2018 Spring Sponsorship Issue

CHILD SPONSORSHIP EDITION | SPRING 2018

12 >> FEATURE STORY

THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES In Vietnam, over 100 children with special needs are changing their narrative — and chasing their dreams.

6 >> ISSUE FOCUS How sponsors let girls learn in India.

24 >> PHOTO ESSAY Step through the doorway to a sponsored child’s world.

28 >> PERSPECTIVES For one sponsor, a lifetime of service culminates in a standing ovation at Winter Jam.

Holt International Sponsorship Magazine | Spring 2018

in this issue

6 10

6 Issue Focus How sponsors keep girls safe and in school in India.

10 A Day With Javkhaa

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One woman goes above and beyond to meet her sister’s sponsored child in Mongolia.

12 The Time of Their lives At a school in Vietnam, children with special needs change their narrative — and chase their dreams.

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22 His Greatest Legacy For lead singer Jason Roy of Building 429, finding sponsors for children is not just a calling.

25 A Doorway to Their World Step through the door to learn about a sponsored child’s country and culture.

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32 Connected for a Lifetime For one sponsor, a lifetime of service culminates in a standing ovation at Winter Jam.

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Cover Photo: Thanks to his sponsor, 10-year-old Khang is able to attend Kianh Foundation Center, the only school for children with special needs in the rural community where he lives with his family in Vietnam. Read Khang’s story on page 12.

Holt International seeks a world where every child has a loving and secure home. Since our founding in 1956, we have worked toward our vision through programs that strengthen and preserve families that are at risk of separation; by providing critical care and support to orphaned and vulnerable children; and by leading the global community in finding families for children who need them and providing the pre- and post-adoption support and resources they need to thrive. Always, we focus on each child’s unique needs — keeping the child’s best interest at the forefront of every decision. Visit holtinternational.org to learn more.

Holt International Magazine is produced in print and online by Holt International, a nonprofit child welfare organization founded on Christian principles. While Holt International is responsible for the content of Holt International Magazine, the viewpoints expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the organization. Copyright ©2018 by Holt International. ISSN 1047-764

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[ FROM THE PRESIDENT ]

Phil visits with a child at an orphanage in Vietnam.

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s a sponsor, you do so many extraordinary things in the lives of children and families. You provide food and safe shelter, warm clothing and shoes. You give children the opportunity to learn and to overcome the obstacles that kept their parents from achieving their own dreams. You care for children while they wait to join loving families, and you help children stay with the loving families they already have.

You give all this hope, all this joy and opportunity. But perhaps most of all, what you give to your sponsored child is love. Sponsorship is at its core an expression of your love, and through you God’s love, for children — and for their mothers and fathers — all around the world.

Throughout this issue of Holt International Magazine, I see examples of the incredible love that drives the work you do for vulnerable children and families. On page 5, 17-year-old sponsor Jillian McCollum shares how she works an extra part-time job to sponsor a child! What an astonishing act of love and selflessness from a young person still working to achieve her own life goals. In this issue, long-time sponsors Clare Graham and Linda Voelsch reflect upon

their remarkable, decades-long commitment to supporting children. And on page 10, sponsor Jen Haberling details all that her sister, while on assignment with the Peace Corps in Mongolia, went through to coordinate a visit with Jen’s sponsored child, Javkhaa — to spend time with him at his orphanage, bring him gifts, and to tell this boy living without a family that he has sponsors who love and care about him very much. In response, he leans in to give Jen’s sister a hug, which is just about as pure an expression of love as a child can give.

In this magazine, you will also see illustrations of how your love transforms the lives of children — from children growing up with special needs in Vietnam to children living in Manila slums to girls facing gender discrimination in India to one boy whose sponsorship story ends with a loving family in the U.S. Your love and devotion awaken hope in the lives of these children and their families.

And although your sponsored child likely lives too far away to give you a hug, know that your love is reciprocated. For all you are and all you do, they may not know you, but they love you, too.

Phil Littleton | Child Sponsor | President & CEO

“Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.” John 13:34 3

kids & cards

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO

When you send cards for International Day of the Child and Christmas, your sponsored child not only receives them — they cherish them, often keeping them for years! They also love to see the photos you include of yourself and your family!

Yan Ling Yang, 15

An Houn, pictured in the green skirt, and her husband, Yem, live with their 10 children in a house built on stilts in rural Kampot, Cambodia. Their community is plagued by drought and they rarely have enough food or water. Tragically, An and Yem lost two of their children to diseases related to hunger and drinking dirty water. However, because of sponsors, this family is feeling more hopeful. An’s youngest child, pictured in orange, is 6 years old and

You Jun Liu, 15

attends school with the support of her sponsor. Through Holt’s sponsor-supported programs in the region, An and her family are also learning how to compost, which will help yield bigger rice crops — even in years with drought. She is learning to raise ducks and chickens, which she can sell at the market for $5 each to help support her family. An also hosts a monthly community group for the women in her village where they share tips about raising healthy livestock, saving money and keeping their children in school. Always, they strive to give their children a better life.

