Project Director's Letter: Bolivia (BO-430)

Thanks to the Compassion App, I have discovered some additional project director and pastor letters! I'll be sharing them over the weeks! Enjoy!

~~~
This letter is from Angel's and Maria's project! And the photos are from Compassion's Bolivia Flickr Album.

Dear Sponsor,

I want to greet you warmly and wish you success in what you do.

I am Ricardo P., and I am Project Director of the Child Development Center attended by your sponsored child, that operates in the [BO-430] Church of the Assemblies of God. We are located in La Paz, Bolivia.

It is a pleasure to work with children. We work in four areas of development; they are the physical, socio-emotional, cognitive, and spiritual. Thank you for sponsoring your child.

This year we had good outcomes among the children and we now have a good percentage of healthy children. Mothers pay more attention to how they look after their children and pay more attention to their health. Every year we give medical checkups and we see that children are healthier and stronger.

In the spiritual area, we have great blessings. We have children who thank God on their own initiative. The children also have been a seed in their own homes; for instance, one boy has encouraged his parents to attend church with him.

In the socio-emotional area, children have improved in their self-esteem and are able to interact and perform easily in their homes and their schools. We have outstanding youth. One is in the pre-Gap group. Gap is a program that provides leadership training. He is president of the student center in his school. Another is also in the student center of his school.

In the cognitive area, our youth get training in different skills like bakery, handicraft with foam rubber, and more. The best thing is that they get to use everything they learn. The ladies in the pre-Gap group are taking a course on hairdressing, and by God’s grace, will graduate soon.

Recently we received Complementary Intervention (CIV) funds. These extra funds were used to have a retreat with the children’s parents. This retreat was really blessed as couples learned to lean on God and improve their relationships in their families. One of the results is that three of those who attended the retreat are also attending church now.

We had the pleasure of sharing in the joy of one young man. He received a birthday gift and this was a great blessing to him. His mother didn’t have money to buy him some tennis shoes and the materials he needed for his technical subjects in his school (mechanics). He would share the old tennis shoes with his younger sister when he had physical education. The mother supports her children on her own since the father doesn’t help at all. His mother is thankful to God and to his sponsor because the gift arrived right when her son needed it the most. They could buy the tennis shoes and the materials for his school class.

We can see that children are really grateful to God and to their sponsors. They express this in their letters. They feel really happy when they receive letters and photos from their sponsors; this makes them feel important and loved.
It is a blessing to work with the children. I get to see each case of a child and sometimes it is very sad as some of them don’t have what to eat at home; parents don’t have jobs so all they take is a cup of tea. At times all I can do is to pray for them.

At the center the children are happy and there they can get a two course lunch, and they also get a snack. Children are really active; they like the activities we do which follow the topics in the lessons we cover with them.

This work is so wonderful, as we can provide children with several benefits; thank you very much for sponsoring your child. I wish a thousand blessings to you. It is our desire to continue helping these children as God allows.

Sincerely yours,
Ricardo P.

~~~
If you would like to sponsor a child from Bolivia, please consider beautiful 14-year-old Lisbeth.

Her birthday is May 9 and she lives with her mom. Lisbeth enjoys dolls, group games, other ball games, volleyball and walking. To sponsor Lisbeth, click here.