Almost 60 new World Vision child sponsors gathered on a Friday evening to learn more about their new journey in reaching out to impoverished children around the world. World Vision currently organises a simple and casual gathering every three months for all new child sponsors and the last one was held at National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) at The Central on February 20, 2009.

This get-together gives us the opportunity to meet our new friends and to share our plans and dreams for the children who now receive their love. Besides sharing ways to build an enriching relationship with sponsored children, we also shared the positive changes that sponsors’ caring ways fuel imagination to reality in World Vision’s work among the needy.

The evening started off with an interactive game for all our guests to get to know each other. Guests were very enthusiastic in searching for their sponsored child’s pictures that were hidden in the room. You could see the mixed expression of pride and compassion on the faces of those who were successful in finding their child.

Besides gaining a good explanation of the intricacies involved in the long-term and holistic plans for their sponsored children, families and communities, child sponsors also met and listened to the powerful testimony of a former sponsored child!

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Mrs Ethel Pajao, now a staff of World Vision Singapore, is truly a walking testimony of a life that has been transformed by child sponsorship. Ethel, 31, used to be a World Vision sponsored child in her hometown of Maasin in Southern Leyte, Philippines, back in 1985.

She candidly shared her childhood memory of queuing up for medical check ups, receiving fresh-smelling books at the beginning of a school semester, and her participation in children’s leadership training workshops organised by World Vision.

From a village of 10,000 people sharing the only water pipe before World Vision came into their village, to the many positive changes thereafter, she shared her great appreciation to her sponsors, Richard and his wife, Jacquie, for making all these transformations possible.

Ethel’s was also an exceptional case where Richard and Jacquie had the opportunity to continue their relationship with her even after the project had reached self-sufficiency. Seeing Ethel’s passion to create a brighter future for herself and her family, and with good grades to show, they supported Ethel’s tertiary education and she graduated with a Bachelor degree in Liberal Arts (Mass Communications). She cited God’s love, and Richard’s and Jacquie’s encouragement as her biggest drive to accomplish all that she has achieved so far.

World Vision strongly encourages sponsors to build a meaningful relationship with sponsored children through letter correspondence, gift giving or joining us on sponsors’ trips to meet your sponsored child and family face-to-face. Besides being an encouragement to the child, it also lets the sponsor experience first-hand the shared blessing between sponsor and child.

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