Sponsoring
Sarbari's blog was the first one I started, in Dec/Jan 2010. It was read almost 3100 times during the 2010 year. I've reformatted it to match the style that evolved for my other entries as the year went on.
Sarbari joined the program in February, 2009, when she was 3 years old. I started sponsoring her in April, after another child, almost-16 year-old Jayanti, left the program when she was married. In the letter notifying me of Jayanti's departure, I was asked to consider transferring my sponsorship to Sarbari. In her picture, she looks wan and sad. She's wearing a boy's plaid shirt that appears to have been cut down from one made for an older child (notice the size of the pocket). The CI rep I spoke to noted that the family was particulary in need. Sarbari is the 11th child I've sponsored, and the 2nd youngest so far.
2009 - Age 3
Sarbari was 2 feet, 11 inches tall, and weighed 24 lbs. She has a sister, Anawari, then 7, and 2 brothers: Muhammed Abbas, then 5, and Muhammed Ali, then 2. Her father, Muhammed, then 39 years old, and her mother, Rukhsana, then 35, are daily workers, earning a combined income of about $64/month. However, their home isn't in a sponsorship area, so Sarbari, her mother, and her siblings moved back to Kolkata city to live with her grandmother, where her mother can earn $42/month (I think). This suggests that their father's home is in a rural area, where perhaps he has land to farm. Sarbari's family speaks Hindi. I don't think the father is normally able to contribute money to the Kolkota household
May--CW (Welcome) Letter
Dear Ms. Jenkins,
Hello! Sarbari is doing fine here & hopes you are also doing fine. She wants to thank you for sponsoring her. She loves reading and also enjoys drawing. She has 1 sister and 2 brothers & loves playing with toys with her brothers. She sends you a drawing & hopes you enjoy it. She sends you her love & regards,
S-- on behalf of Sarbari K--
An updated photo soon followed, looking like a very pretty little girl, instead of a tired child in boy's clothing. In fact, several additional photos appeared online in May. Sometime later, I mentioned this to Debbie, who got curious and investigated. It turned out Sarbari was chosen to help test the new photo uploading system. Since at that point, she clearly didn't understand what photos were for, the results were interesting.?
June - SNG report completed by A Alam
As the CI representative had mentioned that the family needed a lot of help, in May I sent an extra SNG of $100.
Please list the gifts provided to the family:
- 1 table fan
- 30 kgs of rice
- 10 kgs of pulses [beans, probably lentils]
- 6 ltrs Mustard Oil for cooking
- 8 kgs of flour
- 1 cooking stove
- 4 candies for the child[ren]
- 1 frock for the child
- 1 folding camp bed
- transport cost
How will the gifts benefit the family?
"The table fan will provide a lot of relief from heat to the faily maninly during hot summers. The family has been provided with large quantities of rice pulses and other food items needed for their regular consumption. The cooking stove will replace their clay cooking oven and will make cooking more convenient for the family. The child will wear her new frock during special family occasions and festivals. The folding camp bed is light in weight and can be conveniently carried and placed in any corner of their room, on which the child can lie comfortably. The child's mother said, 'We are very happy to receive essential household items and groceries for our family. We wish to convey our thanks and gratitude to my child's sponsor for looking after our needs.'"
Dear Sponsor,
Sarbari sends you her love. She is fine and hopes that you are well. With your financial help she has received a frock and candies for herself, a table fan, a folding camp bed and a cooking stove. She and her family have also been provided with large quantities of rice, pulses, flour and mustard oil. She is grateful to you for your support. She thanks you for taking care of her needs. She and her family all pray for your and your family's well being and happiness. She sends you her love and regards. She hopes to hear from you.
Yours
Sana on behalf of Sarbari
October - CP Letter
Back at the beginning of June, a terrible cyclone hit the Kolkata area. So when I wrote I talked about how we had several days of hurricane-induced rain once when I was about her age. Suffering from cabin fever, I asked my mother if it was going to rain 40 days and 40 nights, like it did for Noah. (The story of Noah is part of Muslim culture, too) and she said, "No, but God is going to make the wind blow to dry out the ground."(And He did!)
Dear Sponsor G Jenkins,
Sarbari and her family well and she hopes same you and your family. She got your letter and photographs. She is very happy to see your photographs and know something about your dog Buster. She likes to thank you for loving and caring so much. As you know there was a big storm and lots of rain and wind but everything is all right by the grace of God now again. She is very happy to receive your letters and she pray to God to give you lots of happiness and a long life.
