Tonight I discovered that I could send an email to my 9yo sponsor child in Chile, via the World Vision site (http://www.worldvision.com.au) and that my message would be translated and delivered to her, just as her hand-written note had been forwarded to me.
It’s such an obvious function, and yet, because of the special service provided by the charity and strict rules about contact, it’s rather exciting. Needless to say, it’s been a long time since this sponsor got excited about any sort of email.
Sponsors don’t contact children directly for privacy and safety reasons better explained by the charity, as it does on the site. When a child writes, a letter is sent to a charity office, translated, printed and forwarded to the relevant country. Factor in local conditions and unreliable postal services and it can take months to get through, if they get through at all.
My first sponsor child letter was, in fact, not for me. It was a lovely note from another child elsewhere in the world, whom I had never heard of. Fortunately it was just a case of sending it back to the charity and highlighting the typo in the sponsor details.
Last week I received my own letter. World Vision rules forbid the republication of a child’s name (which is as it should be), so all I can really tell you is what she told me - that she likes homework, drawing and the colour pink. Who knows when she wrote it, but it was a great moment to read it.
Of course, I have not written a letter on paper since the last time a power outage coincided with a flat laptop battery - and even then I probably just put the whole thing off in favour of a snooze. Looking at her paper, with the pretty pencilled flowers, I was starting to feel guilty that my pink-loving Chilean might be needing wrinkle cream by the time a suitably tangible reply reached her.
Hooray for modern technology. I’ve never been so pleased to see a web form. Seriously. Not only is it quicker for processing, it’s obviously cheaper for the charity and since no one has to diagnose my doctor’s scrawl, there’s a much better chance my note will actually get there.
I mentioned this email service on Facebook tonight and, almost immediately, started getting messages from fellow sponsors not previously aware of it. If you fit this category, try it out. Just type in your sponsor number and off you go.
If you’re not a sponsor, but even thinking about it, please visit the site and find out if it is right for you.
It feels pretty amazing to get involved in a charity. However, there are so many worthy causes, it’s somewhat daunting to even choose one. I think I chose World Vision after watching a Tim Costello interview. Or, talking to a volunteer at a local festival. Or, after visiting the local deli, where the owners have some photos near the counter…
It doesn’t really matter how it came about. However, reflecting on all this - and how much I have gained from the experience - I decided to do more.
After I wrote to my Chilean artist tonight, I went back to the World Vision home page and expanded my sponsor ‘family’ - I now sponsor a little 6yo girl from Senegal.
World’s apart, the girls will never know each other, but I’ll think of my new sponsor child as the younger sister, perhaps. And I can’t wait to write to her.
