing access to clean water for everyone in the community.
Nathan and Calissa decided their wedding provided the perfect opportunity to ask for donations to support this project.
On their invitations they gave guests the option to make a donation and told them about the people they had met in Kenya. Calissa recalls “our friends and family reacted with surprise at first but then with pride as they knew they were also a part of providing a community with an essential resource to help themselves.”
She continued, “this seemed to be quite a nice way of letting people become involved in our wedding celebrations and also involved in our way of life. We did give our guests the options of giving gifts but the vast majority donated to the water project.”
The now happily married couple can be proud of what they have achieved for their sponsored child’s community. By sacrificing gifts, that weren’t essential, Calissa and Nathan have provided a community of over 500 people with access to one of life’s essentials, water.
After corresponding for many years, Australian sponsor Alice finally met Piraton in person … in Kenya.
I have been sponsoring 13 year-old Piraton in Kenya for the past five years through ChildFund Australia. Last year, my mum Sue and I decided to travel to Kenya so that we could meet Piraton in person.
My mum and I had an incredible six weeks in Africa but undoubtedly the most rewarding and overwhelming day was visiting Naningoi Girls School in Kenya. It was a long five and half hour drive to get there, sometimes on non-existent roads, but the reception we received made it all worthwhile. The people were so welcoming and genuinely excited to see us that it was very touching. Piraton’s father had walked for a few days just to come and meet up.
While at the school, older pupils performed for a traditional dance for us, and we presented Piraton and the school with some gifts – including the Australian childhood classic Possum Magic.
I hadn’t event been sure that they would know we were coming and that was the biggest, most ridiculous silly thought I’ve ever had! Their generosity, particularly given they have so little, was incredible. After lunch, we visited a nearby village where Piraton stays if she can’t get home during the holidays (because of floods). Again, the reception was overwhelming – dancing, presents and meals prepared for us.
During their visit, we were accompanied by ChildFund staff, who were able to update us on development initiatives in the areas of healthcare, education, food security, water and HIV/AIDS. The whole day was spectacular and we were so impressed by the integrity of ChildFund. We were also invited to visit the head office in Nairobi and that gave us a great insight into how things are run.