At Winter Jam this year, more than 9,700 concertgoers felt moved to sponsor a child through Holt — a feat that simply would not have been possible without your heart, your energy and your dedication as a Holt volunteer.

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Xian Qiao Chen, 6

Thank you, volunteers!

“

It is so good to see a full

much joy in the eyes of the

auditorium praising God

people who chose to sponsor

with one voice. Then for

and welcome these kids into

those same people to turn

their life.”

around and help a child

Sherri Jo Gallagher

in need is such a beautiful thing. There is always so

Holt Concert Volunteer

SPONSOR STORY #GodIsFaithful!

“I have been attending Xtreme Winter for five years. My church goes every December and has an amazing time.

I have always wanted to sponsor a child, but I never had a job or steady income!! This year when given the opportunity to sponsor I could feel God tugging on my heart. I knew I needed to go sponsor a child. I now am 17 and have a wonderful, steady income. I have no doubt God blessed me with my job, so what else can I do but give a small portion of what I make back to Him? I KNEW if I obeyed God He would always supply the income for me to sponsor. So I sponsored this PRECIOUS boy!!

A couple days after choosing to sponsor, I got a text for a small job offer that I can do while still keeping my other job. The money I will make from this “mini job” will be enough to pay the sponsorship for this child every month, PLUS SOME!!! God is always faithful. I just wanted to share!! Maybe someone needed to hear it!! #GodisFaithful”

JILLIAN MCCOLLUM Child Sponsor

#Later Gram

PICTURES OF HOME At an orphanage in Mongolia, kindergarten-age children drew pictures of what they imagine having a family is like.

Sponsors support these children while they wait to hopefully, one day, go home.

Thank you to everyone who sponsored a child at a Winter Jam, David Archuleta or other Christian concert!

“

Date #96 with Eli — NewSong and Crowder concert. We finished our 8th year of monthly dates with a really special night. Crowder is one of our very favorites so it was special for us to see him in an intimate setting but in addition to that Eli and I also partnered our time together through sponsoring a little girl through Holt International.

This is such a great thing to do together with your child and will not only grow your relationship with them, but of course, to care for a child in great need.”

@Chalkboardparenting

“

Haley and I are blessed to be able to sponsor these few children from Holt International today!”

@Swayne2341

“

Meagan and I felt the call of God tonight and are sponsoring these sweet babies. Ya is sponsored by the both of us, but I felt in my heart that I could do so much more. Bao immediately caught my eye when I went up to the Holt table.

So what’s $68 a month to sponsor these kids? It’s not buying shoes or purses I don’t need, it’s cooking at home instead of eating out. $68 is easily spent in one day on frivolous things that I think I need. Now it’ll be spent to help these two beautiful children have a better road in life. Thank you Winter Jam for giving us this opportunity.”

@_hypnosagittarian

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Let girls learn When daughters are worth more as wives I S S U E F O C U S : G I R L S ’ E D U C AT I O N

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our-year-old Rukshita lives in a shed on the construction site where her father works. Elevenyear-old Harshitha can read, but her parents can’t. Five-year-old Suman migrated to southern India from Nepal so her parents could earn $1.25 per day working as laborers.

Each of these girls, pictured in the collage above, is unique. But their stories share a similar and often troubling narrative — a narrative built around the shared experience of growing up female in modern-day India.

In India, statistics for girls are upsetting — especially for girls growing up in impoverished or marginalized communities like those you support

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through sponsorship. One in six girls will die before her 15th birthday. Only half will learn to read. Even fewer will graduate from high school. Although 18 is the legal age for marriage in India, the law is difficult to enforce.

Nationally, about 27 percent of girls still marry before they turn 18. In rural areas, the percentage can be as high as 69 percent. When parents force girls into early marriage, they rob their daughters of their chance to dream. Child brides are more likely to have children they can’t support, more likely to face domestic violence or abuse and, ultimately, more likely to repeat the same cycle with their own daughters.

That’s why sponsors are so important for girls in India. Child sponsors help girls stay in school as long as possible, keeping them safe and giving them the best chance of breaking the chains of generational poverty.

Pilavi is 14. She dreams of becoming an engineer someday. When she talks about her sponsor — the person in the U.S. who is helping to fund her education — she gushes with gratitude in the way only a 14-year-old can. In English she says, “Because of my sponsor, I’m studying higher and higher. Thank you so very, very much for helping me.”

