I have recently made what may well turn out to be one of the best decisions of my life. I am sponsoring a child.
I am paying £21 pounds a month so that a little boy in Burkina Faso can have a chance at making a better life for himself. So that he can be educated and equipped with the skills and opportunities he needs to break free from poverty. It's not just his life my £21 will change, but the lives of his whole family and the lives of the next generation too. It is mind-blowing that I, an unremarkable student from Surrey with a penchant for over-priced coffee, can make a difference to a community of people who are so full of potential but just haven't been given the opportunities that I take for granted.
The little boy I am sponsoring is only five at the moment but I look forward to watching him grow into a young person who is educated, who knows he is loved and valued and who has ambitions to change his world for the better. Who knows, maybe he would have managed this without my £21 anyway, but it's a small price to pay (7 caramel macchiatos... yes I worked it out!) to help him along his way.
I am sponsoring him through a Christian organisation called Compassion (http://www.compassionuk.org/) they have centres in many of the poorest communities across the globe where children have access to health care and nutritional supplements, educational opportunities and social and emotional care.
I don't think it's fair that some children are born into this world with few opportunities and little hope for the future, we have everything here we could ever need - money, security, an education - but what do we do with it? In my case I moan about uni work and sit in cafes drinking caramel macchiatos... what a waste.
The video below is of Patrick Regan visiting compassion projects in Bolivia, but if you look on youtube there are so many more, each telling the story of a community which has been transformed by a few people and their £21.
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