Thursday, October 27, 2005 - The daughter we never had

This is little Jayanti, Jayanti is 7 years old and lives in Indonesia and I am happy to be her sponsor. During a business trip to China in April I spent some of my free time walking through the squalid 'hutongs' in Beijing, at the time I was well paid and was surprised at the conditions some families  still live in, in the 21st Century.

Upon my return to Los Angeles I decided to sponsor a child through one of the relief agencies, originally I wanted to sponsor a child in China with the memory of the poor kids I saw in Beijing still fresh in my mind. I could not find a Chinese child to sponsor so I decided on Indonesia instead. Since we already have a son of our own Elina and I decided a little girl would be best, this decision was reinforced since we will have another son in Jan 2006.

Yesterday I was feeling a bit down with the frustration of my continued job hunt and came home to find  yet another letter from the Children Christian Fund, I was initially annoyed as they continue to send numerous requests asking for more and more donations since my initial sponsorship, however upon opening the letter I found it to be a school report from Jayinti with the attached photograph.

Jayanti is in 1st grade prmary school, likes riding her bike,  the report goes further on to say her health is good, she is 20 Kg and 115 Cm. tall. She wrote a little note demonstrating that she has started to write the alphabet and numbers 1 - 10, also included was a bookmark that she hand- made and colored in with a picture of a schoolhouse, tree, sun and Indonesian flag, there was a little blue ribbon attached to it. I felt better after reading of her plight just starting out in life and realised my worries about trying to find a job were selfish in comparison.

I deliberated wether or not I should post this, blowing my own trumpet, I usually feel it is a little disingenuous to broadcast acts of charity, but on thinking about it further overnight I decided that this is my blog  highlighting what is important to me, so make of it what you will.

I would also like to 'out' Sarah from BE who also sponsors a child in Indonesia, even though I know she struggles financially from time to time.

There is a link to the right on my blog called ' Sponsor a child ' where you can do the same if you wish.