Who doesn’t like a good holiday celebration? I know I do.

I often get questions in the contact center regarding different holidays.

• Does my child celebrate such and such a holiday?
• What are some holidays that are special to my child?
• To be sensitive to my child’s culture and customs, are there things I shouldn’t talk about?
• Should I only mention the tradition behind the celebration or can I also talk about the specific festivities?

The U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving is a good example. We are celebrating hospitality, God’s goodness, and how the kindness of strangers helped save a whole community.

It’s a great holiday and time with family, but how do we recognize it? Most of us over-eat, sit around watching football, and battle with strangers for parking spots and places in lines to buy stuff — which is hardly hospitable. And these customs would be difficult for a child in poverty to understand.

What about other holidays? Do you take your children trick-or-treating at Halloween? Do you hide eggs and eat Peeps at Easter?

Do you buy fireworks and light them up on Independence Day? These holidays are part of our culture and the way we celebrate is hard to avoid talking about.

So what do we tell our sponsored kids, Brett?

Be sensitive to their culture and customs.

For example, yoga is predominantly a form of exercise here in the U.S., and many Americans now practice it without any spiritual implications. However, yoga is still very much a Hindu practice in Asia, and thus it would have a negative implication to people who know about yoga’s Hindu roots.

Halloween is a time to take our kids out and get free candy from generous neighbors, but in Latin American countries the spiritual association is prominent. It’s associated with the Day of the Dead and is often celebrated with altars built to dead relatives – something the evangelical Christian community stays away from.

Then should I not tell my sponsored child about holiday celebrations?

Talk about the time you spend with your family. You can share your life with the children you sponsor. Be honest and open, but be sensitive.

You can also rely on our great staff members working in each of our country offices to be sure all communication delivered to the children is culturally acceptable and appropriate.

Finally, if you are unsure if something you are going to send or something you are going to write should be included, ask us.

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Writing letters is something I’m not accustomed to doing. In fact, it is not usual in Nicaragua. At school we study how to write letters but we never practice it. So when some of my friends leave the country, it’s hard for them to send me letters and it takes me a while to write back when I do receive one.

If that is my experience, I can’t imagine how difficult it is for our development center staff, tutors and children to get in the habit of writing letters to the children’s sponsors three times a year, and to make sure they answer according to the last letter received.

Flor, a Compassion sponsor donor services supervisor, explains,

“Nicaraguans are not used to receiving letters and we don’t send any, either. Especially children who live in areas where they only go to elementary school, or their parents didn’t go to school. They don’t know the importance of written communication, and in many cases, not even of verbal communication.”

As the number of registered children has increased, so has the concern over the content of child letters.

“As an office, we train child development center staff and have a follow-up card where translators take note of the sponsor’s questions in the letter. This card is attached to the letter so the development center staff can have control of the questions and answer them in the appropriate time.”

Translators and development center staff are periodically evaluated to check the quality of translation and letter content from children. These practices help improve the quality of the letters.

Débora is a secretary at one child development center and has already helped improve letter writing by passing on the training she received about reviewing the letters that had been received from sponsors. Débora shares,

“Our evaluations were low in sponsors’ questions being answered and in prayer requests, but I passed on the training to the teachers and our evaluations are now 19.9 out of 20.”

Juan, a secretary at another child development center, also shared,

“Once a month I remind tutors about the steps of writing letters. Tutors are also reminded to write the letter in the child’s notebook first, then in the letter format. This process is to help reduce mistakes in the letter.”

Another reason why children don’t always answer questions from your letters may be that the development center staff is new. This is not frequent, but it takes time for a new center worker to learn the process and to make a habit of writing with the children.

In cases like this, development center secretaries play an important role in training their new staff.

And sometimes, but not often, your question may not be culturally appropriate, such as a question about politics. Or your question may not be understood by a child or development center worker. Flor explains,

“Please understand that our culture is different from yours. Don’t get discouraged. Keep writing letters, sending your support, praying for your child and sending questions. You can ask your child to please answer your questions. Let children know that their answers are very important for you and for your relationship with them.”

Thank you for your understanding and patience. We are all in the process of learning to write letters and to improve our communication.

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Many sponsors have the misconception that Compassion runs schools. We do not. However, we do facilitate a holistic child development program that complements and supplements the school systems in the countries we works in.

My country’s (Kenya) education system has been heavily influenced by the British system. Students have eight years of primary school, four years of high school, and four years in an undergraduate program at a university.

It is a requirement for all Compassion-assisted children, regardless of country, to attend the normal school system while they participate in activities at their child development centers. In Kenya, the Compassion programs are most commonly conducted on Saturdays. Because public schoool runs Monday through Friday, the children are easily available for the center activities.

The purpose of our sponsorship program is to help children to become “responsible and fulfilled Christian adults.” Our Implementing Church Partners (ICPs) are encouraged to be creative in the ways they administer the program, but we also provide age-graded curriculum to help each church partner minister to their children consistently.

The age-graded curriculum is based on the outcomes we hope to see in children in the four facets of development: spiritual, physical, cognitive and socio-emotional.

The spiritual domain of the activities at child development centers includes praise and worship, testimonies from children, various presentations such as memory verses, short sermons, and prayers. The implementers ensure that children are actively involved and are exhibiting understanding of the Bible and the essence of prayer and service. During special occasions, the implementers invite outside facilitators.

Our public school system has designated days for pastoral programs. Certain teachers or the school chaplain take the students through devotion that lasts for about half an hour. Each student attends devotion, depending on his or her faith.

