Sponsors' stories
Anne Dunbar - sponsoring for 30 years
In 1977, Anne Dunbar received a letter from ActionAid (formerly Action in Distress), asking if she could sponsor Wangoi Mwiruri, a young Kenyan girl.Wangoi was one of eight children who lived with their extended family in Nakuru, Kenya. At the time, her father had only temporary work and, with the low income it provided, he found it difficult to feed and clothe his family.
At the age of just nine, Wangoi was already facing the prospect of having to leave school because her parents couldn't afford the school fees. ActionAid wrote to Anne to ask if she would help Wangoi continue at school, and improve the situation for her whole family.
Anne said yes.
"We'd never been rich, but fortunately ours was a close family. We knew we were lucky while others had nothing. I would show my sons the photos and letters I'd receive from the children. I don't know if it's as a result, but they have grown up into two compassionate young men."
Brian Holditch - sponsoring for 28 years
Brian Holditch has been sponsoring children in India through ActionAid since 1979.
He was able to visit India in 1991 to visit Albina Kujar, the girl he had been sponsoring since 1984, when she was 11 years old. His sponsorship helped Albina school, where she did very well and subsequently trained to become a teacher.
"This young woman - born to a low-caste family - had ambition, and was determined to fulfill it. Years later, she did just that. Would Albina Kujar have become a teacher without my sponsorship? I very much doubt it. Sponsorship of a child works, and the pleasure it brings to the sponsor is unimaginable."
photo : ©ActionAid
photo : ©ActionAid
Fact file
More than 116,000 people sponsor a child through ActionAid, or have gone on to the Next Step programme.
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