Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Looking for a way to help?

Several years ago we learned about a non-profit organization called Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA).  We have had a wonderful experience thus far with CFCA and want to spread the word.  What does CFCA do, you might be wondering?  Well, how about a little copy and paste from their own website?  I'm sure they say it better than I do.

Our mission is to walk with the poor and marginalized of the world.

  • We provide personal attention and direct benefits to children, youth, aging and their families so they may live with dignity, achieve their desired potential and participate fully in society.
  • We invite people of good will to live in daily solidarity with the world’s poor through one-to-one sponsorship.
  • We build community by fostering relationships of mutual respect, understanding and support that are culturally diverse, empowering and without religious or other prejudice.

Grounded in the Gospel call to serve the poor, CFCA is a lay Catholic organization working with persons of all faith traditions to create a worldwide community of compassion and service.
After hearing about CFCA at our former parish, we signed up to be the sponsors of Rony, a little boy in El Salvador, who was 3 years old at the time.  Rony is roughly the same age as our middle daughter, so it's been easy to keep track of his age (CFCA also sends an updated photo of him each year.)  Over the years there has been a steady stream of correspondence between our house and El Salvador. 

 
Sometimes the letters were written by Rony's parents - sometimes by his uncle.  Every letter that came from El Salvador included a picture that Rony had colored.  Sometimes we sent him stickers, small puzzles, or other items that would fit into an envelope.  The girls also drew pictures for him.  I have to admit that we struggled with what to say in the letters - our daily lives are so very different.  Rony's adult family members refer to Mark and me as his "godparents".  What an honor! Rony's letters don't come directly from him; They come to us through CFCA - after they've been to a translator :)
When he was 4.  Isn't he a handsome little guy?
There was a letter in the mail yesterday.  As usual it was full of thanks for our help and promises of prayers for our family (and lots of decorating on the borders with blue, brown and orange crayon and a picture of Winnie the Pooh on the back.)  The news in the letter was not anything we had expected, however: we won't be Rony's sponsor any longer.  His family is doing better, they are moving, and Rony is stepping out of sponsorship with CFCA.  Isn't that fantastic?  We will miss our relationship with Rony, that is for sure.  But how great that he doesn't need our financial sponsorship any longer!
Doesn't Pooh normally eat honey?  This Pooh seems to be about to enjoy a scorpion - or some other many-legged insect!  Our girls would not think of giving Pooh a snack of that sort :)
We are convinced that the work CFCA does is good - and effective - so within just a few days, we'll be matched with another "friend" through CFCA's  Hope for a Family sponsorship program.

The CFCA website is quite good and easy to navigate.  Pop on over there and you too could become a sponsor in a matter of minutes.

1 comment:

  1. Hello! I'm Shanxi Omoniyi, web editor and writer for CFCA, and a friend sent this blog post to me. Thanks so much for writing such a beautiful reflection for Rony!

    Would you mind if we shared your post on our blog? http://blog.cfcausa.org

    ReplyDelete