Jie's Fifteenth Birthday

In February I sent an SNG for Jie's fifteenth birthday n March 11, and today I received the follow-up report and photos! Jie used the entire amount to purchase groceries for her family.

In her thank-you letter, Jie wrote:

Dear Sponsor,
Hi, how are you? I hope you're doing fine. I'm so happy for the special donation that you sent to me in honor of my birthday. I purchased grocery items for the whole family. It will serve as a very big help for the entire family. I'm very thankful for having you as very kind-hearted person. My family and I would like to extend our deepest gratitude. Take care always and God bless!
Your sponsored child,
Jie Ann

What were the child's/family's comments when the gifts were delivered?
Jie Ann profoundly thanks her sponsor for the thoughtfulness in remembering her 15th birthday. She extremely felt the joy and excitement while selecting the food commodities in their home and those that they would be needing to prepare a simple meal for her birthday. Too, her parents were intensely thankful for making their daughter's birthday a very memorable one.

How will the gifts benefit the child and/or family?
Jie Ann happily received the bountiful supply of food commodities. The gifts enabled Jie Ann and her family prepare a simple meal with her favorite rice noodles dish and some sweet treats to celebrate her 15th birthday. The rest of the grocery items provided the family with food for their everyday needs. It saved them from buying their needs using their own money. It's indeed a big blessing for them to be accorded with help in their difficult times.

Jie with her parents, Aida and Gregorio.

It's interesting that they bought nothing but food, and worrisome that the report mentions "their difficult times." I wonder if something has changed in their family recently to reduce their already-meager income? Jie's has always been one of the poorest of my families, but they have been pretty stable for the past seven years and with previous SNGs, they chose a combination of food and other items (clothes, dishes, a watch and umbrella). Her parents are getting older, and I wonder if Gregorio is finding it harder to work as a carpenter? I'm anxious to see her next Family Report and find out if anything has changed in that regard.

Fundraiser: Anna Marie's Fourth Semester

I am super excited to announce that the fundraiser for Anna Marie's fourth semester of college is being hosted by Aura's House! The organization is non-profit, staffed entirely by volunteers, and works directly with Children International to raise funds for life-changing projects for the children and communities. What makes them special is that 100% of donations go directly to CI ... no fees are withheld from the money that is raised! I've been on the waiting list for nearly a year, and I'm so happy that Anna's chance has come!

And so without further ado ...

Anna Marie is eighteen years old. She graduated from high school in 2013 and, with the help of Children International, all of you, and me, she has been attending a state college near her home. She is studying in a Bachelor's of Science program for Business Management with an emphasis on Human Resource Development. For her first semester, Anna Marie took nine classes and achieved an average of 90%!

Anna Marie is dedicated and hard working, and I have a deep belief that she is going to go far in life. In every letter she expresses not only gratitude, but a desire to help her entire family. In particular, she has mentioned her younger siblings. Anna envisions being able to pay forward the help she is receiving now by paying for her brother and sister to attend college when their time comes.

Any amount you can contribute will be greatly appreciated! Truly, no amount is too big or too small ... it all adds up to a brighter future for Anna Marie and her whole family!

Letter from Anna Marie

I received a CP letter from Anna Marie today!

Dear Ms. Dillon,

A pleasant day to you, your family and your special someone! Hope both of you in a good health as well as like me.

I'm so happy to receive letters and card that you're sending to me and it's so beautiful and impressive. It's so nice to hear that you are very proud of me. Now this second semester I have nine classes also which makes me so busy and need more efforts because I together with my groupmates make thesis, interpretative dance, and preparing Human Resource Development Management Day Pageant which is about pageant. I'm one of the organizers of our section. We make dresses made of recycled materials to show our creativity. My favorite class is physical education because I love dancing and to show my talent to them.

I'm so very thankful to you and to your family for your continuous support in my studies. May God bless you always.

With prayer,
Anna Marie

Nine classes, wow! I love that she's had the opportunity to continue dancing and I'm proud to hear that she's active in the pageant organization!

Spotlight Child of the Week, 3/29/14

I've been very remiss in keeping this blog updated, but life is finally settling back to normal and I should be able to post more regularly now!

Two little girls in the Philippines have caught my eye each of the last several times I've looked through the list of waiting children, and they will be my Spotlight Children this week:

Alyzon Anne lives with her parents and one sibling in a plywood house with a dirt floor. They have non-regulated electricity and they must get their water from a neighbor's faucet. With a family income of only $87 a month, they have little hope of a bright future for five-year-old Alyzon. You can change that for them by becoming her Sponsor.


Four-year-old Xyriel lives with her parents and five siblings on a monthly income of only $134. The family is fortunate to have regulated electricity access, but they must get their water from faucets in their community. This sweet angel has to sleep on the concrete floor of her family's home without even a mat to cushion her. You can bring comfort and hope to her life by becoming her Sponsor.

