World Vision Canada
After my little fiasco with the car, I let out a big sigh and hoped I would be able to finally get to Richmond before the whole
World Vision Canada Sponsor Evening was over. It was the first one they've had in the West -- the World Vision office is based outside of Toronto and it's costly to have more offices and organize functions like this. I wanted to hear about some of the projects they've been working on, and there was a project manager from Honduras who was giving a presentation.
Auxense
World Vision phones every year to ask if I'd like to sponsor a second child, and I've always declined. I've been sponsoring a girl in Brazil for over 6 years (she will be 11 in December), and since then I wanted to stick to sponsoring one child and spend more time doing local community work and volunteerism. Which is what I've done, volunteering for the West End Seniors Network, Hostelling International, A Loving Spoonful, soup kitchens and doing a number of other things.
But attending one of these meetings and seeing what differences child sponsorships make for a village makes it very difficult to leave without considering sponsoring more children.
Kerneus
So I went over to the table that had the sponsorship photos and profiles and pored over all of them. It's not supposed to be like picking fruit at the supermarket -- I wanted to look closely and get a sense of the child. There were children of all ages, from all parts of the underdeveloped world: Bangladesh, Honduras, Central Africa, etc. How would I be able to choose?? I think you just have to go with your gut in these situations. All I had in mind was finding a little boy who wasn't in Latin America, because I sponsor a girl in Brazil.
This little boy, Kerneus from Haiti, turned 11 in June and when I looked at his sweet face I knew I couldn't put his card back in the pile. Kerneus looks small for his age, and right now he's in pre-school, but even though he has the body of a little boy, he has the eyes of an old man. In fact, the more I look at his photo, the more I'm reminded of the esteemed actor
Sidney Poitier.
Of course, there were others I would like to sponsor, especially this little girl named Melissa from Honduras (which made me think of my own niece Melissa) and a little girl from Bangladesh who had a very striking face. But in the end I told the lady from World Vision that I would take another card to see if I could get one of my friends to sponsor a child -- I chose Auxense from Chad. I signed on for both Kerneus and Auxense, and told her I would make arrangements in my own time for a sponsor for Auxense down the road, because I could only sponsor one other child besides Glecia Jessica Felix, and that would be Kerneus. I had in mind the idea to go and visit one of these children, and it's much easier to get to Haiti from Vancouver than it would be to get to either Brazil or Chad. Plus, in Haiti I believe they speak patois and French and maybe some English. It would be much harder for me to communicate in either Portuguse or the native tongue spoken in Chad (I'll have to look that one up).
I'm deliriously tired now. After I got home I was invited out for drinks, and we stayed longer after last call than we'd realized...
