She aspired to be like me to help others when she grows up

About 10 years ago my husband had out of the blue mentioned he wanted to sponsor a child and spontaneously decided to research online for an organisation that organises child sponsorship programme.

We had then started selecting a child from World Vision’s website after he felt that they would be a good choice with their wide scope of humanitarian projects and efforts across the globe for the less fortunate and those in distress.

After the necessary documents were completed and sent to us, we began our child sponsorship journey. We made it a point to write and send small little presents for our selected girl – Sitha Veuy on every birthday and Christmas/New Year.

When Sitha was a young girl, we learnt from her she liked drawing and helping out her mummy with family chores. We then got her drawing blocks, colouring books, colour pencils, crayons, writing pads, drawing blocks, books and stationery for her studies and hobby. As she grew older, we noticed in her photos that she had longer hair, then we also got her hair clips and decorative rubber bands for her.

Often we would share stories with her about the work we do and our experiences hoping to inspire her to be a hard-working and caring person. We had bought her things that were more than she can use and encouraged her to share the items with her siblings, classmates and friends hoping to cultivate in her a spirit of sharing and care to people around her. I was surprised when she spoke in a video clip that she aspired to be like me to be able to help others when she grows up. We felt sweet hearing Sitha said that.

Over the years as she grew, and progressed in school, we received updates and photos from World Vision on her status. It was heart-warming to see her growing and looking healthier while also learning that she is studying hard in school to better herself.

We have just learnt that Sitha is also a leader at a local youth club helping other teens. Watching the videos of her speaking publicly in front of a group of teens and adults in fluent English, she demonstrated confidence in her speech and was able to capture the attention of the people around her. We are so impressed by her. We weren’t even able to speak in front of groups of people with confidence like her at her age.

We are so glad to learn from World Vision that our little girl is even working hard to enrol herself into university to move farther in life. For a moment, it felt like our own little girl is going to university soon. It has been a fulfilling journey knowing we have been able to help a little girl grow into a beautiful young lady, for her to both grow healthier, obtain intellectual development while also helping a community of fellow human beings develop their community to improve their quality of life.

Without World Vision’s child sponsorship programme, Sitha and her fellow villagers might very well have just continued a life of poverty with no light at the end of the tunnel. We are very happy that Sitha has had a chance to grow and develop herself into someone better and in turn lead to a positive development in the community with her leading, guiding and inspiring more teens.

Over the many years we have been exchanging letters with her, she is almost like our own child as we watched her grow even though we have never seen her in person. It feels great to see her what she has achieved today. We are confident our little Sitha will grow into someone great who will be able to help many people she meets.