More Sponsors Needed

Hi folks! School reopens today, and it seems for whatever reason, most of the schools of the children under our Education Sponsorship for Children programme are only giving out the report cards when school reopens. As such, I will have to wait until I can gather all the info on the sponsored children before I can send out the reports on the children to the respective sponsors, and ask for this year's sponsorship money. I would prefer to send out the reports of the children before asking for this year's sponsorship so that the sponsors will at least know the developments of the child they are sponsoring. Which is really making life rather difficult for me, because I have to get the reports ready and at the same trying to settle the sponsored children's back-to-school needs before I can ask for the money! Lecehlah, if the various schools could give out the report cards before the last school holidays, I could have prepared the reports earlier and won't be so kelam-kabut when school reopens.

Now this sponsorship programme is becoming like a full time job for me... so much so that even though as the chairperson I am also in charge of my NGO's volunteer care, I am doing a LOUSY job at the latter because this sponsorship thingy is already taking up so much of my time. But I guess I will have to prioritize things... volunteer care is no doubt important to make sure all the volunteers are doing okay and are well motivated, but since the sponsorship involves handling other people's money entrusted in us for the education of needy children, I definitely have to give that top priority.

Anyway, we are looking for more sponsors this year as we have more children needing education sponsorship. We already have 3 children already approved for sponsorship, and there may be more coming. Of the 3, one is HIV infected. The sponsorship amount by the way is RM1,200/year for primary school and RM1,800/year for secondary school - payable either yearly or half yearly. The 3 newly approved children are all in primary school. The money will be used to pay for the child's basic schooling needs (including uniforms, shoes, stationeries, exercise books and workbooks), co-curricular activities (fees, uniforms etc), monthly pocket money, bus fares (if necessary), tuition (if necessary) and whatever other necessities as long as it is for the education of the children.

So, if any one of you readers are interested, or if you know of anyone who may be interested, you may contact us for further info.

Those who'd like to contribute but do not dare commit themselves to sponsor the children individually, you may still contribute one-off (any amount accepted, however small) to our Children Education Fund (CEF), which is a separate fund used to cover for the back-to-school expenses of the children who are not individually sponsored but still need help at the beginning of each schooling year.

You may either email Buddies or you may email me personally - I read them both!

Thanks folks!