The Love Bomb Project

The Love Bomb project started on Children International's old Sponsor-networking site, LiftOne (which has now been replaced with "My Social Center"). A couple of Sponsors had some costly projects they wanted to fund for their children, and they realized that if every member of LiftOne donated $1-$2, they could easily fund the projects. So each week, a different fundraiser from the waiting list was featured as the target for Love Bombing -- a lot of great projects were funded with hundreds of small donations! There are all different types of fundraisers: paying for home improvements for a family, building a library at a community center, funding the tuition and fees for a child's education, setting up a business venture to help the family earn more income themselves ...

Over time, though, it became apparent that the Love Bombing was *mostly* being done by a few same repeat donors, and those Sponsors were becoming burnt out. The frequency was reduced to a new target every other week. Then, the Sponsor who had been coordinating the rotation had life happen and could no longer devote the time to running it. Another Sponsor took over, but we have since lost her as well.

So now I have volunteered to try and revitalize it. The new networking site has seen an influx of participation from sponsors who never used LiftOne, so the time is ripe to get new people involved! I'll be featuring the first target on April 1st, and I already have the spreadsheet set up to track the rotation and how successful the project is.

I won't be asking my friends and family to donate to each and every one of these fundraisers, of course--that would be absurd and annoying! You will see me announce the new target and share the link every other week, though--if one strikes your fancy as a worthwhile project, please do feel free to donate a dollar or two, and/or to share the link with your contacts.

Anna Marie's First Semester: Grades!

Anna Marie with a classmate.

I've received the final report for Anna Marie's first semester of college! She took a whopping NINE classes, including an all-day English class on Saturdays.

Her grades (GPE, letter equivalent) and courses were:
(1.5, A-) MTH 001 (Math)
(2.25, B-) SSC 001 (some sort of social science)
(1.75, B+) FIL 111 (Filipino, the equivalent of us taking English in college)
(1.75, B+) PHI 001 (philosophy)
(1.25, A) NSTP 1 (National Service Training Program, required for two semesters)
(2.0, B) ABS 001 (I can't read the teacher's handwriting very well. May be NBS, or ABC or NBC)
(1.5, A-) NSC 001 (natural science)
(2.0, B) ENG 111 (English)
(1.0, A+) P_O 111 (missing the middle letter, same teacher whose writing I couldn't read before).

Their system is stricter than here in the USA. It varies a bit from college to college, but at her school a "B" is 86%-88%, and a "B-" is 83%-85%. Her GWA of 1.6 is the equivalent of a 90% average! I'm so proud of her!

Anna Marie's First Semester Report

I received the final report for Anna Marie's first semester, and the news is fantastic! She passed all of her classes, and by now is part-way through her second semester.

Her letter says:

Dear Ms. Dillon,

A pleasant day to you! I hope you're fine and okay upon receiving this letter of mine.

Thank you for continued support to my studies now that I'm here in college. With your support I was able to finish my first semester, so I just want to thank you a lot and because of you I was able to start achieving my ambition to help my family and other siblings to finish their studies, too. I'm blessed and lucky to have you in my life.

More thanks to you for your sharing of your blessings to me. May God bless you always.

With Prayers,
Anna Marie

The report states that she was very happy to finish her first semester and is enrolled in the same course for her second semester. It also says her grades are attached ... but they're not. Whoops! I'll have to email C.I. about that, because I'm definitely curious!

They also included a "Beneficiary Information" page which says:

When Anna Marie received the donation that was intended for her continued education, she feels really blessed and grateful for the help she received from the sponsor. She knew the responsibility along with the support that is given to her. Anna Marie ensures that she's focused in order to give all of her time and effort in her studies. She is proud to be able to pass all her subjects during her first semester. Now, she's already continuing as a first year, second semester Bachelor of Science in Business Administration major in Human Resource Development Management.

Anna Marie was completely delighted and happy to share that she doesn't have to worry where to get her school expenses. Now, she has the bigger chance to lift their family from impoverishment as soon as she will be graduated and have her stable job. Mr. and Mrs. Arroyo want to share their warm thanks to the sponsor for the excessive support given to their family.

And it included a final, itemized expense report for the semester:

School fee for first semester: $72.96
School uniforms: $157.35
Educational support, June-Dec.: $396.38
School supplies: $73.40
Costume and field trip fee: $25.32
School fee for second semester: $24.84
Reserved for educational expenses for second semester: $149.75
Grand Total: $900

Woohoo! I was quite interested to see the itemized list--I was excited to see that the school fee for the second semester was already paid, and there was money left over! I sent the same amount again in September for the second semester, but knowing there was a cushion in case paperwork or processing took a little longer than expecting is definitely a comfort--her schooling wouldn't be interrupted.

Anna Marie turned eighteen last month--we've only got a year left before she graduates from the C.I. program! I'm going to have to decide how I want to go about financing the rest of her college education when that time arrives ... in the meantime, I have a fundraiser set up for her third semester (you can see it here). It's doing quite well already, thanks to Christmas, the Love Bomb, and Macky's winnings from the Aura's House raffle, which she generously gifted to Anna Marie's college fund!