Play ball!!

I’ve been told that if you ask any one of the young boys in the Dominican Republic what they’d like to be when they grow up most will say they want to be a baseball player. There are actually quite a few major league baseball players from the Dominican Republic. Even in the small village that Daichela and José live in the community has a dirt baseball field for the children to play ball.

I love learning what children think they want to be or do when they grow up. It’s interesting to hear their dreams and hopes for their futures.

Child sponsorship programs provide educational support to disadvantaged children and it goes a long way toward helping them pursue a better life. The children and youth in these programs are then empowered to discover their potential and reach their dreams... Even if all they want to do is play ball.

A cooking pot with a lid

Child sponsorship costs so little and covers some of the basics like medical and dental care, educational assistance, a few items of clothing each year and access to basic food items, but the sponsored children's families struggle with extreme poverty every day.

There's a special day each year that is set aside by the organization to honor the families of the sponsored children by giving the family a special and needed, practical gift.

A few weeks after designating a few dollars to go toward this venture, I received a letter saying my donation had been used to purchase a large cooking pot with a lid for the children’s family.

As I thought about this family needing and receiving such a basic item like a cooking pot with a lid, I imagined that it might be replacing an old unsanitary or rusty item that had been witness to most, if not all, of this family’s meals.

Full of guilt, I thought of the many pots and pans in a lower kitchen cabinet of mine.

I think I’ll be going through pots and pans soon to donate what isn’t used enough to warrant keeping.

Now the wait

Plans to visit Daichela and José in the Dominican Republic have started to come together. I’m almost finished with the handful of preventive shots and I’ve got my passport and travel plans ready. The hard part will be the wait until I leave.

I’m really starting to get excited about going! Being able to go to another country will definitely be an experience for me.

I wrote to Daichela and José last week and mentioned to them that I was working on arrangements to come visit them. 

I wonder if they’ll be as excited as I am.

With a heavy heart

As I write this post, it's hard to think about much else. It’s only been a few days since the earthquake and tsunami devastated many communities in Japan.

I worry about the lives lost and those that are now left behind with everything they own gone and family members missing. The devastation is profound and the thought of clean up and the rebuilding of these communities is immeasurable.

My prayers are with those families that have lost so much and will need great strength to put one foot in front of the other to try and rebuild their lives.

Progress and laughter

Mrs. Wendy,

Thank you for the letter you sent to my niece.

She is happy with your letter. She is learning to read and to write, so she can write her own letter. Say hello to your children and to your family. God bless you.

-Says goodbye, Daichela and her aunt

Daichela’s progress report says she is now 57 lbs. and 4’7” tall and her favorite subject in school right now is math. Her favorite playtime activities are still painting and riding her bike.

Mrs. Wendy,

Thank you for the letter you sent to José and his family.

Thank you for keeping him in mind. He is very happy because he and your son have the same birthday.

-Say bye, Felipe, aunt of José

José’s progress report says he has grown to 3’4” tall and weighs about 44 lbs. According to José “he thinks” his favorite subject in school is art. (That made me laugh a little.) His favorite things to do outside of school are playing with toy cars and running, but he says his talent is singing and dancing. (More laughing on my end.)

I would love to know how close what I perceive their personalities to be from their letters, actually are to their real dispositions.

Building excitement

I received new photos of Daichela and José early in the fall and it was hard for me to believe how much they’d already grown since the initial photos.

As I continued to get acquainted with this family through short letters, I began to wonder if it would actually be possible to meet these two beautiful children that lived more than 2000 miles away.

With the help of my pastors and the sponsorship representative we considered the possibility of a trip to the Dominican Republic in the summer of 2011. There would be a few months of planning to get a group organized, and plenty of things I needed to take care of beforehand (like precautionary immunizations and a passport) but the opportunity was gaining steam and I was starting to get very excited.

What would I say to them if I actually got to meet them face to face? Better yet, what would they say to me?

Fried, ripe bananas... yum...

When my children come home from school the first place they head is to the kitchen for food because they think they’re starving. Of course they do not pick the healthiest choices available to them, but as a mom, I do what I can.

When I think of the possibility of them coming home to an empty pantry, or them telling me they’re hungry and there’s nothing I can give them to comfort their hunger, it makes me very sad.

In the Dominican Republic less than half of the sponsored children’s parents are steadily employed because they lack marketable skills. This makes it almost impossible for them to afford items like healthcare, education, clothing, shoes or even food for their children. These are often painful limitations that may hold the child back or prevent them from realizing their own potential.

