"CFCA brought a smile to me..."

The following letter was written by a sponsored youth in CFCA's Nairobi, Kenya project. She writes about her life experiences, and about how sponsorship allowed her to go to school and change the direction of her life. We hope you'll take a minute to read her touching words.




My name is Sylvia. I was born on 8th December 1989 in a family of six, two brothers and two sisters. I am from the Maasai community, a pastoralist community in Kenya. Maasai tribe is a very unique community in Kenya. This tribe has preserved its culture and some of the things we do are outdated. There is high preference of early marriages, female genital mutilation, use of traditional dressing, lives in Manyatta (traditional houses), moranism (where young people are trained in the forest to be courageous), less value of education and traditional drinking of raw cows’ blood.

Despite being born in the Maasai community - a tribe which migrates due to its pastoral practices in search of pasture, my dad took me to school at a tender age of 5, which was very rare. At that time, girls of my age were being taught how to manage their own homes. My dad was not educated but he wanted all his children to be educated. He had a vision and he knew education would empower his children. Schooling was exciting but not all that fun because my school was a bit far from home and at times the weather was not conducive for schooling because our place is semi-arid.

One Saturday morning, my dad woke me up so as not to be late for school. Pupils in higher class level (6-8) were expected to go to school on Saturdays but only for six hours. After classes that day we started heading home. A big crowd had formed near our homestead. What is it? What is happening? Many questions lingered in my mind.

When we approached our house, people gave us stares. In the crowd women were crying and men grieving also. My Aunt came and ushered me in to the house, while my brothers were taken by some men. My mother was in the house crying and some women were there comforting her. When she saw me, she burst in tears. She held me and made me sit beside her. “God is the one who takes away, Silvia your father ….has passed away,” she cried. No! it can’t be. How can this be, my dad woke me up this morning and was fine. I could not imagine. My dad was a gentleman; he wanted the best for his family. He allowed my sister and I to go to school, something that was rare in our community.

My elder sister passed away while in grade 11 and the second-born sister did not go far with her education. She got married at an early age as is the custom of our community. When my father passed away, I was in grade six and we all knew that nothing was going to be easy. My mother was not working. She was a housewife and she had to provide for her family. Our cattle, goats and sheep were sold to pay for our school fees.

I sat for my national primary school examination in the year 2002. I passed very well and got myself a place in a mission school in our district. At this time my brothers were also in high school. My mother used to do bead work to earn an income. She also tried a business in green grocery at the local market and also sold tea in the market. During school holidays we used to concentrate on the bead work to help our mother raise some money. My brothers could not stand the frustration of being in and out of school due to lack of school fees, and they eventually dropped out of school while in high school.

I got enrolled in a Catholic secondary school for my higher education. Apart from regular education, we were taught how to achieve our career goals, how to trust in God and how to pray. I can remember once when I was sent home for school fees and ended up staying for a whole month at home. At this time I helped my mother in selling tea around the market. My mother also taught me how to bead, how to make bracelets, necklaces and earrings. The proceeds from our products helped me to pay for some of my school fees. In my books, I did not know people of good faith, genuine friends, people with golden hearts, people who would assist selfishly. Now I have come across them. They are CFCA sponsors.

I got sponsored in October 2004 and it was like the time of Moses when manna fell from heaven. Assistance came to me while I needed it most, just at the right time. I think of it as a tree in the middle of a desert, the only place for shelter to hide myself from the scorching sun, or a mango tree with fruits for the hungry. Bravo! CFCA brought a smile to me when I could not smile.

When I got sponsored, the CFCA project helped me to pay for my school fee balance. I was not sent home again for fees, and therefore I had happy times in school like other students from well-to-do families.

I sat for my secondary school examination towards the end of year 2006. For a good part of year 2007, I worked with my mother in bead work. I am so happy that when CFCA sponsors visited Kenya on a mission awareness trip in September 2007, we were invited to sell the beads and other products to the sponsors. This extra income is a big boost to my mother’s income.

I am currently in college, where I am taking an advanced diploma course in community development. I will learn sociology, gender issues, human growth and development, criminology, crisis management, micro-finance, entrepreneurship, project management and logistics. This is a one-and-a-half year course.

My goal in life is to have a degree in community development. When I get employed, I will start a project on girls’ empowerment. I will educate girls on the importance of schooling and rescue Maasai girls who are forcefully married at tender age. I will also offer free counseling classes for drug addicts and help in rehabilitation of women who have been physically and emotionally abused by their husbands. I would want to bring light to our people. I also want to be a role model to our Maasai girls, to show them that they can also make it in life. If one of their own has made it in life, why not them?

My special appreciation goes to the CFCA program and to my sponsor Melinda, who has stood by me through both difficult and good times. In spite of the financial support I have received, I have also received a lot of moral support through letters she wrote to me while in school, and this played a role in my life.

It is a challenge to have girls of my age (older teens) get willing sponsors due to the high cost of education. You may not know what change your contribution brings to a needy child’s life, especially the older teens. Whatever little you contribute counts a lot in this person’s life. I have a testimony that whatever sponsor Melinda has contributed over the years is the cause of this smile I have today. Put a smile on a teen’s face today by sponsoring one!


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Blog Action Day: The seeds I sow

From Paul Pearce, director of international programs:

On a recent trip to Kenya, I met a number of sponsored teenagers whose stories and challenges they are facing in their lives brought me to a new level of humility and appreciation for the promise, potential, and tremendous burdens on these young people. I won't use their names to protect their families' privacy.

In one house, I met a 15-year-old young man, who greeted us with a palpable energy and excitement. He and his mother and three younger brothers live in a very small, simple home on quarter acre of ground just outside town on the skirts of Mt. Kenya.

