When our eldest daughter started school last September I was thinking about how I could make her aware of what a priviledge it is to have free schooling, as well as all the other trappings of Western Society. For many years I had been putting off the possibility of sponsoring

a child, having friends and family already doing that, but always being too busy to investigate it. It seemed like the best way to help our daughter understand how lucky she is was to put a face & a name to somebody not born in England - SHOW ME DONT TELL ME is the way we all learn best!

As we are British I went online to the UK site, Compassion, and chose a girl of about our daughter's age, so that she would be able to identify most strongly with her. Our sponsored child is a Tanzanian girl. The UK cost of sponsoring a child is £18 per month, which works out at 60p a day, which isnt a lot really: the cost of a packet of sweets.

In January we received our first letter from our sponsored child, E. It is written in the local language which is translated below. E is only in kindergarten so the teacher writes her words down, but she often draws us a picture. It has been fun getting our daughter to compare hand-prints and foot-prints with E - they both seem to have big hands and feet - our DD1 is big for her age and our sponsored child must be big too!

We have also received a few photos, with E looking serious - I guess she's not as used to having her photo taken as our two, or perhaps its cultural? Looking closely at the photos, I get some clues from the details - the plants growing in the background, the dress being her "Sunday Best" but having a torn lace collar, the shoes being a man style and many sizes too large. Our kids are so lucky - wardrobes full of clothes and shoes that fit perfectly.

Mostly so far we have talked about food - she ate fish on Christmas Day and Rice & Chicken on Easter Sunday. I am sticking her letters & artwork in a scrapbook. So far we have received 5 letters from her.

I always try to send pictures drawn by our daughter so that she is involved with E from the beginning, and I send photos. Usually I write the letter but in August I twisted DH and DD1's arms and made them write half a letter each - I hope it may mean a lot to E to see our daughter's attempts at handwriting, as she is just learning too. And it is good practice for our DD1 to learn how to write letters, getting the spelling right (pity the translator otherwise) and sticking to the lines! Poor DH struggled as he rarely writes now - he just types on the computer at work!

We tell her that we pray for her at bedtime every night, and she says she prays for us too. We know that through sponsoring her, she not only gets educated but receives a good meal at school and medical services when she is ill, so hopefully she will be able to grow up fit and strong in body as well as mind.

The letters are limited at the moment, but I know from my MIL who is sponsoring a boy in Africa that now he is in his teens the letters are detailed and serious and a real relationship has grown. It will be fun to watch our DD1 & E maturing together. We intend when our DD2 starts school to find a child born in 2006 to sponsor in parallel with her.

By sponsoring a child the whole family is helped as it is an investment into their future - better than putting money in the bank or into a pension scheme. And we hope in the long run we are helping not just E's family but her whole village too - who knows what she will grow up to be? A doctor, a lawyer, a nurse, a teacher? Or a mother who can teach her own children to read, write and count, and who can read about how to grow better crops in spite of the global food crisis and rise to the challenge of farming in a globally-warmed Africa?

I know the world is a very big place and that there are so many needy people. But as anyone who watched Schindlers List will remember, "he who saves one life saves the world entire." A drop in the ocean can ripple out. I was reading in my Compassion magazine this month that a Sponsored boy in Bolivia, now in his 20s, has now been able to support all his 4 younger siblings through school and University. These are 5 kids who grew up in one 4 x 4 sq metre room, who will now be able to work at the highest level in their country; treating, feeding, teaching or employing others; no longer in need of hand outs.  We all live in a Global Villiage now, as the current credit crunch reminds us, and so our neighbours really are people who live half way around the world, not just round the corner. But of course, you are on Minti, you know how small the world is already! 

I hope by sharing with you about the start of our journey with E you may feel inspired to consider sponsoring a child too. Compassion International is world wide & I can recommend them. But in Australia I know you also have World Vision, and as was originally written for a Minti/World Vision competition, please consider them too if that's where you live!