Hello Dear Mrs. Nieman,

This is Felipe writing on behalf of your sponsored child José. José is very happy to be able to write for telling you what activities and places he likes the most. José likes to run very much. He likes the ice cream. He likes coloring and he likes to ride bikes. He likes to go to the park. His favorite food is fried ripe banana. He likes to eat a lot of rice. Thank you for all you do for your sponsored child!

-With love says good bye of you, José and his aunt, Felipe

I am very grateful that there are organizations that help the millions of children in the world like Daichela and José. Though they may live in poverty, these children have been entered into a sponsorship program that is there to assist with the simplest pantry supplies to help feed their hungry tummies with things like ice cream, fried ripe bananas and rice.

Tables have turned

Dear Mrs. Nieman,

This is Lisseloz, writing on behalf of your sponsored child Daichela. The child is very happy to be able to write for telling you what activities and places she likes most. We visit the church. She likes to go to the park and the rivers. She likes to play and to share with the others. She likes to eat fruit and candies. She is a very quiet and friendly child. She is understanding and obedient.

Thank you for all you do for your sponsored child!

-Daichela and her aunt, Lisseloz, say bye.

This journey has already given me so many things in return, besides wonderful letters like this one. Thinking I would be on the receiving end of this sponsorship journey really wasn’t what I envisioned, but the tables have certainly turned, and I’ve been completely blessed by two beautiful children that I’ve never met.

I know I cannot change the life of every suffering child in the world, and there are much worse cases than the children living in the Dominican Republic. But if I can take a few steps to let these two small children I’ve sponsored know that they are being cared for through small donations, a few letters and prayed for along the way, why not? These children have so much to offer their community, and the world, if only given the chance.

A parent's vision

Not long after choosing to sponsor José, we received a letter from his and Daichela's family:

Dear Mrs. Nieman,

I am very grateful of you for choosing José as your sponsored child. At the same time I want to tell you that you have a wonderful sponsored child. He likes to share and play. He likes to be nice dressed. Well, thank you so much.

-With love says goodbye of you from José and his aunt.

Because José was in the same family as Daichela, we received most of the same information about their living conditions as before. The detail of their family income being a meager $57 (US dollars) a month stood out a little more now that we were sponsoring both children.

Jose’s aunt had mentioned in the letter that he liked to share. I hoped that as I was sharing what little I could with these two beautiful children they would continue to share with those around them as they grew into adults.

Isn't that really any parent’s vision for their children, whether they are sponsored children or biological children?

And then there were two

I knew when we initially sponsored Daichela that she had a younger brother and I was curious if he actually had a sponsor himself. The representative said that her brother was only two and the children really needed to be three years old before they could be entered into the sponsorship program. I asked if there was any way to be given the opportunity to sponsor him as well when he turned three.

Well, fate brought Daichela to us, and then fate brought us her brother, José, too. He turned three only a few weeks after the conversation with the representative.

A month later we had a photo of our newest little sponsored child and he was absolutely adorable! Everything we had been doing for Daichela through sponsorship we would from then on be doing for him as well.

I really hoped that by helping support the two small children of this family that it would relieve a small amount of pressure this single mother must feel trying to raise her two young children with scarce resources.

Gift of self-confidence

For Easter last spring, we sent the children’s organization a small designated donation to be used to help purchase special gifts for the children to celebrate the Easter holiday that would be arriving soon.

The organization mentioned that all the children registered in the program get an Easter gift so no one feels left out. The donation we sent for Easter helps the organization cover the costs of those gifts. The staff members meet with the families beforehand to figure out what would be best for the child as well as what they would enjoy receiving.

A few weeks later we received a letter saying the organization purchased Daichela a new school uniform which consisted of a khaki skirt and a blue cotton shirt. It said it was important for all of the children to look nice and feel comfortable when they go to school each day in their uniforms. Because the children in Daichela's village were required to wear uniforms to school, I was hoping the few little dollars we provided would help ease the burden of her family having to try to cover the cost of her clothing for school.

Getting new school clothes is always exciting, even in my household, but I would imagine the day she returned to school she felt pretty self-confident walking in the classroom in new clothes that were purchased especially for her.

Building relationships

Dear Wendy,

Thank you for the letter and he picture you send to my niece. She liked it very much and she is happy to receive it. Daichela is very well. She says your children are beautiful. She always prays for you. She goes to school every day and she has very good grades. She likes to play, to paint and to read. Thank you so much for your attention. May God bless you and your family always.