In our sponsorship program, the physical well-being of the children is addressed through various activities depending on the resources available at the development center. Soccer is a popular sport for boys, while volleyball and netball are popular with girls. Some church partners have swings, table tennis and board games that engage the kids during breaks.

In the physical realm, the most significant difference from the schooling system is that we provide medical intervention for the sponsored children. The health of the child is monitored on a regular basis through health screenings. Public schools tend to offer first-aid intervention, while the parent/guardian takes care of any other expenses incurred at the local health facility.

In addition, public schools rarely offer nutritional supplements to children with deficiencies. We, on the other hand, provide nutrition education as well as nutritious food during program days.

Social-emotional interaction is paramount for the well-being of every child, especially children growing up in  dangerous environments. Compassion-assisted children are given opportunities to interact in a more meaningful way than in a school. The activities provided are a fertile ground for enhancing one’s self-esteem and dignity.

Our children are encouraged to interact from a biblical perspective, and high standards of morality are advocated. The curriculum taught at the development centers lays a good foundation for self-awareness and reflection. It helps the children to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses and how to best cultivate their God-given gifts.

The concept of stewardship is taught, helping them to be aware of their responsibility to the community. Vocational Bible studies, youth camps and seminars, drama clubs, and other creative arts, picnics, and inter-partner competitions offer opportunities to practice what they have learned.

Our goal of leading children along the path of economic independence compels implementers to help children complete the various stages of education. The unfortunate thing about public school systems is the difficulty of trying to update the curriculum to fit emerging trends. Much of the material is very dated and not relevant to children’s daily challenges.

Our curriculum is customized and targeted to the children in their various environments. In case the child does not continue to secondary education, vocational skills are available both at the development center and in a few institutions that can help the child become economically self- supporting. The young people learn income-generating activities, such as soap making, mat weaving, tailoring, cookery and beadwork.

Community service helps children experience the joy of giving back. The young ones in the sponsorship program are encouraged to engage in community cleanups on designated days. More often than not, they help clean the church premises for Sunday services. They also clean their own classrooms, and plant and water flowers and trees within the church compound. Older kids sometimes visit the sick and elderly in the hospital to pray for and encourage them.

Public school systems generally don’t provide for such opportunities, as the main focus is academics. The children also receive more attention at their development centers, as the teacher-student ratio in Kenya’s public schools can be as high as 1 to 80.

Compassion also offers holiday programs to the children. The usual school holidays in Kenya take place in April, August and December. The monthlong breaks separate the school terms, providing opportunities for children to rest and spend time with their families.

However, the competitiveness of the schooling system has forced many schools to conduct holiday sessions that offer specialized training. The schools then continue with the normal curriculum and children have to pay an extra admission fee, exam fee and catering fee.

During this same time, the majority of Compassion Kenya’s child development centers conduct remedial classes for their children for free. Holiday sessions at the development centers continue to supplement what takes place in school. An added advantage is the provision of textbooks and an environment in which to study.

Normally, remedial classes last about two weeks of the holiday. Part-time teachers collaborate   with the child development workers to help students, especially those in upper primary school and candidates waiting to take their exams. Over and above class work, these students are engaged in the normal Saturday program activities and are provided with nutritious meals during the day.

During normal school days, many children attend the development center in the evenings for group learning and review. With the help of part-time teachers, they review past papers to test their knowledge and become familiar with the most critical topics.

Most children we serve attend government schools; however, some of our church partners do run their own schools. These schools are not affiliated with Compassion, but are the property of the church partners. In these circumstances, we run our own program parallel to what takes place in the school. This way, the children benefit from both the school activities as well as the sponsorship program.

In these situations, most of the Compassion-assisted children usually attend the church school. It is important for the school and the sponsorship program to work together to maximize instruction.

While the school program incorporates both the Compassion-assisted and non-assisted children and focuses mainly on academics, the sponsorship program concentrates on holistic child development.

School activities are usually funded primarily through school fees paid by individual pupils through their guardians and other donors. On the contrary, our sponsorship program depends largely on donor funding and minimal contributions from parents.

In the event a child’s parent is unable to sustain a school fee payment, the child no longer benefits from the program offered by the school. But our program continues to offer services to the assisted children and their families without attaching monetary requirements to it.

While typical school systems in the developed world don’t serve children’s non-academic needs, we not only address the academic but also the socio-emotional and physical, and most important, we bring the children the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Our model focuses on the child’s here and now, as well as the future. This perspective is different from most schools. Schooling systems do a great job of engaging children and molding their way of thinking, preparing them for the “world out there,” but we prepare children to deal with their daily struggles, as well as focus on the envisioned future.

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The reason why is I know Jimmy. Jimmy stayed at our house for two weeks, so he went from being a formerly sponsored child, an African, and someone with a different culture and accent, to being a friend. To a human.

 
As much as we don’t want them to, our differences — culturally, geographically, economically — can separate us. “Others” can seem so very other. So unlike us. So “unrelatable.”

Yes, we have compassion for them. But it’s hard to really relate to them. Understand them. View them the same as we view ourselves, our neighbors, our family.
 


But Jimmy is my husband’s age. The two of them sitting on our couch talking about girls made Jimmy so utterly real to me. He’s someone who despite all our differences is so like us.
 
Someone who simply had a sponsor who loved him, who told Jimmy that Jesus loves him, and set his life on an entirely new path. 
 


So when I watch this video, I don’t just see some African who some Canadian “saved.” What I see is myself in another situation, another time, another circumstance. I see that this could have been me. And I see that this can be my sponsored child.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates