Interviewing our kids: the greatest reward in child sponsorship!
Christine (right) with Susmita (left) with our younger children
Every year I meet each child in our programs and inquire about health and how they are doing at home and in school. I also take pictures and videos of each of the children and when I get back to the USA, I post them and send the link to our sponsors. It is a job that now takes many days, since we have so many children now! Parents sometimes bring their other children, and I get to meet with them, too. It really is a labor of love, though, and seeing our children so delighted to learn about their sponsors and receive their gifts make it all worth it; strengthening the bond between sponsors and children with these packages and letters is one of the greatest joys of an organization like ours.
Anjana opens her packet
Susmita (right) helps Sakhan (left) solve her puzzle
Bibek is ready for winter with these warm socks
These meetings are an important part of our oversight into our Nepal programs, and they are a unique feature of our approach to childcare. The BSF staff do an excellent job while consulting with us on the needs, issues, and problems that our children face. We are constantly trying to improve our services to the children, and in order to do that, we need to be able to understand their needs better and more holistically.
Sugita and her new storybook
Ruplal gets the Blues!
Interviewing and photography can be challenging because of the everyday noise levels, interruptions, and poor lighting in the places we meet them and, sometimes, because of the shyness of our children. It is also the most fun ever, though, and I really get to see how the children are progressing with the care of BSF staff and the support of our sponsors. There are so many stories about the many improvements in the children under our care that I witness when I meet with them.
Alisha shows off her new coloring book
I discuss the children with the BSF staff and we develop plans for any children who are needing more health care, family support or even transfer to a new school environment. We try really hard to leave children at home with their families and provide educational support services, but sometimes children are failing in health and studies at home, due to poverty, poor nutrition or severe dysfunctional family issues, such as alcoholism, mental illness, parental absenteeism.
Some of our older children filling out Mitrata’s health and information forms
A good example is a female child I saw in the spring who was listless and ill; at that time, her health seemed to really be deteriorating. I saw her again on this trip after she had been placed in a boarding school, and she talked my ear off! She was lively, her English was excellent, and I could clearly see that she is now flourishing! Her mother thanked me profusely and hugged me with tears in her eyes.
In another interview, one of our children expressed to me how she feels that her sponsor and I are her mothers. She cried and I did too, as we talked about how she came to Mitrata very sick; she said that she thinks she may have died without our help. She is now grown up, educated, beautiful, self-confident and on her way to an independent life.
It just doesn’t get more rewarding than that!
