Sweta and her family.
I started sponsoring Sweta 3 years ago, right after I got back from seeing Katia in El Salvador (My sponsor child visit). That sponsor visit encouraged me to sponsor another girl, this time from a country where my family are from!
While sitting through hours of Delhi traffic to get to Sweta it was hard not to be nervous about how everything was going to turn out. I’d been in India for 2 weeks before I was due to see her, so the anticipation was overwhelming throughout.
As we walked tirelessly throughout the village to get to her, I saw all the areas that had been developed or were yet to be developed for the communities. I have to say I was pretty surprised at what I was seeing!
Was I shocked at the fact that it wasn’t anything out of the Slumdog millionaire movie? or that it didn’t amount to poverty I had seen in and around Delhi?
My ignorance was short lived as the reps explained how it has taken years to build these villages and communities up with the contributions from sponsors like me!
As I approached her house I saw her and her mum standing by the door, and as I walked closer I was welcomed in the most traditional Indian way – tikka and rice grains on the forehead followed by fresh flower garlands around my neck.
We got aquatinted quickly and sat down to exchange gifts. I had bought her mainly stationary for school like pens, pencils, notepads and a school bag, hoping she loved to study (which to my relief she does). She offered me a gift of her own, a beautiful painting of a lotus! She’s really good at art but her interest lies in Science and English because she wants to be a doctor when she grows up! The most amazing part of it all was to hear her mum support her future goals and ambitions to become an educated girl and get a job.
I was quite shy about speaking Hindi as I’m not really that good at it. Nonetheless, speaking to her without an interpreter meant that we had direct contact with one another and we built a stronger connection because of it. Soon after getting to know each other it turned into two families sitting around a table chatting away with the mums swapping stories of what we were like growing up.
We talked and talked and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye! I never would have guessed that coming all this way, sitting in a room with my sponsor child and our families would be such a life changing experience, but I consider myself lucky to have got the chance to have done this!
I’ve always been really honest about why I sponsor girls, I feel tradition families tend to invest more time in ensuring a positive future for boys than for girls, it just makes me happy to come back home knowing that wont be the case for her!
As always, I thought saying goodbye would be the hardest part but I feel like I’ve just added new members to my family in India. This was for sure a temporary goodbye!
A Sponsors Road 