Helping Out

Two days ago I received in the mail a letter package from WorldVision, it was sent in response to a form I filled out to sponsor a child. I was allowed to choose the country from a shortlist and I chose Myanmar because it seemed exotic and there are a lot of Burmese foreign workers here in Malaysia. I see them daily in the grounds around my apartment complex toiling away as cleaners, they work hard and do their job well. In many other parts of the city they wait on tables.

I had seen this child sponsorship on TV years before but never acted on it before because of my skepticism. It is a convenient excuse to avoid responsibility. What if not all the money makes it to the child,... what if it's a scam and there are people profiting from it. And so, my conscience was shielded by the hardened shell of my judgments and opinions. I came across the idea again because of the girl sitting next to me at work, she had for years now been sponsoring a child and she had even visited the child a few years back. WorldVision will actually on occasion make such arrangements so the sponsor can see the difference their funds are making to the child and community overall.

In the package I am given a photo of the 3 year old girl, her name is Zin Zin. A leaflet describing her circumstance, a child sponsorship guidebook, and a brochure of gifts that you can purchase for the underprivileged. From the short synopsis I see that she lives in Kawthaung township near the Thai border. It is a transit area into Thailand and problems such as HIV and trafficking are prevalent. Pop. 92,000. Zin Zin herself is of satisfactory health, has no handicaps, and her chores are to run errands for her parents whom she lives with. Her father is an odd job worker and she has one brother.

Looking inside the gift brochure you see these are not your usual token gifts, instead for a small price these gifts bear significant impact on the standard of living; for instance, a possible package for Vietnam is a "Farmer's Starter Kit" - 5 chicks, 5 ducklings and 1 Kg of vegetable seeds. If the recipient is in Azerbaijan then you can purchase an eye surgery kit to equip surgeons with the tools they need and so on.

I've been gleefully announcing to my friends that I'm now a Father. It really throws them off and this may be the only occasion that I can get away with that white lie so I'm using it almost every opportunity. I'm already having visions of Zin Zin and I meeting one day, it is nice knowing that somewhere on this planet you exist in a child's mind as a hero of sorts. And more importantly, this child will grow up remembering the standing goodness of a person that contributed to her welfare for nothing in return other than his own healing.