Pilavi is just one of more than 50 boys and girls from a slum area in Pune, India, attending a summer camp

for pre-teens. The donor-funded community center is a colorful single room lined with chalkboards, map posters and artwork. Kids sit on bright woven rugs on the floor, talking and giggling in small groups. They are talking about a prompt question scribbled in ink on white paper that they drew out of a basket.

“When should a girl marry?”

Most of these teens have never been asked this question. One of the girls in Pilavi’s group says she never wants to marry. A boy adds that it is up to her parents. Another boy says that mar-

out to work and help the family earn money. They’ll wait until their sons are old enough to support a family before finding a spouse for them, but marry off their teenage daughters because it’s one less mouth to feed and one less child to care for.

Today, as wealth grows in India, more and more girls are attending college, delaying marriage and growing financially stable. Recently, India also passed new laws that further criminalize child marriage — causing some parents to delay marriage for their daughter

to finish their education, and avoid early marriage. While in school, girls also have the protection of their teachers.

Girls with Holt sponsors receive even more advocacy from people like Vaishali Vahikar, the director of sponsorship at Bharatiya Samaj Seva Kendra, Holt’s partner organization in Pune, India.

Vaishali also oversees the community center, leads trainings for parents of children in the surrounding community, and regularly visits the homes of sponsored girls.

“I tell moms now that their daughters

1 in 6 girls will die before her 15th birthday. Only half will learn to read. About 27% will be married before they turn 18. riage should be for love. Pilavi, without a hint of her usual, chipper smile, says girls should finish school first.

Pilavi is just one of several girls in the room who knows her parents could find her a husband at any time. Her family lives nearby, in a slum community where an entire family will rent a single-room home with no electricity, no running water and no plumbing. Pilavi’s mom was married when she was Pilavi’s age.

In India, poverty leaves girls at a tremendous disadvantage. Parents assume boys will be better suited to care for the family. So, families will keep boys in school, but pull their daughters

until she is at least 18. The long-term effect of Holt and other organizations working in impoverished communities has helped to lessen child marriage as well. But India’s population of children and families living in extreme poverty remains among the largest in the world.

Poverty is especially harsh for women and girls, who have few protections from gender-based violence, exploitation and forced marriage.

Staying in school for as long as possible is the most effective way for a girl to remain safe. And simply paying for school fees, uniforms and supplies removes a major financial barrier — helping girls

don’t have to be like them,” Vaishali says.

“I tell them that they can get good jobs.

They can marry later. Many of these families need money now, so it’s hard to see how it will pay off to keep their girls in school, but that’s what we teach them.”

Sponsors, Vaishali says, are the real heroes. Sponsors provide the ongoing support girls need to stay in school, to have advocates at home and to have spaces like the community center.

For Pilavi, this is especially true. She knows she can continue to dream about her future because of her sponsor.

Billie Loewen | Creative Director

FAR LEFT: Pilavi, standing on the terrace of the community center near her home in Pune, India. CENTER: Vaishali Vahikar, the director of sponsorship for kids in Pilavi’s neighborhood and across Pune, India.

RIGHT: Pilavi’s mother stands outside the door to their home in a slum near the community center.

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oughly the size of three square blocks, Escopa 3 is part of barangay — or slum neighborhood — home to 7,000 people in Manila, Philippines. No one here owns the land, so the risk of eviction by the city is high.

Escopa 3 residents live in such tight quarters, it’s not at all uncommon for families of 12 or more to live together in less than 200 square feet of rented space. Single room homes are literally stacked on top of one another, and built from any material families can find. Hanging laundry, dishes drying in racks and bags of recyclable plastic bottles fill the thin, dirt-and-concrete footpaths that cut through the barangay. Jobs in Manila are scarce and many people survive on what they can scavange, like plastic bottles or tin cans. Many families live in extreme poverty, surviving on less than $1.25 per day. Some families have access to running water that may trickle in through a pipe or hose, but few are connected to sewage. One of the biggest struggles families face is providing for their children. Many don’t make enough income to meet their kids’ basic needs, such as shoes, food, medical care or school costs. School is difficult to access and expensive. In Escopa 3, Holt sponsors support preschools that ensure students have a safe place to spend the day and at least one warm meal. Sponsors also provide support to families, helping them launch small businesses or learn new job skills.

Keep reading to learn more about Escopa 3 and how you are changing lives in this community!

It Takes A Village

“It is easy to lose hope here. You try to find a job over and over, but there is no work. You work long days and nights and don’t make enough money to feed your kids. I never learned to write, so that makes it hard to find work.

I live with my aunt and her four kids, our grandma and my two kids.” — Escopa 3 resident, anonymous.

“I have to take care of my niece’s kids. Before my husband died, I made money selling charcoal.