Farsana on behalf of Sarbari
In time for her December 29th birthday, another SNG of $220
December--SNG Report completed by M. Gupta
Please list the gifts provided to the child and family:
- 10 ltrs cooking oil [probably mustard]
- 5 kgs pulses [beans; probably lentils]
- 2 kgs sugar
- 1 packet biscuits [cookies!]
- 1 steel storage container
- 1 steel plate [Sarbari's very own!]
- 1 van rickshaw
- transport cost
How will the gifts benefit the family?
"The child's father works as a daily labourer and earns very little to sustain his family properly. Hence, the family has purchased a van rickshaw which they will give it out on hire to earn an additional $26 from this IGP, which will provide a lot of financial assistance to them and help them to meet their daily needs of life. In addition, the family has purchased large quantities of essential food items needed for their regular consumption. The family will use the steel storage container to store large amounts of rice or flour. The child can have her meals in the steel plate provided to her. The child's mother said, 'We are extremely grateful to my child's Sponsor for the kind and generous support given to our family. We wish to convey our sincere thanks and gratitude...'"
Dear --
Sarwari and her family is very happy to be in the sponsorship program. They convey their thanks to you for your help and support. They have purchased a goods carrier (van rickshaw) with the money that you have sent. They will put it on rent which will help them increase their family income. They have also bought pulses, sugar, edible oil & biscuits for their own consumption & also a steel storage container. They are grateful to you for your support and pray to God for your overall well-being. Sarwari and her parent convey their love and regards to you.
Aruninia on behalf of Sarwari
December - CP
Dear Sponsor Miss J...,
Sarbari and her family says you hello! The are very well doing here and they hope same for you and your family's health. She is very happy to be a part of sponsorship programme. Now she does not go to school but takes tuitions at home. She is very cute. Her mother says that she love to eat egg and chocolate. She sends you a colourful flower. With love and best wishes of Christmas Day. She is waiting for your reply.
Forgana on behalf of Sarbari.
She got her "reply"--a birthday card with an illustrated letter about the December snow storm.
2010 - Age 4
Sarbari has grown 2 inches, to 3'3", and weighs 29 lbs. Their income in Kolkata is $42/month, the baseline for the new IGP.
February - CP
Dear Miss J--
Sarbari and her family says you hello! They are fine and they hope you are also fine by the grace of God. They pray to God to give you lots of happiness and a long life. Now, she is really very happy to receive your letter and also the photographs. Her mother says that she like to study Hindi. [--I think that's to answer my question of whether she will learn in Hindi or Urdu.--] Sarbari is so cute and sweet that everyone loves her. Her mother says that she often think about you and she has much curiosity to know about you and your family. She is waiting for your reply.
Forgana on behalf of Sarbari.
She drew pictures on the back of this letter. Lindsey will be glad to know she has not been assimilated yet into producing the typical village scene. She must have seen a picture of a volcano somewhere and mistook it for a tree, because there's a "typical" drawing of a mountain with a path of lava and a plume of smoke coming out the top--but the "lava" and "smoke" are green under a happy sun. The scan altered the colors some; they should all be bright colors. The balance of colors on the page is textbook, though--impressive for a 4 year-old.
April/May - CR Letter (Rcd. September)
Sarbari & her family pay respect to you. She is well and happy and hopes that you are also happy. Sarbari likes to study a lot. It is summer season here & is raining a little. Sarbari don't like this season & she likes to eat mango during this time. She wants to know what season do you like? She wants to meet you see your photo.
For Sarbari
Farzana
According to the survey on the back, her favorite clothing is a frock, (What's a ghagra choli, Lindsey?) and she likes traveling by bus. She also did a nice job of coloring the daisy yellow with brown faces. (I'll have to tell her that that's a black-eyed Susan, the flower of the state where I grew up. Though maybe they're sunflowers...)
September--DP Report
August 15, I ordered a bunch of toys from an Indian online site for her and her brothers and sister. In the photo below, they are Md Ali, 3, Anawari, 8, Sarbari, and Md Abbas, 5.
Sarbari has clearly put on a couple of inches since last December.
