Last year, 600,000 pieces of correspondence and letters were lovingly delivered between child sponsors and their sponsored children. The notes, Easter and Christmas cards, “get to know me better letters”, and other correspondence consistently brings joy to both children and sponsors. In this regular blog series, we’re sharing some of our favorite child sponsorship letters.
In my travels with FH over the past two decades, I’ve met so many children and their families who expressed gratitude for letters from their sponsors. I’ve entered homes where the photos and letters were tacked to the walls — a colorful collage showing how much the sponsored child loved receiving correspondence.
One letter says, “You matter. You matter to God, and you matter to someone far away, too.”
During one visit to the Dominican Republic, a mother of a sponsored child brought me a large manila envelope. FH had been working in this community near the Haitian border for nearly a decade. Inside the envelope, carefully protected from the elements, the mother had kept all of the letters and photos the sponsor had ever written to her child. Year after year of letters and photos in that envelope. They were a precious treasure to her.
In my own letter writing, I’ll never forget the day that my sponsored child in Mozambique — Cristina — switched from drawing pictures to writing her first letter in her own handwriting. I wept. Cristina had joined FH’s programs as an older child and entered elementary school for the very first time at age 10. Finally, she had learned to write. Child sponsorship through FH helped her find her voice.
Your letters to your sponsored children encourage, uplift, and comfort not only the children, but their parents as well.
Here are some of our favorites (with original wording intact):
Alexis, 11-year-old girl, Philippines
(Written by Alexis in English): Thank you for your sweet letter. I hope you are in good health. Thank you for praying for me and my family. Before I sleep I pray both of you, for your health and working. Thank you so much for being my especial friend. God bless…thank you.
Andi, 12-year-old boy, Indonesia
How are you there? Thank you for encouraging me. There are a lot of cats here in my place and no is raising them because cats like to steal fish at the house. Because of that we do not like to raise them, but we do not hurt them either. Thank you.
Brenda, 7-year-old girl, Mozambique
(Written by her FH community staff member, because Brenda’s hand was injured): I liked receiving your letter. I had never received a letter that comes from so far away. We like the same color, pink. Thank you for all the encouragement. I will keep studying. Thank you for your prayers. I will be praying for you. God bless you for choosing me.
Marleni, 11-year-old girl, Bolivia
Hello dear sponsor. Hope you are very well. I thank you for your friendship. Hope you send me many letters to learn from you and pictures to see you. I get along with my siblings even when we fight sometimes. Until soon, friend.
And finally, one last word on the value of sponsorship
There comes a day when the children we sponsor grow up. And thanks to sponsorship, many of them reach heights they never could have attained without help from you and encouragement from FH staff. Sponsored children become doctors, nurses, accountants, agronomists, mechanics, tailors, and teachers.
Like former sponsored child Bulande from Mozambique who is now an adult…
Bulande, adult graduate, Mozambique
Thank you for all the support you gave me all these years. Thanks to you, I managed to complete high school and I hope to do a course that will make me a teacher. Please continue to help other children in need as I was. I will continue to pray for you for God to bless your greatly.
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A Child’s Life Changed: Anianna’s Story
Sintayehu’s Story: From Vulnerable Orphan to Thriving Entrepreneur