But now, I have my store and sell rice, sugar, fish, eggs and other groceries. I’m the only stall selling dried fish. After I repaid my first loan, I borrowed again so I could start selling canned goods.” – Victoria, 50, received an interest-free $100 loan to open a small business.

“It’s hard to keep my grades high.

Because of my sponsors, I have a scholarship to go to school.

But I have to take care of my four younger siblings. Since my mom died, I’m the one who cooks for them and cleans. But without the support of sponsors, I wouldn’t be able to make it. My life is not easy, but I’m grateful.” — Ruffa, 17, college freshman.

“We live in this part of town because my dad is blind. Someday, I want to own a business like him.”

— John Paul, 9, whose dad received a loan to open a small grocery stall. Many people with disabilities live isolated from others in a separate part of the barangay.

“On a good day, I sell about $11.50 in toys. My Dora the Explorer dolls are the most expensive item at $4.50. I need to make enough to take care of my three children and two grandchildren. I live just two blocks from here and before we received help to open this toy stand, I didn’t know what I would do. Now, I make about $3 to $5 per day and I have regular income to cover our living costs.” — Nora, 50, received an interest-free $100 loan to start her small toy shop.

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A DAY WITH

Javkhaa After sponsor Jen Haberling learns where her sister will be stationed for the Peace Corps, she is surprised to discover that her new sponsored child lives in the same country — Mongolia!

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Tim and Jen Haberling first decided to sponsor a child at a Winter Jam concert four years ago. Since then, they’ve sponsored four children, and now sponsor Javkhaa in Mongolia.

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y sister Andrea’s mind was racing in a million different directions as she spent months preparing for a big life change. After much thought and deliberation, in 2015, she decided to leave a safe government job of 16 years and join the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps recruiter gave her four country choices, and when she asked where the greatest need was, the recruiter quickly answered, “Mongolia.” Andrea knew nothing about this part of the world and immediately began researching the culture and studying the language, while her family and friends came together to support her and help make this dream happen.

One day, amidst a flutter of activity to prepare for Andrea to leave the U.S. and begin a 27-month stint in Mongolia, I mentioned to her that the child from Africa that my husband, Tim, and I were sponsoring had all of his needs met, so he was transitioning out of the program. Holt would be sending us a new and randomly chosen child for us to sponsor.

“You won’t believe this,” I said, “but of all places, they connected us with a little boy from Mongolia!”

Andrea kept this information in the back of her mind as she departed the U.S. Meanwhile, God was up to something, weaving together the stories of many people across the globe.

Jen’s sister, Andrea (top), was able to visit Javkhaa twice during her 27-month stint with the Peace Corps in Mongolia. She connected with Holt Mongolia staff member May Gombo (lower right) to coordinate the visit to Javkhaa’s care center in Ulaanbaatar (center).

Tim and I first decided to sponsor a child four years ago at a Winter Jam concert in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The pauses in the music gave way to stories about children all over the globe who needed sponsors. Eagerly awaiting TobyMac, Tim and our then-teenage daughter, Ali, made their way to the crowded floor of the arena to find a child to sponsor from the rows and rows of pictures. Never did we imagine that this child would lead to another, and another, and finally to a sweet boy in the very country where my only sister was stationed.

A few months after arriving in Mongolia, where Andrea would teach English in a small village, she received one of my many letters — this one with an enclosed picture of our sponsored child, Javkhaa, including information about his background, personality and family situation.

In between teaching duties, Andrea began reaching out to people at Holt, trying to find a way to meet little Javkhaa.

After several months of back and forth emails, she was finally able to meet with Holt Mongolia staff member May Gombo in the capital of Ulaanbaatar. May was super accommodating about meeting and driving together to Javkhaa’s school and orphanage, all in the same small building. Andrea received a tour of his care center, met the staff, and was able

to observe a very clean, warm, cheery and comfortable environment. She spent the afternoon playing with him and the other children, sharing a snack of two hard boiled eggs, and bringing Javkhaa a couple of toy trucks, a Lego set and books, which he shared with the others.

He was such a sweet, reserved little guy, and it was unclear whether he understood exactly who Andrea was, but it didn’t matter.

After this experience, she vowed to return and see him again before she departed Mongolia.

Across the globe, in Michigan, I eagerly awaited every piece of mail and rare phone call or email from Andrea. One day very near Christmas of 2016, Andrea surprised me by sending the pictures she took with Javkhaa. This boy really existed! And he was thriving with the support we provided through sponsorship.

The next time Andrea planned to visit Javkhaa, a year later, she gave me a heads up. “What does he need?” I asked.

“Clothes? School supplies? Buy him some things from us!”