Gifts:
- 4 teddy bears (one for each child
- 2 magnetic boards, 1 with Hindi letters and the other with numbers and western letters (1 board has a slate on the back, and they can also use them as lap desks, I think)
- 1 soccer ball (it's in one of the bags)
- 1 set of play dough (12 colors)
- 1 Ludo/Snakes and Ladders game (see the post about poniq's Tulasi)
- 1 Candyland game
- 200 lego-like blocks in a tub (I hope--I can't see the tub)
- 1 set of "Kelly Career dolls", which are female action figures dressed for various professions--Kelly was a famous temp agency; temps were sometimes called "Kelly Girls"
- 1 plastic tea set
I found an Indian online site, Indian Gifts Portal, and placed my order late on August 15. The toys were delivered to the center in two packages within 10 days, and delivered to the kids on August 30. I got the photos and Direct Package report about 2.5 weeks later. So...no postage (minimal foreign transaction fee), no customs concerns, no trip to the post office for the staff, and 1 month from order to getting the photos back! This worked very well.
In the gift message I told Sarbari that she was to pick one bear for herself and one for each sibling, and the rest of the toys were for them to share together. Or at least I tried to say that, but the gift message field is one of those that's not large enough to display more than about 30 characters, so I couldn't read it back until I'd placed the order. When I got the acknowledgement I discovered I'd omitted the word "bear" after "pick one." I tried to get customer service to correct it, but Fulfillment sent out the first package the very next day! So I had to have Debbie send a note to Sahay to clarify what I meant.
Dear G--,
Sarbari and her family hope that you are well. They are fine. She is happy to receive [list] and your sweet letter [gift message]. She shares her toys with her siblings and plays with them. She regularly gets all education and health benefits from the sponsorship programme. She and her family are very happy to have you as her sponsor. She has benefitted from it. She thanks you for the lovely gifts. She ends with love and regards,
Yours,
Soumen on behalf of Sarbari
I think the tense of "shares...plays" should probably be "will share...will play." Families are sometimes so thankful for direct gifts that they put them up and save them. (My mother did that with my the first toy I was given as a baby. She cherished it; I never touched it. I got to see it once every few years when she was looking for something in the top of the closet.) So I think in the gift message I made it a point to say "share and play" the toys.
I know this is a lot of stuff, but I doubt these kids have had many toys. (Which is probably why Anawari looks the most excited; she's been waiting longest.) Except for bears, I tried to choose toys that they could play with together with their friends. And I tried to choose toys that would hold their interest for the next few years (except for the play dough, which I expect will experience attrition). I don't plan to make an annual thing of sending tons of toys.
November - CP Letter
Dear Miss G--,
Hello! Sarbari & her family send you their regards. She is fine her and hopes you are also fine by the grace of God. She was very happy to get your letter & thanks you for it. She now goes to pre-school & enjoys to read. It's now the end of monsoon here and soon it will be winter. She enjoy this season a lot. She has drawn a picture for you at the back of the letter & hopes you will like it. She hopes you will like her letter and hopes to hear from you.
Soni Begum on behalf of Sarbari K--
She's moved on from green volcanoes to buta; she's growing up!
2011 - Age 5
Progress Report
Sarbari turned 5 on December 29, 2010. She was then 3 feet, 5 inches tall (a 2 inch gain--in the DP photos it looks like more) and 34 lbs (a 5 lb gain). Best of all though, their income in Kolkata is now $64, a $22 increase! The IGP started in 2009 (van rickshaw rental) must have been going well!
LindeyR visited Sarbari's community center in early January 2011; her blog post about the visit shows lots of pictures of the center as well as detailing a visit to one of the homes in the neighborhood.
($240) Special Needs Follow-Up Report completed by A Alam
Please list the gifts provided to the family:
- 1 bicycle for the child
- 1 badminton set for the child
- 1 football for the child's brother
- 1 tiffin carrier [Indian version of the lunch box
- 1 table fan
- 30 kgs [over 60 lbs.] of rice
- 10 kgs of mustard oil [shouldn't that be liters?]
- 10 kgs of pulses [beans, probably lentils]
- 10 kgs of wheat flour
- 10 kgs of sugar
- 5 kgs [!11 lbs!] of biscuits
- 5 kgs [11 lbs!!!] of salt [I hope her mother has something to preserve...]
