Help sponsor a needy child

0

VISITORS to the recent ‘This Is My World Vision’ Campaign at tHe Spring in Kuching were greeted with the peculiar, yet attention-grabbing sight of a house made of cardboard boxes.

VISIONARY: The staff and volunteers from World Vision Malaysia attending to the public.

Its plain brown walls and plywood frame were a stark contrast to the dozens of colour and black-and-white photographs showing the smiling faces of children which adorned the structure.

These photos were taken by World Vision staff, volunteers and child sponsors during visits to various global communities that have benefited from World Vision programmes.

Among the photos on display were those taken by a number of well-known media, television and broadcasting personalities (and also World Vision child sponsors), including Deborah Henry (former Miss Malaysia and World Vision Children’s Rights Advocate), Roshan (MIX fm announcer), Royce (MY FM announcer), Danell Lee (singer and TV host), Siow Hui Mei (TV host of Astro), Francissca Peter (singer), Nicholas Teo (singer) and Lee Sinje (international actress).

The choice of unusual building material is intentional, according to Josephine Voon from World Vision Malaysia’s Marketing and Communications Department, whom thesundaypost caught up with on the first day of the campaign.

“Cardboard is a common material used to build homes in many of the slum areas where many of the children we help come from,” she said.

One of the main objectives is to raise awareness about child sponsorship and educate the public on how people around the world live and how the public can help them.

“We hope this event will let many people know there is a lot of needs out there … a lot of communities which need our support to help them break the cycle of poverty so that they can build their own community and even help others who need help later on,” she added.

“We hope the public will visit our exhibition to learn what World Vision is about and what programmes we do. Hopefully, this (campaign) will inspire them to play a part in helping the poor.”

According to Voon, about 30,000 Malaysians nationwide sponsor a total of 40,000 needy children through World Vision. Children who have benefited from Malaysian generosity come from many countries, including Thailand, Myanmar, South Africa, Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Mongolia and China.

World Vision child sponsors from East Malaysia presently number more than 2,000. From this total, over half are from Sarawak, of whom more than half are from Kuching.

“We hope to find sponsors for 8,000 children on the waiting list before October next year,” Voon said.

“RM50 a month is not a lot when you divide it into 30 days — which comes to less than RM2 a day. Even with RM2 a day, you actually can’t do much, not even buy a bowl of kolo mee but to children and communities in need, it means a lot.”

Many of the volunteers who were part of the World Vision Malaysia team on the first day of the photo exhibition in Kuching, are also child sponsors. They come from all walks of life, determined and united in their cause to share with the Malaysian public the positive difference even a small sum of money can make to communities mired in poverty.

1 2