Boniface – a better life thanks to sponsorship

Before I was a very distracted child and I didn't attend classes at school regularly. My parents were not interested in my studies because neither they nor I understood how useful it was and what I could do in the future if I had an education. So my namesake, having found that I was in danger of dropping out of school, picked me up and took me to his home in Mabo. It was only in 4th class that I started attending school regularly, as by then I was being taken care of by a World Vision Community Development Facilitator and I was enrolled in the sponsorship programme.

Now, I am in the third year of secondary school and I think that it’s thanks to being sponsored that I continued my studies. Being a sponsored child helped me a lot because in the programme I became a peer educator, I was trained and often attend and participate in awareness building sessions of my peers and parents on everything related to the protection of children and the support and maintaining of children in the sponsorship programme.

I know who I am now and where I can go

After these trainings I now know what behavior is good and bad, what to do and who to contact when there is a child at risk (a case in relation to the protection of the child). The generosity of the sponsors shows that they place a lot of importance on our education and well-being. Probably most importantly sponsorship has allowed me to know who I am, what I am capable of, the potential that is in me and what I want to become in the future. As a sponsored child I want to become a steward, travel on planes, succeed in my life. I would also like in the future, to sponsor children or to take care of the education of some children so as they too can have a better life. I want to do the same thing for them, as was done for me.

Sponsorship in action

Recently, one of my friends saw their house go on fire and they lost, all of their crops that they had stored for the lean season. My friend's parents could not afford to rebuild, nor buy food to eat and fell on thus hard times. My friend came to tell me about this and in an effort to help, I talked to the World Vision Community Development Facilitator (CDF) who is in charge of our area in terms of monitoring children. The CDF took photos and wrote a request on behalf of my friend's parents, which he sent to the World Vision program manager in Birkelane. And the support came. The World Vision program support in Birkelane allowed the family to rebuild their home, buy mattresses, food, school supplies and clothes.

Through this act of support on behalf of children, and their entire family I see sponsorship as an act of solidarity with and for children. I believe sponsorship go so much further than just one child. In my opinion, taking these children in charge, ensuring their well-being is a noble act.

Regardless of the age at which children enter World Vision's sponsorship program, it allows them not just to dream of a better life but to be part of it, to be ambitious about who they are, to know their duties and rights, and to prepare for to be leaders in the future.

By Pierre Tatiana Ndione, Birkelane Cluster Communication Focal Point

Photos credits: Pierre Tatiana Dione & Vision du Monde