His father had worked hard and purchased this lot last year. The boy's parents dreamed of moving their family out of their cramped quarters in the town's slum area. In their new home, they would have room to cultivate maize (corn), potatoes and squash to help make ends meet in the most humble of family budgets.

Last year, the family worked with CFCA staff to figure out how they could tailor the benefits toward their goal of building this home. They forfeited the program's nutrition benefits for eight months in order to buy the iron sheets used for the house, where they live now. Then unexpectedly, his father died a few months ago.

We met with this youth and his mother in their little living room. When the social worker began to tell us about what the family had been through, the boy's mother could not keep her emotions in, and had to excuse herself. She stepped outside to cry, and regain her strength to visit.

I could feel the strong spirit of her husband.

The son stayed inside with us. He told us he was preparing for exams coming up that next month and hoped to continue to college. His face was bright as a star as he talked. His mother returned and sat next to him, tears still lining her eyes. She shared that their plans were to save up to run a water pipe to their house so they could begin irrigation.

The group headed outside. The boy lingered in the house a bit, still sitting tall in the chair next to me. I encouraged him in his studies, told him he was on the right path. He nodded in agreement, the same brightness in his face, but this time showing through held back tears.

I think God gave us tears for when words just don't do. I can only imagine the young man's feelings, of perhaps being rudely awakened from adolescence to head of household in a flash, his dreams of school, his father now gone, the responsibility he feels towards his mother, towards his three younger brothers.

We got up and headed outside. The young man took a moment alone to regroup. There were flowers planted around the outside of the house. I could see that they had a few potato plants started that had been watered by hand...

Please visit these blogs from the CFCA community also participating in Blog Action Day '08:

• Bart and Annie's Big Adventure
• Nothin' But SocNET
• Around the World with CFCA
• Zamboanga the Movie
  

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"CFCA came in with HOPE..."

The following letter was written by a sponsored youth in Liberia. He writes about the challenges he has overcome after 14 years of civil unrest in his country and about how CFCA (sponsor of Walk with the Poor) has been a constant source of hope in his life. We hope you'll read his letter to you.


My name is Nyankoi. I was born on Sept. 9, 1986. I am a Liberian. As most Liberians, I have had my share of trauma, challenges and difficulties in life.
After 14 years of civil unrest, I am happy to be among the living. During the years of civil war, my mother and I went to the hinterland along with my brothers. We went to our village from Monrovia where we lived prior to the war. We returned to Monrovia in 1991 and I started pre-school, which was at first free. I attended for a year and could not continue because of financial reasons. My late father was not working then and hence things were very difficult.

It was there and then that CFCA came in with HOPE. It is often said that a man can live without food for seven days, without water for three days, but no man can live without HOPE for a second. It is in this light that I can never forget the pit of sorrow CFCA took me from.

I became a part of the CFCA program in 1994 when I was 8 years old and in the second grade. I was accepted into the program when my father asked the priest at our parish for assistance in getting me to school. It was then that Father Jackson decided that I should get on the program because of my financial status. Since then there has never been a turning back because I took it as a challenge and never repeated a single class throughout my entire school year.

Today, I am proud to say that because of CFCA, I am who I am. My entire high school and even to some extent my college fees have been paid through the service-scholarship by CFCA. Throughout my high school years, I had many tough times but I believe that tough times don’t last but tough people do. This has moved me to persevere in all I do. ...

My first sponsor friend was Mrs. Ann C. Raffetto, who helped me with encouragement and motivation and this greatly helped me to continue. I was happy that I was again benefiting from the program. My father was now relieved a bit because he had my brothers and cousins to attend to because CFCA had already offered HOPE to the family again.

Then I had the greatest challenge so far in my life, the death of my father on Jan. 10, 2005. It took me a long period to get over it. After my graduation from the 12th grade Aug. 1, 2005, not having the slightest thought of going to college because of financial problems, CFCA stepped in again with sponsorship and service-scholarship programs.

At this point in time I had a change of sponsor which made me very sad at first. I had already established a closer relationship with my first sponsor and I felt a part of her family, too. After some time I got a new sponsor, Joseph and Pat. It was just the matter of time and I was not sad anymore because my new sponsors made me to feel a part of their family as well. They encourage me like my previous sponsor, and today I have an extended family far away from home.

I had the chance to tell my new sponsor friend about college life in Liberia and how it differs from that of the Western world. I made them understand that unlike Western countries that charge so much for universities and colleges, in Liberia, colleges are not very expensive. They got to understand that the same amount they contribute to grade school students could also do something significant in Liberian universities. Many teens can do a lot with sponsorship funds in universities if they decide to only use it for that purpose and forget about other benefits. Education is paramount among the youth of postwar Liberia, and I am certain that every child wants to get a career and be independent one day.

My sponsors got to know that I am studying electronics engineering in a Catholic university and they continue to encourage me. They are always happy with me and they feel proud of me because for five semesters I had scored three points and continue to do my best. I admire my sponsors so much because of their pieces of advice.

I am now a senior student at the university and will hopefully be graduating with a bachelor of science degree in electronics engineering in two semesters. I am proud to be a CFCA beneficiary in Liberia with the greatest CFCA experience. Also, I hope my academic achievements will serve as an encouragement to the younger beneficiaries with very poor beginnings to forge ahead. What the sponsors are giving us (no matter how small or big) is our inheritance for the future. That assistance is purely silver and gold in my heart.

I can now say that I am part of a big family—CFCA. There is no way I can divorce my achievement and where I am in life from the help of CFCA. No way! I am grateful.

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