- 5 packs of Soya Nuggets
- 4 packs health drink [Horlick's, similar to Ovaltine]
- 5 kgs of detergent powder [Tide]
- 17 bath soaps
- 2 pencils for the child
- 1 candy for the child
- 1 transport cost
How will the gifts benefit the family?
"The child can ride her bicycle to school or to the nearest playground in her locality. It will help her to save a lot of travelling time and cost. The child along with her friends and siblings can enjoy playing badminton and football in the evenings or during their freetime. The health drink will help in improving hte health and fitness of the child. The table fan will provide a lot of relieve to the family in summers. The child can carry her lunch to school in the tiffin carrier provided to her. The family has been supplied with large quantities of essential food items that are needed for their regular consumption. The family will use the detergent powder to wash their clothes regularly. The child can use the pencils to write her assignments in school. The child said, 'I am really excited to receive a bicycle and a badminton set as my gifts. We are also happy to be provided with groceries and toiletries for our household. Thank you Sponsor for the gifts."
Soumen, a volunteer, wrote Sarbari's thank you note, listing the gifts and briefly expressing the family's thanks.
May - CP Letter
In March I wrote about the first book I ever read by myself, about a puppy named Puff. The reply, via a volunteer:
Dear Miss G--
Sarbari is very happy to get your letter. and conveys her thanks. Sarbari is happy to know about you.
Sarbari and her family are well. Her studies are progressing well. She likes to study. Soon her unit tests will start in her new grade. So she is busy with her studies.
She is very happy to get so nice a letter from you. Sarbari wants to know more about you. Please reply to her. She will wait for your reply.
Yours sincerely,
Pinki for Sarbari
I sent my letter via email on 3/15; the Bengali summer is April and May and the schools take a summer break. (Temps are hitting 100F this week.) So if she was still in school when the reply was written, she got it really fast. I wonder if the reference to "new grade" means she's in 1st Grade now?
April - CR Letter
After getting a CP letter so recently, this CR letter was unexpected. The Sahay kids don't seem to write "extra" CP letters often, but they will sometimes write their CR letters even if they've already written recently.
Dear Miss Jenkins,
Hello! Sarbari & her family are fine here & she hopes that you are all fine. She thanks you for your love and care. She loves to read. She also enjoys drawing. It is now summer here & she wants to know about the weather in your place. She likes going to the park with her friends every evening. She loves to watch cartoon programme on T.V. She sends you her love & waits for her reply.
J- on behalf of Sarbari
August - CP Letter
Dear Miss Jenkins,
Sarbari and her family are fine. They hope you all are well. They pray to God for your happiness and good health. She is very happy to receive your letter. She thanks you for it. Her father has bought dolls and frock for her because very soon they will be celebrating their biggest festival, Eid. She will wear new frock in the festival. She is now studying Urdu. 
She hopes that you will be happy to know about her. She sends you her love and regards.
Yours,
Sana on behalf of Sarbari
Last time I heard, Sarbari's father doesn't live with them, so I'm glad to hear he's involved. Sarbari's mother brought the children to live in Kolkata with their grandmother so that they would be in a sponsorship area. I'm not so pleased to learn that she's studying in Urdu rather than Hindi though, given the track record we have with Urdu schools.
The story continues in Sarbari's 2012 blog.
For more about life in India, see Moumita's blog.
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jenkinsg, 2 years ago | FlagNovember--CP Letter
Dear Miss G--,
Hello! Sarbari & her family send you their regards. She is fine her and hopes you are also fine by the grace of God. She was very happy to get your letter & thanks you for it. She now goes to pre-school & enjoys to read. It's now the end of monsoon here and soon it will be winter. She enjoy this season a lot. She has drawn a picture for you at the back of the letter & hopes you will like it. She hopes you will like her letter and hopes to hear from you.
Soni Begum on behalf of Sarbari K--She's moved on from green volcanoes to buta; she's growing up!
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jenkinsg, 2 years ago | FlagThe photos for Sarbari's Direct Package came today. I ordered a bunch of toys from an Indian online site for her and her brothers and sister. In the photo below, they are Md Ali, 3, Anawari, 8, Sarbari, and Md Abbas, 5.
Sarbari has clearly put on a couple of inches since last December.
