My first letter was from almost 16 year old, Mame Aba, from Ghana.
She thanks me for all the letters, and again for choosing her. It almost breaks my heart to read those words. Every letter she writes, she ALWAYS thanks me for choosing her. I believe God choose her for me, as I hadn't even seen her photo. I asked if they had any 16 year old girls in Ghana, and the lady told me they had one 15 year old; Mame Aba.
I sent little valentines to all my children this year. I wasn't sure how my teenager would respond, as most teenagers here wouldn't be too excited. But this is my second child to make mention. and she says"Yes!" her friends like the cards so much. She tells me she shared them with her best friend, sibling, and parents.
Next I received a letter from my 11 year old Bolivian artist, Erick.
He also mentions he's brother and nephew's both have birthdays coming up. And they are having a party with a clown, because Josue, his nephew, likes clowns. He says he's praying for my new job also.
The last letter was the project letter for Mwanaidi in Tanzania.
This letter I actually received indirectly from her sponsor. My friend who sponsors her (She asked me to correspond) gave me the letter along with another to read. She told me since it wasn't a specific letter from her child, I could keep it. I looked at it, and realized it was Mwanaidi's project, and I was so excited!
The gentleman who wrote it, is Nickson Yared Kilale, and he is the project facilitator for her project, and 10 others! He says he visits with projects often, when the children are in attendance.
He states that the suburb is 160 kilometers from Arusha, and how the area receives heavy rain from November to April. With the hot months being August, September, and October.
She tells how most of the economic activities are peasantry and very small irrigation schemes of padding growing. He says the average monthly income from this is 26 USD. He also mentions though the maddy crops have been good income, they are also a good activator of Malaria prevalence in the area due to the still water.
He talks about HIV being high in the area, due to people coming as laborers or buyers of rice. Witchcraft is highly practiced and girls education is not a priority to parents. So early marriage and school drop out is common.
He said that those registered compared to those unregistered is a huge difference! The registered children are in diminished frequency of poverty related illness because of their health checks, vaccines, proper and timely medication, nutritional literacy and provision and hygiene seminars. Compassion is making a difference.
One of the points I found most interesting is, there are 252 youth registered, and 202 are over the age of twelve. There is a lot of vocational training happening in this center, and I'm so glad to hear about it. What an informative letter!!
Did you hear from any of your Compassion International kids this week?