May quickly provided a list of Javkhaa’s needs, and when Andrea came to Ulaanbaatar for a Close of Service Peace Corps conference, she squeezed in a day to meet with May and do some shopping for Javkhaa. May took such care and time to

pick out the appropriate clothing and fun Spiderman school bag for Javkhaa. After the shopping trip, May and Andrea went to deliver Javkhaa’s gifts. He put on the outfit and backpack right away, smiling shyly, and humbly enjoying this extra attention. Andrea was able to receive an update about his health and his family situation. Both of Javkhaa’s parents are disabled, and struggled to care for their son, but his father still visits him when he can.

During their visit, Andrea and Javkhaa had lunch together, played with the other children, and again took many pictures and selfies! She told him, “Javkhaa, you have sponsors on the other side of the world who love you and care about you very much.” Again, he smiled shyly, politely looked down, and then reached over to give her a hug.

Andrea’s heart melted for him, his situation and his future, so grateful that because of our sponsorship and Holt International’s work in Mongolia, he will have a chance despite the hardships of poverty. If all goes as planned, Andrea will return to Mongolia in four years, and God willing, she will spend another day with little Javkhaa.

Jen Haberling and Andrea Tiller Grand Rapids, Michigan 11

ABOVE: Khang’s mom gives her son a hug after school. “Without Kianh Foundation,” she says, “our lives — my son’s life — would not be what they are now.”

Page Opposite: Kianh students give each other a playful hug during their school’s weekly, Friday afternoon dance party!

THE TIME OF THEIR LIVES For generations of children with special needs in Vietnam, school has been s o m e t h i n g o n l y o t h e r c h i l d r e n g e t t o d o . B u t n o w, i n o n e r u r a l c o m m u n i t y, over one hundred sponsored children are shattering stereotypes, exceeding expectations — and loving ever y minute of it.

WRITTEN BY ROBIN MUNRO | PHOTOS BY DANIEL HESPEN

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hang swivels his head and shakes his body to the pop-y, upbeat dance tempo that reverberates off the tile floor and blares out into otherwise quiet fields of rice on this cool January day.

He opens his mouth wide and snaps it shut in a toothy grin, reaching out for a friend who dances alongside him. Some of Khang’s movements are involuntary — a result of the impaired motor control characteristic of individuals with cerebral palsy. His arms are constantly outstretched, his fingers bent and rigid.

He can’t stand without assistance, and as he dances, a teaching assistant sits in a chair behind him, holding him up by the waist. But at this moment, lost in the euphoria of dancing with his friends on a Friday afternoon, Khang seems

completely and blissfully oblivious to his limitations.

Until just a few years ago, Khang’s physical limitations practically consumed him — overtaking parts of his life that should not, and do not, have anything to do with having cerebral palsy. With no school nearby that offered special education — and no other option — Khang’s mom began taking him to a daycare center while she worked during the day. Although the daycare supposedly offered rehabilitation for children with special needs, Khang says he just sat, all day, every day, treated like an inanimate object. As he struggled with speech, and had never received speech therapy, he sat silently — afraid to talk. But like any other 7-year-old boy, Khang craved connec-

tion and interaction. He cried every day that he had to go back to the care center.

“I felt so sad and bored,” says Khang, his voice now loud and firm. “There was nobody to play with me.” No one recognized that locked inside Khang’s body was a bright and funny little boy with a mind still malleable and eager to learn.

Khang’s mom is in her 20s, wears her hair back in a ponytail and has the same lovely smile as her youngest son. She works as a food and beverage manager at a resort near her home in Hoi An — an historic port village and World Heritage Site that draws thousands of international tourists every year. She speaks English well, and when we meet her, she walks confidently over to greet us.

“I didn’t have much hope for him in CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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Before the Kianh Foundation Center opened, most children with special needs sat at home all day — isolated from, and ostracized by, their community.

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the past,” she says, holding her son’s hand, their fingers neatly interwoven. “My only hope for him was that he would be able to take care of his personal hygiene.”

To pay for daycare, Khang’s mom tells us it cost her $150 per month — $50 more than she pays every month in rent.

On limited income, she and her husband could barely afford food and other basic needs for themselves and their two boys.

“We were in an extremely difficult time,” she says.

But then she heard about a special school that had recently opened near her home in Hoi An — a school that offered a curriculum designed specifically for children with special needs. Children who had never gone to school before. Children kept hidden away in their homes or, out of poverty and desperation, sent for care in an orphanage. Children with active minds and uncooperative bodies who had given up hope of ever escaping the corner where they sat, or the bed where they lay, lonely and bored and misunderstood.

Khang’s mom quickly enrolled her son at the school, called “Kianh Foundation Center.” She then learned that because of a handful of generous sponsors, she

would only have to pay a very small fee for Khang to attend. It sounded too good to be true. For the first time, outside of his family, her son would be seen as a person – deserving of love and attention, of education and opportunity, and capable of becoming a contributing and valued member of his community.