Gifts:
- 4 teddy bears (one for each child
- 2 magnetic boards, 1 with Hindi letters and the other with numbers and western letters (1 board has a slate on the back, and they can also use them as lap desks, I think)
- 1 soccer ball (it's in one of the bags)
- 1 set of play dough (12 colors)
- 1 Ludo/Snakes and Ladders game (see the post about poniq's Tulasi from earlier today)
- 1 Candyland game
- 200 lego-like blocks in a tub (I hope--I can't see the tub)
- 1 set of "Kelly Career dolls", which are female action figures dressed for various professions--Kelly was a famous temp agency; temps were sometimes called "Kelly Girls"
- 1 plastic tea set
I found an Indian online site, Indian Gifts Portal, and placed my order late on August 15. The toys were delivered to the center in two packages within 10 days, and delivered to the kids on August 30. I got the DP report and photos today, Sept. 18. So...no postage (minimal foreign transaction fee), no customs concerns, no trip to the post office for the staff, and 1 month from order to getting the photos back! This worked very well.In the gift message I told Sarbari that she was to pick one bear for herself and one for each sibling, and the rest of the toys were for them to share together. Or at least I tried to say that, but the gift message field is one of those that's not large enough to display more than about 30 characters, so I couldn't read it back until I'd placed the order. When I got the acknowledgement I discovered I'd omitted the word "bear" after "pick one." I tried to get customer service to correct it, but Fulfillment sent out the first package the very next day! So I had to have Debbie send a note to Sahay to clarify what I meant.
Sarbari doesn't write yet (I think she started school in June), so the thank you was written by a volunteer in Urdu.
Dear G--
Sarbari and her family hope that you are well. They are fine. She is happy to receive [list] and your sweet letter [gift message]. She shares her toys with her siblings and plays with them. She regularly gets all education and health benefits from the sponsorship programme. She and her family are very happy to have you as her sponsor. She has benefitted from it. She thanks you for the lovely gifts. She ends with love and regards,
Yours,
Soumen on behalf of SarbariI think the tense of "shares...plays" should maybe be "will share...will play." Families are sometimes so thankful for direct gifts that they put them up and save them. (My mother did that with my the first toy I was given as a baby. She cherished it; I never touched it. I got to see it once every few years when she was looking for something in the top of the closet.) So I think in the gift message I made it a point to say "share and play with them."
I know this is a lot of stuff, but I doubt these kids have had many toys. (Which is probably why Anawari looks the most excited; she's been waiting longest.) Except for bears, I tried to choose toys that they could play with together with their friends. And I tried to choose toys that would hold their interest for the next few years (except for the play dough, which I expect will experience attrition). I don't plan to make an annual thing of sending tons of toys.
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jenkinsg, 2 years ago | FlagA CR letter from Sarbari arrived today (Sept. 13):
"Dear Miss Jenkins,
Sarbari & her family pay respect to you. She is well and happy and hopes that you are also happy. Sarbari likes to study a lot. It is summer season here & is raining a little. Sarbari don't like this season & she likes to eat mango during this time. She wants to know what season do you like? She wants to meet you & see your photo.
For Sarbari,
Farzana"According to the survey on the back, her favorite clothing is a frock, (What's a ghagra choli, Lindsey?) and she likes traveling by bus. She also did a nice job of coloring the daisy yellow with brown faces. (I'll have to tell her that that's a black-eyed Susan, the flower of the state where I grew up. Though maybe they're sunflowers...)
It sounds like she started school this year. The letter must have been written in June or early July; monsoon season started in July or early August and should be finishing up. I should get the pictures for her DP in a few weeks.
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jenkinsg, 2 years ago | FlagEarlier letters:
Welcome letter (May 2009), age 3 1/2
Dear Ms. J, Hello! Sarbari is doing fine here & hopes you are also doing fine. She wants to thank you for sponsoring her. She loves reading and also enjoys drawing. She has 1 sister and 2 brothers & loves playing with toys with her brothers. She sends you a drawing & hopes you enjoy it. She sends you her love & regards, S-- on behalf of SK
October 2009, age 3 & 10 months
Dear Sponsor G J, Sarbari and her family well and she hopes same you and your family. She got your letter and photographs. She is very happy to see your photographs and know something about your dog Buster. She likes to thank you for loving and caring so much. As you know there was a big storm and lots of rain and wind but everything is all right by the grace of God now again. She is very happy to receive yor letters and she pray to God to give you lots of happiness and a long life. Farsana on bhalf of Sarbari.
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