Aibai

I am so happy.

Came home to a postbox spilling letters, and one addressed to me from WorldVision. My imaginary feet immediately did a little jig and I barged into the house, face all smiles. If I did not tell you already, I've signed up for a Child Sponsorship Programme with WorldVision. As a sponsor, I'll be assigned a child who will be receiving RM50 from me monthly. A portion of the monthly fund will be channelled to the Area Development Programme (ADP) the child is living in; not only to aiding the child to get proper education and food, but also to improve the quality of life of the community there.

In my case, my sponsored child lives in Hotan, XinJiang, China. His name is Aibai and he is 10 years old. There is a photo of him together with a short biodata. Apparently, this bald kid is the son of a farmer, both parent working the land for the survival of their 3 sons. He is healthy, loves Maths, and is in charge of caring for the animals at home.

I snapped the below photo with my digicam. He looks positively like a little monk. :D The picture is blurred for a purpose, that is, to protect the identity of my sponsored child. (actually there's something wrong with the lens of my Samsung)



WorldVision also provided information about Xinjiang, the biggest province in China that is surrounded by Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kirghizstan, Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. I can't imagine the diversity of the religion/culture there. These people are practically living in the desert, with extremely hot weather in the summer and cold winters. WorldVision will want to:

(copied from pamphlet)
1.) Improve the community's health especially the health of children facing malnutrition
2.) Enhance the poor learning condition in the mountainous areas by improving teaching quality, dormitory and school facilities,
2.) Develop local reesrouces for better income generation to provide the farmers' livelihood, and
4.) Improve the environmental conditions in the community which is threatened by the encroaching desert.

When I first told mom about this, she said I shouldn't commit my funds to a long-term programme like this. She also said that improvement in the life of 1 child will not make a significant difference in the suffering of the whole community. So isn't it better to donate once in a while with lump sums instead? Actually, I do not fully agree but she does have a point. I do suspect that she's worried that I'll not have enough for myself and the family should there be any financial crisis.

However, I'm just glad that WorldVision structure their activity in such a way to enable the funds of the donors to make a lasting impact on both the community and the child himself.

Heck, who knows. Maybe one day I'll travel to Xinjiang to meet Aibai. When that happens, I hope to see him taller, stronger and smarter than me. :)