Did you know that you can give a Special Gift to your sponsored child’s family that enables them to choose what they need most? For 7-year-old Ndinda Kinguuthe and her family, a sponsor’s gift empowered them to create a home they can feel proud of.
Ndinda had been waiting a year and seven months for a sponsor to choose her. She’d gotten her photo taken, her family met with World Vision staff, and she was told that someone in a land she couldn’t imagine would choose her as their sponsored child. And then she waited.
Meanwhile, her 11-year-old sister, Mercy Mwende, was sponsored by Glenn Noble of South Carolina. Even though she didn’t have a sponsor, Ndinda benefited, too.
Kids who haven’t yet been connected with sponsors still benefit from our work in their communities, because the monthly gifts of sponsors are pooled to fund programs that lead to positive changes for everyone. In fact, because of our community-focused solutions, for every child you help, four more children benefit, too. But without a sponsor, kids like Ndinda miss out on a relationship that can be profoundly life-changing.
In their community of Mwala, Ndinda was part of the first children in World Vision’s history to be able to choose their sponsors. She chose Chrissy and Regis Storey because Chrissy reminded her of her mother of had died three years earlier.
Since their mother’s death, Ndinda and Mercy have lived with their grandparents in a small, deteriorating brick home with dirt floors. When World Vision staff let them know they had received a Special Gift from Mercy’s sponsor, they knew exactly what they would do. Together with World Vision, they purchased cement to cover the walls and the floor for improved protection, safety, and hygiene.
When it came time to choose an exterior paint color, the decision fell to Ndinda. She chose charcoal gray and light blue — the colors of her school uniform. “I wanted our house to be smart,” she says. “I feel very happy. I feel that our house is good.”
