Introducing my Children - Compassion

A few months after sponsoring Lawrence, I longed to add another child. I loved both writing & receiving letters and having a child to call "my own". I often thought about who I'd sponsor next, and would look on the website at waiting children.
However, at this point in my life I just couldn't. I was a student with limited income & the main barrier was my parents. I don't like to say they weren't supportive of sponsorship, that puts them in the wrong light. I'd say it's more accurate to say they were concerned about me. They didn't want me committing too much money and leaving myself short. I was convinced I could have managed, but I never liked to go against them too much, so I refrained.
I had been directed towards a forum called Our Compassion. This was for sponsors of Compassion International, a charity I wasn't involved in, but people were very welcoming. It was lovely to be able to communicate with people who understood how I felt towards a child I'd never met.
It was here that I was introduced to the correspondent programme. I won't explain it in detail as I assume anyone reading this will be more than aware of it. But basically, this gave me the chance to be a penpal to children whose sponsor didn't write, without the financial commitment.

This was perfect for me! I eagerly added my name to the list and was assigned 9 year old Wickly from Haiti. Wickly is now 14 years old and I still have him as a correspondent, and amazingly, I'm guaranteed to keep him until graduation. A few months ago in early 2017, Wickly lost his financial sponsor. My heart sank as I signed onto my account and saw him missing. After pouring my heart out on the compassion sponsors facebook page about how he was my 1st compassion child & how devastated I was to lose him, one of the staff replied that she had managed to get him sponsored through a "living sponsorship", and so I could still write to him! This is where someone leaves behind money in their will to sponsor a child until graduation. I am so grateful for that amazing person.
Anyway, I went a bit on a tangent there! Back to September 2012 when I was assigned Wickly and my journey started with compassion!

I LOVED the correspondent programme, to the point where I went a bit daft and added many more children from all over the world.

I developed a special heart for the kids in Colombia, I developed such a good relationship with these kids & it was my favourite country to receive letters from.
Like with Lawrence, every time I received a letter it was an exciting day. I built relationships with many of these kids & thought of them as very close friends or even like family.

However, it wasn't always plain sailing. The very nature of the correspondent programme (as briefly mentioned before with Wickly) means that kids can disappear from your account with no warning. This can happen for a few reasons, unfortunately it has happened to me a good few times & I've had to say goodbye to a few children.

I always aimed to write to my kids every month, and for the 1st few years, I managed it well. However in 2016 I started to struggle. There were a couple of reasons for this. The 1st one being simply that I had took on so many kids, I was feeling overwhelmed. The new letter writing system with compassion meant that I was no longer receiving paper letters, they all came online. I agreed with this change as undoubtedly it would save on admin costs so more money could go where it really needed to, however it made writing for me difficult. I used to keep all the physical letters I received, reply, then file it away. However with the online system I would read a letter, then it would easily get lost & more came in, I was getting more overwhelmed & barely replying to any.
I knew that this couldn't go on as more than anything it wasn't fair to the kids. I thought a lot about it & decided that the best thing to do for everyone would be to let a few go.
At this point I had 37 correspondents, I was able to pick out 17 who I either hadn't had very long, or just hadn't built a relationship with. I decided it would be best for them to go to someone who would write more consistently, and it would also allow me to focus more on the kids I already had a bond with. It was difficult to let them go however I feel I made the right call. Just this week I've sat & wrote to all 20, and promised myself to get back on track. I really want to feel the magic again that I once had, and I'm pretty sure with commitment to writing I can do that.

So, here goes, here are my remaining compassion kids!

Aaron - Honduras

                                        

Cliff- Haiti

Emmanuel - Uganda

Deiver -Colombia

Jaime - Colombia

Jesus - Colombia

Juan - Bolivia

Juan - Colombia

Kervintz - Haiti

Kleafton - Haiti

Luis - El Salvador

Nathaniel - Phillippines

Nestor - Honduras

Nevile - Kenya

Pether - Colombia

Ruth - Ecuador

Vince - Phillippines

Yojansel - Dominican Republic

Yordi - Colombia

I am so grateful for what compassion international have given me. They've given me the chance to be a part of so many kids lives that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to.