Eli, a mother of two girls and a third baby on the way, is a volunteer with one of ChildFund`s local partner organisations in Oaxaca, in the south west of Mexico. We met her two daughters, who are among 30 wildly energetic children, aged six to 12 years old, participating in the Activate (Get Active) after-school program. Eli (pictured below) has her hands full trying to maintain order!
The session begins with a game called ‘the mailmam’. The children form a circle outside on a basketball court, and the leader calls out, “The mailman brought a letter for a child with€¦ a ponytail! Blue jeans! Red shirt!” The children scurry to the correct position in the circle, depending on their hairstyle or clothing. Younger children learn to identify categories through the game, and everyone burns some energy.
We then venture inside to a large room that the municipal government lends to ChildFund`s local partner. It`s centrally located and safe, so the children have an easily accessible space for learning. Inside these walls, creativity flows.
Now the children work together to create a new fairy tale, which winds up being called ‘Little Red Riding Hood and the Boy in the Blue Cape’.
Eli walks around the room asking children to provide the next line in the story, building on what the last child said. The story, intricate with detail, twists and plot turns, grows and grows, and another adult volunteer writes the story on a blackboard €” but with intentional spelling and grammar mistakes. After the story is finished, the children tell her how to correct the story €“ where an accent was missing, where a comma needed to be added, where an S needed to be changed to a Z.
As a facilitator, Eli supervises four sessions a week: two for children aged six to 12 like the one we saw, and two sessions for youth, aged 13 and older.
These sessions are different from school classes, Eli says, because in class, the children have to be formal and quiet. But in these programs, they get to let their energy and creativity soar.
As a facilitator, she receives a small stipend of approximately $50 a month to help her family. But the payback is more than monetary; Eli describes the children as her friends, and she loves when they run up to her and give her big hugs when she walks through the community.
After the fairy tale session, the children have another recess outside. This time, the basketball court is turned into an obstacle course with a fabric tunnel, foam rollers, large boxes and rings. They jump, hopscotch and crawl through the course, ultimately sitting on a throne made from cushions. Then it`s time to go home.
Eli says she has a new purpose and higher confidence with the skills she has learned as a facilitator, and she feels empowered to be a leader in her community. More importantly, Eli says the training has helped her to be a better mother to her own children.
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.