As she would come to find out, however, Khang’s special needs did not set him apart from his community. In fact, in their small town of 120,000 people, thousands of other kids and adults shared Khang’s story and experience. It’s a story inextricably tied to one of the darkest chapters in Vietnam’s history.

“In this small catchment area, we have every kind of disability that you can imagine,” explains Jackie Wrafter, the founder and director of Kianh Foundation.

Located in the impoverished, semi-rural area of Dien Ban, between the coastal city of Danang and where Khang and his family live in Hoi An, the Kianh Foundation Center is enveloped by tropical foliage — regrowth over generations of the same lush foliage that the U.S. military doused with the chemical defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. The

Students at the Kianh Foundation Center vary in degree of special need.

Some have minor learning disabilities. Some, like Khang, have mobility issues.

Others have more significant cognitive or developmental delays. But Kianh is an inclusive space that adapts to each student’s particular needs. And EVERY student participates in Friday afternoon dance parties.

dioxins used in Agent Orange are tied to at This distinction — this living legacy least a dozen health conditions, including of the Vietnam War — is something that birth defects. can be both seen and felt in the commuAlthough the government does not nity of Hoi An. “It just really feels,” Jackie comprehensively track rates of disability, says, “like there are more [special needs] their most recent census — conducted in than at home.”

2009 – estimated about 8 percent of the An expat from Britain, Jackie has population to have difficulty with vision, vibrant red hair and speaks in the distinchearing, movement or cognition. Actual tive Liverpool accent made famous by The rates, however, are likely much higher.

“A lot of children “I N TH E I R SM ALL TOW N OF 120,000 PEOPL E , [at Kianh Foundation] aren’t on THOUSA N DS OF OTH E R KI DS A N D ADU LTS S H AR E D any government lists whatsoever,” KH A N G’S STORY A N D E XPE R I E N C E . IT’S A STORY says Jackie. “Also, I N E X TR IC A B LY TI E D TO O N E OF TH E DAR K E ST diagnosis is not as good as it could C H AP TE R S I N VI ETN A M’S H I STORY.” be.” What is well documented, however, are comparative rates from province to province. The Beatles. Eighteen years ago, Jackie took a ten provinces most heavily sprayed with year off from her job in publishing to travAgent Orange during the Vietnam War are el, and search for something different to the same provinces with the highest rates do with her life. She just wasn’t sure what. of disability. Among these ten provinces is Not until she stepped inside one very dark, Quang Nam — where Dien Ban, and Kianh hot and smelly room in an orphanage in Foundation, are located.

Hoi An, Vietnam.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

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They had about 70 kids at the orphanage,” says Jackie, who visited the orphanage at the urging of a friend. “But at the time, they had 16 children with disabilities who they just kept locked in the room — just basically being kept alive.”

When she opened the door, the children moved and stared up at the light — mesmerized.

MANY OF THEM LAY IN FETAL POSITIONS. SOME BANGED THEIR HEADS AGAINST THEIR BEDS. “They were all very physically disabled, and they seemed really cognitively disabled as well,” Jackie says.

But as Jackie and her friend spent more time with the children, they began to see a light of recognition in many of their eyes.

“We found out lots of them had really quite minimal learning disabilities, but they just kind of closed down because nothing ever happened in their lives,” Jackie says. “The more time we spent with them over a month period, the more and more they began to open up. And it was really quite exciting to see.”

Jackie admits that neither she nor her friend had any training in how to work with children with special needs. “We really didn’t know what we were doing,” she says. But by talking to them and engaging with them, they could see very clearly that these children had active minds, eager to interact with the outside world. Regardless of their abilities, they were, each of them, a person — equally deserving of love and attention.

“That,” Jackie says, “is when we decided to do more.”

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Located in the impoverished, semirural area of Dien Ban, the Kianh Foundation Center is enveloped by tropical foliage — regrowth over generations of the same lush foliage that the U.S. military doused with the chemical defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. The dioxins used in Agent Orange are tied to at least a dozen health conditions, including birth defects.

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t mid-morning on Friday, we walk along the tiled, open-air corridors that frame the Kianh Foundation Center — discreetly peeking into classrooms so as not to distract the students. In one room, children are creating beautiful pictures. Star charts and artwork and posters with the English words for colors and numbers cover the walls. It’s a chilly day and many of the children wear knit caps and jackets over their red Kianh Foundation polos. Some of them paint with watercolors and some of them draw in crayon or pencil — using the tool most suitable for their particular special need. They draw vibrantly colored houses and trees, giant butterflies and surrealist landscapes.

