Sponsoring: how to give child well-being a long-term boost
Kadiatou had been shying away from her friends in the village, and was only playing with her younger brother and two sisters. She is nine years old and lives with her parents in Timindalla, a village in the Sinthiang Koundara district where she is also enrolled in the school.
She has been registered on the World Vision sponsoring programme since 2008 and receives financial support from her sponsor every three months. In the early stages the new-found regular income did nothing to improve Kadiatou's lot in life. Contrary to guidance, all the money went on buying food for the family: rice, oil, vegetable stock, onions etc.
As a consequence, Kadiatou's attendance at the village school began suffering because she didn't have the right clothes or equipment. Alongside her little brother, she often fell ill and spent most of her time helping her mother with domestic chores. Her father, 35, only came home to eat and sleep. The whole family of six was sleeping in one room made of adobe bricks and straw and with a hole in the roof. Kadiatou slept with Mariama, her eldest sister already promised in marriage, on a bed with no mattress.
First room where the whole family slept.
The World Vision agent raised these circumstances with Kadiatou's parents several times when visiting the family home to check on her progress. Now they have reconsidered some priorities and are taking better care of Kadiatou and her siblings. Her father Ibrahima came to recognise that the purpose of the monthly support was to allow Kadiatou to go to school, receive medical attention and to live in a healthy environment. He set to building a new room and fixing up the old one to be more child-friendly. A further instalment from Kadiatou's sponsor went towards kitting her out with clothes, shoes and equipment for school and she is now making a concerted effort to keep attending.
Room built by the family's father.
The kids have seen further benefits from the sponsor's contributions: new beds and mattress, chairs, benches, tables and solar lamps for doing homework. The well has been covered and the water disinfected, which has also reduced the amount of diarrhoea-based illnesses in the family. Thanks to the sponsor, Kadiatou is now managing to continue her studies and even get good enough marks to make her third in her class. Her mum Aminata confirms: "I was blind to the potential of these donations. It had never occurred to me to renovate the room." Her dad Ibrahima continues: "As this money was now feeding the family, I took the chance to attend to other affairs than just putting food on the table. It's fair to say that initially the extra income made me a bit lazy and negligent, but now after being steered by the World Vision agent I have realised that it is my duty to feed the family and look out for the health and education of my children."
Building constructed with the support of the sponsor.
Sponsoring children is one way of bringing about visible and long-lasting changes in the life of the child, their family and community, and guarantee good health and protection from all forms of abuse. Sponsorship finance opens the doors to meeting a growing child's needs.
And the benefits are not just one-way. Building a special relationship with a vulnerable child through a series of letters, pictures, photos and donations, and witnessing his or her progress can also bring an overwhelming sense of satisfaction to the sponsor.
To find out more about child sponsorship, see the World Vision France (Vision du Monde) website.
Photos Credits: Ousmane Tabara Bâ