I feel really proud and excited when I tell people about where I work and what our organization does for people.

One thing that not everybody know about our work is that it isn’t just about giving a pair of shoes and school supplies to the kids once a year, but instead it’s about helping not just the children but the entire family, and moreover, the whole community.

Once, I was interviewing a mother, who has three sponsored kids, actually two of them are really involved in the youth and sports programs. I was happily surprised when she told me that she has seen a good change in her community over the last few years. She said something like, “You can see the difference between kids who aren’t sponsored and the ‘new generation’ of sponsored kids [the agency has been working there for the last 5 years]; they are more responsible, they aren’t into drugs, and now, with the sports program, I’ve seen that they’re more committed to the program. I’ve seen good changes in my family and also in the way they act in school”, says the mother.

We’ve seen how the communities have been improved in different ways. For instance, with our community participation program in which volunteer mothers are involved, they have been developing social projects in their neighborhoods. They have gotten the money to improve a sports center for the kids, and they are also helping a nursing home, applying strategies in favor of the environment and promoting family values.

In addition, youths are also starting to develop social projects aimed at ecology, sports, etc. We want them to become real leaders.

You might wonder why this is important for us… well, because we see how this ‘chain of help’ grows and grows. Our families which -without a doubt- face a daily struggle due to their disadvantages, at some point understood that their future is in their own hands, and they also feel responsible for sharing this ‘good news’ with their peers.

And this amazing and real change started when someone, one fine day, thought: ‘Yeah, I would like to sponsor a child. Why not?!’