I finally got a photo of Tesfaye uploaded! Tesfaye is the other young man we sponsor in Ethiopia, through Compassion International. Isn't he cool!!?? We LOVE sponsoring an older child because, through him, we get so much information about the country and what life is really like in Ethiopia. It's more of an adult perspective. I highly recommend sponsoring one older child and one younger child. There are such advantages to having kids from both ends of the age spectrum. So if you're going to sponsor, go ahead and sponsor two at once! :)
Tesfaye is 18 years old and lives in a medium-sized city with his mother and siblings. His mother sells onions in the market. According to Tesfaye, his father died when he was little. Tesfaye is in school and there was a note in his paperwork saying that he is approved to be in the program until 2011, so I believe that is when he graduates. His interests revolve around nature and natural wonders. He would particularly like to see an iceberg. (Me, too!)
There are so many things I have yet to ask Tesfaye. I'm especially curious to know what his plans are for after school. We are only about a year into our sponsorship, so we are just starting to really build that relationship and flow of letters.
By the way, we sponsor Tesfaye through Compassion's correspondence program. Here's how that works:
Some Compassion kids are sponsored by corporations or through trusts and there isn't anyone to actually write. So these kids are available for you to do the correspondence part. The corporation pays the monthly fee and you write letters and send birthday, Christmas and family gifts. You basically ARE the child's sponsor -- and the child will know you as his or her sponsor.
If the corporation decides to stop funding the child, you are given the opportunity to take on the full sponsorship. At that point you would begin paying the monthly fee in addition to corresponding.
If you are interested in corresponding with a child through this program, call Compassion International -- 800-336-7676. I made the call and within about 2-3 months we received the child packet. We're so glad we did. WE LOVE TESFAYE! :)
2 comments:
Hey Lisa! I had thought about calling and asking to be put on a list to be able to do correspondence. I was hesitant because I write to our kids every 2 weeks and then I have about 8-10 other kids that I write once a month back home where I was a children's minister. I wanted to make sure that I was faithful to continue to write all of them before adding another. Then I had forgot about calling Compassion about being added until I read your post! Thanks for the reminder! :)
Thanks so much Lisa -- I've corresponded with some additional kids through the years, but don't have any right now, oddly enough. I need to contact Compassion again to become a correspondent again! I only have two that I sponsor, so could easily correspond with a few other kids...
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