The sponsorship of children at risk of extreme poverty takes

We are used to making the decisions in our lives to direct our course. Each choice, no matter how minimal, takes us to a different place. What movie to watch, what music to listen to, what food to enjoy. Every day is full of options and that has accustomed us to the easy position of being the ones who decide every step we take. World Vision , the international non-profit humanitarian aid organization , wanted to take a 180º turn on that premise in its new and exciting campaign. Now a new form of sponsorship is being launched: it will be the children who live in extreme poverty who will decide who will be their sponsors. The experience will be totally new for the children and their sponsors thanks to Chosen , this new campaign that began in the summer in communities in Guatemala and Kenya: «This year we began to empower children with another option. For the first time, the power to choose a godparent is in the hands of the child ," says the entity. The association has seen, throughout its 70-year history, how children's lives change when they are empowered.

The idea came about 'thanks' to the experience of Ndinda Kinguuthe, a 7-year-old girl in Mwala, Kenya, who had signed up for a sponsorship. A year and a half after taking a photo hoping to have a Romania Phone Number List family as soon as possible, that sponsorship did not come. world vision Although World Vision's solutions are focused on the community - for every child helped, 4 more benefit - without a sponsor, children lose the opportunity to have a relationship that could change their life. Some of the volunteers, like Winfred Mukonza, have to sit down with parents and children to explain why they have not been chosen. But how do you explain something like that? "They've been wondering, 'What's going on? Why can't I get someone? What's happening to me? «says Winfred. She and her staff try to encourage the children: “Keep praying to God and be patient; one day you will get your sponsor. Now they will be the ones to decide. Inside a tin-roofed classroom in the rural community of Mwala, east of Nairobi, they hung photos of the godparents for the children to see. In this community of 40,000 people, the freedom to choose is an unknown luxury.



Almost 80% of families cannot provide for their children, who are accustomed to a life of essential tasks, little free time and few options. godparents world vision "They are not used to choosing," says Winfred. «They are not used to making decisions. “Some of them are doing this for the first time.” The children relished this opportunity, beaming as they studied the faces and smiles in the photos before making their decisions. They walked away cherishing the photo they had selected. Already in Chicago, the future godparents had to enter a room full of envelopes. Each one of them had a different name, that of each of the sponsors. The envelopes contained the photograph of their sponsored child holding his own photograph, that of his godparents. Through sponsorship, whether the child or the sponsor they choose, “they have an extra friend in the family,” Winfred highlights. "It's very important that someone, somewhere, not in this country, loves them so much."