Dear Eric and Hannah,
Greetings from India. I am S. Chalapthy, a partner with Compassion International in the A.R.T. Child Development Center. We minister to your sponsored child. Thank you for your sponsorship of Arun. This center is located at Harsvihar in Delhi, the capital city of India.
I am very grateful for your support and help. Every day the children are provided nutritious food at the center. Many of the sponsored children come to the center after school and on Saturday. The staff teaches them education along with some indoor games for children aged between 3-11 years old, and outdoor games for 12 years and above. We also provide special tutoring for children, who are weak in some subjects like science, mathematics, and English.
Children are prepared in various counseling sessions to know their abilities and strengths, and based on their abilities, the center enrolled some of them for computer education, and in the sports academy (for sports like cricket and football). Also, some children are enrolled in music to learn instruments like guitar and keyboard.
We take the sponsored children on field trips to different historic places to get knowledge of their country, also every year we take them to retreats. We conduct complete medical camps every year, and also the children get regular medical checkups. All the children above 12 years are able to understand, plan and articulate about what they want to be as a career in the future with the help of the My Plan for Tomorrow workbook.
Also, it would be great feeling for the children to see their sponsors. These children live in such communities where no one is grateful for each other, and they are often fighting for their existence but the visit of a sponsor brings a different attitude among the children. Suddenly, they feel important and valuable.
After enrolling in the center many children receive letters for the first time in their lives. Whenever children receive sponsor's letters, they feel so great of themselves and happy to reply as soon as possible. Before, they never had the experience of reading letters from someone who loves them and wants to hear from them. Please write Arun a short letter as it makes each child so happy to get mail.
Overall, after they started to come to the center we can see lot of changes among the sponsored children. I can tell you that, after coming to the center, they started to think that they never were able to receive because of the financial conditions of their parents. Many of them would have ended up like their parents and again their children, too, and it would go on for generations. But because of your valuable support, you have given hope for a better future for these precious children. It is not just for one child but also for coming generations, the foundation is laid. I can say now they dare to think big.
I request you to pray for us, especially for the construction of a kitchen and for land to build a bigger place for the church as well for the center. From the bottom of my heart I would like to say thank you and God bless you.
With love and prayers,
S. Chalapathy
If you would like to sponsor child from India, please consider adorable Pranav, who will be 4 on December 12. He's been waiting almost 230 days for a sponsor.
In his home, Pranav helps by buying or selling in the market and running errands. He lives with his father and his mother. His father is sometimes employed as a laborer and his mother maintains the home. There are 2 children in the family.
For fun, Pranav enjoys art and hide-and-seek. He attends church activities regularly and is in kindergarten where his performance is average. To sponsor Pranav, click here.
