The children

As I was preparing my report on our Sponsorship/Children Education Fund (CEF), I had to go through the files to get the statistics – how many children and how much spent throughout the year.

16 children from 9 families were covered under our Sponsorship program, while another 23 children from 12 families were covered by our CEF. That means we managed to help out with the educational needs of 39 children from 18 different families (a few families overlap – some children covered under Sponsorship and another one or two covered by our CEF). All the while I thought we covered just about 30 children or so – I never realised we’ve reached almost 40!

Out of the 18 families, I’m either the main buddy or co-buddy to 13 of them, although I have met all 18 families, and have visited 14 of their homes – in 10 different towns. And of the 39 children, I’ve personally met 37 of them!

Our CEF actually started much earlier, when Buddies was still under the wings of FHA (Family Health Association, back then known as Family Planning Association). I hadn’t even joined Buddies yet. However, since budget was rather limited, the financial assistance too, was limited as well.

So we started off the Sponsorship Program in 2008, getting individual sponsors to sponsor the needs of individual children, ie 1 sponsor to 1 child. The response was overwhelming!

And during the second half of 2009, we managed to get quite a huge sum from donors, and now we have more money to spend under our CEF as well. Alhamdulillah. So spend on the children we will – but only on their educational needs. We have always believed in the rights of the children to basic education at least – no matter what kind of circumstances their parents are in. It frustrates me every time I hear about children not going to school due to poverty. They will end up inheriting their family’s poverty.

But it can be tough trying to influence some of them, especially if they have already stopped schooling. Somehow they only see the short term – they’d rather work now so they can help their family. Whereas if they think long term, they should be able to help their family better if they get better education!

Mrs K’s son, Shah for example, opted to work even though I advised him to go to Giat Mara for just a 6 months course to enhance his skills and to enable him to get a better job. Devi’s son, who stopped schooling at form one, also chose not to accept our offer to help him get back to school. He’s now doing odd jobs to help his family. In both cases, the parents themselves did not encourage the children to continue studying. I guess they felt they needed their children more to earn income for the family.

Sofie too, almost asked her son, who was then in form 3, to work part-time. Only when I begged her not too, promising I’d try to get financial help for the family, did she agree to let him concentrate on his studies. Now the boy is under sponsorship, and Sofie’s family is also getting some other financial help, so she is no longer thinking of getting the boy to work yet.

I do hope these children will fully utilise the educational help they are getting. I hope they will take the opportunity to do well in their studies, and hopefully after SPM they will also further their studies in higher learning institutions.

I already see hope in Lin’s, Sofie’s, Rosnah’s and Pushpa’s children. Their mothers are not only HIV positive – they are also thinking positive!