The power of sponsorship is ensuring a child’s education isn’t something they have to leave behind. Sponsoring a child supports them through education and your belief in them inspires them to work harder.
María Jesús is a mother of four girls, aged six to 24, two of whom are sponsored through Chalice’s Yapacaní site.
Eight years ago, she and her husband, Roly, were going through a tough time financially. Neither had a job. María Jesús went to her local parish for advice, where the parish secretary first told her about Chalice.
“They told me that there was a project that helped low-income families who have school-age children,” the mother says. She immediately signed up her daughter, Rosandra, who was 11 at the time.
“The financial support of the sponsorship allowed me to cover the expenses of her education,” she says, “and she has not disappointed her sponsors. She has always worked hard in her studies and has been the best student in her class and her school, which always filled me with pride as a mother.”
Today, Rosandra is fulfilling her dream of studying medicine, already in her second year of university.
Her second daughter, Alexa, was also sponsored. “With the support of Chalice, and with the example of her older sister, year after year she occupies the first places in grades,” says her proud mother.
María Jesús can see that her participation in the sponsorship program and the site’s activities has changed her, too. “I have also grown as a person because I am part of a family circle where we women feel supported by each other and by the site team.”
“I can only thank God, day after day, for this gift that the sponsors send us,” María Jesús says. “One day it arrived for our family …and continues to reach us until today.”
María Jesús says “Without their support, the educational achievement of my daughters or the well-being of our family would not have been possible.”
Education is the first and most important step in breaking the cycle of poverty. Sponsorship gives children the support needed to attend and stay in school, and helps families provide nutritious food and better care for their children.
Sponsor a child today and be the reason someone’s dream isn’t left behind. Your support could change a child’s life, just like it has for María Jesús’ daughters.