Three aides and one teacher move about the room — encouraging and assisting the students. The teacher shares that she is formally trained as an art instructor, and she studied with a specialist to learn how to work with the kids at Kianh Foundation.

Khang is in art class this morning, and he sits beside his friend, who also has cerebral palsy. Between them, nailed to the desk, is a wooden handle that they take turns holding as they draw. Because their hands often move spastically, the handle helps them keep one hand still so they can draw better with the other hand.

Toward the end of class, our staff from Holt Vietnam hand out Christmas cards that sponsors signed for their sponsored children — many of them with pictures of their sponsors’ families and pets glued inside. One teenage girl walks over to us,

pointing to the illustrations on the card.

“Dog,” she says in English, pointing to a picture of a dog. She tells us in English that she has one dog and three cats at home. She shows us her painting — a watercolor with a bright orange tree and a red-and-black butterfly. She teaches us the Vietnamese word for butterfly and then, in English, she tells us she is 15. Her name is Ny, and she dreams of becoming a baker.

Ny grew up in a mountain province, but when her parents divorced, she moved to Danang with her mom. For a brief time, she attended a special center where she learned to read and write. But when her mom moved again for work, Ny had nowhere to go. For four years she sat at home, playing with her pets. She never attended a real school before Kianh Foundation, she says. She started school just six months ago.

Ny has such a mild degree of cerebral palsy, it’s surprising that she would struggle to succeed at a traditional public school. But without sufficient resources, understanding and opportunities, attendance and graduation rates for people with all degrees of special needs remain extremely low in Vietnam. “When I first came here in 2000, there was maybe one special school, one or two, in Danang — the next city — but the children who go there are pretty high functioning,” Jackie explains. “In the area where we are now, though, there were no special schools whatsoever.”

Ideally, special education would be integrated into the public school

Eighteen years ago, Kianh Foundation founder Jackie Wrafter felt inspired to start a special education school after visiting an orphanage in Hoi An. At the time, many parents believed orphanages could provide better care than they could for their children with special needs.

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RIGHT: A Holt Vietnam staff member admires 15-year-old Ny’s painting.

FAR RIGHT: A Kianh Foundation student shows off her dance moves.

system — to show the community that with support, children with special needs can learn and function just as well as children who don’t have any physical or developmental limitations. But as Thoa Bui, Holt’s vice president of South and Southeast Asia programs, explains, the government school system in Vietnam simply does not have the resources to meet the needs of these children.

“THE SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS ARE NOT EQUIPPED AND TRAINED TO PROVIDE THE SUPPORT FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS IN THE CLASSROOM,”

Pg 19: Kianh Foundation Center neighbors the historic port village and World Heritage Site of Hoi An. As a major tourist destination, Hoi An provides opportunities for Kianh graduates to work in coffee shops and other jobs that apply the skills they developed in school.

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says Thoa, who grew up in Danang. With classrooms averaging about 50 students each, teachers already struggle to deliver lessons in a way that meets the diverse learning styles of the children in the room.

“So if you have one child with a disability in the classroom — especially a child with cognitive or behavioral issues — then it’s hard because they act out sometimes out of frustration,” Thoa says. Without any training to help children with special needs learn at their

own pace, and express their feelings in a constructive way, teachers often give up. Some ask parents to stop sending their children to school. In other cases, children are actually expelled because of behavioral issues.

“A lot of kids admitted to Kianh Foundation were expelled from the government school system because the teachers didn’t know what to do with them,” Thoa says.

But when word got out in the community that Jackie and her friend had begun working with children with special needs — even at a very basic level — families began bringing their children with special needs to the orphanage. In 2012, when they opened Kianh Foundation Center, enrollment surged.

“They just wanted — they wanted help of course — but I think they really were exhausted and they needed respite,” Jackie says.

As many of the families already lived in poverty, the need to stay at home and provide full-time care to their child drove them into deeper poverty. “About 90 percent of the families we work with are even poorer because they can’t get out to work,” Jackie says.

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“In many developing countries, the common belief is if you are b o r n w i t h a d i s a b i l i t y, t h e n y o u a r e d i s a b l e d . T h e r e ’s n o w a y y o u can function or do more. Kianh Foundation does not believe that.”

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TOP: Ny and her friends work in their school’s coffee shop after school — building skills they can later use to find a job.

BOTTOM: Ny holds up her painting. She wrote “thanks” for her sponsor.

financial means, Jackie and her staff decided to charge Kianh Foundation tuition on a sliding scale, depending on the families’ ability to pay. Khang’s family, for example, has more resources than some of the other families and pays slightly more for their son to attend this extaordinary school. But with the majority of families only able to pay the smallest possible fee, Kianh Foundation needed donations — ideally monthly donations. That’s where sponsors come in. “It’s the best donation that we can get,” Jackie says of the funds that sponsors provide every month. “It’s what we really, really need.”