Sincerely,

-Daichela and her aunt, Quircia

What a surprise it was to open the mail box and get a letter like that from someone you’ve prayed for, and find out that they were also praying for you. Very heartwarming.

What started out for me as a project of child sponsorship, in which I thought I would be helping by giving this little girl opportunities for a healthy, more educated life, has now turned into so much more. The thought of building a relationship with this little girl, as well as her family, was very exciting.

In return

Even though at times my family’s financial situation has been stretched to its limits, my kids had never gone without a gift on their birthdays. With families like Daichela’s, I assumed that presents for birthdays just aren’t in the budget of a household where the only working parent makes less than $100 in a month. That kind of strain might leave children like her feeling hopeless or overwhelmed by the challenges that face them at a very early age.

My hope was that by sending the gifts and letters it might make a difference on how Daichela sees herself and the world around her as well as possibly build her self-esteem and confidence.

Soon after sending the few little gifts we gathered for her, I got a letter from the children’s organization saying Daichela loved them all and they purchased a pair of casual shoes for her to play in. The letter also mentioned that they try to purchase gifts for the children that are practical and that the kids still get very excited no matter what the gift is. Some of the children get so wound up about receiving a gift on their birthday that they often don’t sleep well the night before.

Shouldn’t children's birthdays always be that exciting?

A smile on her face

Daichela’s birthday was to arrive in late February of 2010 and she would be turning six years old. Though I wouldn’t be able to spend time with her on her birthday I wanted to do something special for her. I wanted to make sure she knew we were thinking about her on her birthday.

We decided to send her stickers and a birthday card as well as a drawing my daughter drew for her. We sent a small donation to the children’s organization for her too so the staff at the community center in the Dominican Republic would be able to pick out and purchase a few special, but practical gifts for her. The community center staff members know her and her family and would be able to select something especially for her, whether it was something she desperately needed or maybe even something she really wanted.

Some of the impoverished families in Daichela’s community can’t afford to provide anything for their children’s birthdays, so hopefully the little that I provided put a smile on her face.

Our first letter

After the New Year we received our first correspondence from little, Daichela. Because she is only 5 and unable to write the letter herself, the letter was written for her by her mother in Spanish and then translated for us by the children’s organization.

Dear Mrs. Nieman,

I am very grateful of you for your kindness choosing Daichela as your sponsored child. She is very shy. She likes to ride bike. She is very smart and she likes to paint and talk. She is very lovely and sentimental. Her favorite food is fried food and she loves to eat and to sing. Her favorite subjects in school are Art and Spanish. I pray you like my daughter a lot. With love says goodbye of you.

-Daichela and her mother

How could I not have loved her? Her favorite subject is art; she loves to paint, is sentimental, and likes to talk. Hmmm… Divine plan?

I immediately wrote a letter back to Daichela and her mother telling them a little about myself and my family. I also included a photo and told them how excited I was to get their letter and wished them well.

The area in which Daichela lives is known for its sandy beaches and tropical weather. What tourists to the Caribbean area don’t get to witness is the poverty of the local communities.  I learned that with my sponsorship Daichela will be provided with access to a community center that was built by the children’s organization. My sponsorship also covers the cost of clothing, shoes, basic healthcare needs and educational support. In turn, I would receive letters from her and her family about twice a year telling me about her as well as progress reports from the children’s organization on her health and activities.

What an exciting adventure this will be for both Daichela and I.

The initial meeting

In the fall of 2009 our church started a partnership with a global non-profit children's organization to help needy children through child sponsorship programs.

One Sunday, a couple of representatives from the organization provided the congregation with information on children that were in need of sponsors. Each child was represented by a folder with their photo as well as information about themselves and their family. These particular children were from a small village located within the Dominican Republic and they ranged in ages from 3 to 18 years old.

All of the children that stared back at me through their photos were beautiful, and every one of them had amazing smiles and wide eyes of anticipation of sponsorship…and hope.

One in particular, was a beautiful face of a 5 year old girl named Daichela. She had dark russet colored skin and pigtail braids. I felt an unspoken connection to her immediately.

The information provided told me about particular things she liked to play with dolls and her favorite subject in school was Art. Daichela lived with her mother and she had a younger brother, Jose. It mentioned that her family was lucky enough to have running water in their home and electricity was available. Their home was made of concrete block and they had a corrugated metal roof with concrete flooring.

I was still a little unsure about what my obligations as a donor would be, but I was very excited to learn more about how I would be impacting this little girl’s life from over 2000 miles away. I had no idea at that initial meeting how the tables would turn and how the sponsorship of this beautiful little girl would impact me.