What Is the Benefit When I Sponsor a Girl—Education, Meals, Water?

When someone chooses to sponsor a girl, education is a major focus, but GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program helps with so much more than that. Our goal is to provide solutions to pressing needs in the community, like a lack of water, sanitation facilities or healthcare.[1] When these necessities are taken care of, children are much more able and willing to attend school and learn, and ultimately become successful in education and escape the grip of poverty.

That is not all that GFA does to help girls and boys in the sponsorship program; the staff are able to support their families should disaster hit. When an earthquake struck their village, teenagers Kaila and Sabinna’s lives were turned upside-down. The destruction left their families with only one option: to move. They relocated to the nearest town and tried to start over, struggling to earn a living by cultivating plots of land. The new town had a school, but the families could barely feed their kids—three in Kaila’s family and seven in Sabinna’s—let alone pay for school supplies and tutoring. Living in a culture that often requires additional tutoring to complete schooling, the girls had little hope of ever reaching higher education.

GFA’s Child Sponsorship Program was already present in the town where Kaila and Sabinna relocated. After the earthquake, our workers quickly jumped into action, providing practical and spiritual aid. We gave groceries to families, helped search the rubble for salvageable items and listened to grieving hearts. Both Kaila and Sabinna were eventually enrolled in the program and began to receive help their families never could have afforded. Each day, they received nutritious food, tutoring and exercise. When the school had to temporarily close, the program staff held events to pass out necessities like rice, oil and salt. And when the school was gearing up to reopen, the girls and their classmates got new tracksuits and supplies: 12 notebooks, six pens, a ruler and a geometry box. Some families would have had to spend weeks or months saving for these things. Disaster could have forced Kaila and Sabinna to drop out of school, but through the education and care offered by our Child Sponsorship Program, their lives were changed forever. They had opportunities for bright futures, free from the grip of poverty.[2]


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