By providing funding for supplies, books and uniforms, to pay for teacher salaries and general operating costs, sponsors give the children access to an education that they would never otherwise have. But as Thoa shares, the impact sponsors have in the lives of these children goes even beyond education.

“The biggest thing is they help these children remain in their birth families,” she says. “Because I really don’t know what happens with them once their birth families are exhausted, without resources.”

IN VIETNAM, RATES OF RELINQUISHMENT AND ABANDONMENT ARE CONSIDERABLY HIGHER FOR CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS, AND MANY OF THEM ARE OLDER WHEN THEY COME INTO ORPHANAGE CARE. Without support and resources, parents just don’t know what to do for their kids. “They believe,” Thoa says, “that orphanages can provide better care.”

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Eighteen years ago, when Jackie stepped inside that dark and smelly room in the Hoi An orphanage, she saw otherwise. By opening Kianh Foundation, she hoped to provide an alternative for parents considering placing their child in an orphanage.

But that was just the starting point.

“In many developing countries, the common belief is if you are born with a disability, then you are disabled. There’s no way you can function or do more,” Thoa says. “Kianh Foundation does not believe that.”

At Kianh, teachers push children to achieve their full potential. But without examples in the community of people with special needs living and working alongside them, at first, many parents had low expectations of what the school could do for their children — or what their children could achieve.

“Once they saw what we were able to do with the children,” Jackie says of the students’ parents, “they were really pleased and grateful and excited.”

With her greatest hope that her son would be able to take care of his personal hygiene and learn to feed himself, Khang’s mom never expected to see him sit up in a chair or play games on an iPad or speak with confidence, sometimes in English. She didn’t expect that he would learn how to do math or write text messages to his friends or figure out how to secretly order toys online — which got him into trouble, but also demonstrated the depth of his abilities, and his potential for one day holding a job.

Khang’s grandma also takes care of Khang. Before, he would pull his grandma’s hair and say mean things to her

when he got angry or frustrated. “It was heartbreaking,” she says. But now, he doesn’t feel that kind of anger. He’s nice to his grandma, who looks lovingly at her grandson as she speaks.

“It’s all because of Kianh,” she says.

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t the end of the school day, as their Friday afternoon dance party winds down and the kids get ready to leave for the weekend, their parents start pulling up in front of the school. Many of them park their motorbikes and enter the schoolyard to sit down in plastic patio chairs and chat while waiting for their kids. By the patio chairs, the older children run a small shop — building skills they can later use to find a job. This afternoon, Ny is working in the shop, and she greets the parents as they line up to buy bags of chips or coconut candy. Many of the parents have coffee together while their children play. Some of them, Jackie says, go out to sing karaoke together.

“The families have usually been very isolated as well,” she says. “But now, they’re friends.”

While the families of Kianh students have built a thriving community in Hoi An, many families of children with special needs and — most importantly – children with special needs remain excluded from the opportunities and

sense of belonging that Kianh Foundation provides. “We’ve got 130 children at this center, but it’s nowhere near enough,” Jackie says. “We’re just really working with the tip of the iceberg.”

Kianh has 140 children on the waitlist — a list that grows monthly — but classrooms are full. To keep student-to-teacher ratios low, the school needs more teachers. Thankfully, however, the local people’s committee has already donated a thousand square meters of land. With additional donations, the school will have space to expand — making it possible for more and more students to enroll.

“That’s our current aim, and our dream,” Jackie says.

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very year, the children at the Kianh Foundation Center have a onemonth summer break. During the break, Khang gets bored pretty quickly.

“He will always say, ‘This is really long,’” his grandma says, “‘I miss my friends and teachers. When does school start?’” Sometimes, he’ll send text messages to his friends. “It’s been too long!” he’ll write. “See you in two weeks!”

Khang tells us he has many friends at school, and also a girlfriend — but he’s not going to tell us who!

As we talk with Khang, his grandma holds his left hand. His mom sits

on the other side of Khang, holding his other hand. The social worker from the school stands nearby. Like Khang, the social worker also has mobility issues and uses canes to walk. She knows this family well, and on the car ride over, she playfully bantered with Khang about her propensity for carsickness.

On all sides, and in all places, Khang is surrounded by people who love him.

At school, at home, and in his newfound community of friends and classmates, teachers and parents — with and without special needs — Khang is seen for the person he is, not the things he can or cannot do.

But Khang’s family knows that another person is also watching out for Khang from afar.

“We sincerely thank you for your generous support of Kianh Foundation — and my family in particular,” Khang’s mom says to the camera, speaking directly to her son’s sponsor. “Without Kianh Foundation, our lives — my son’s life — would not be what they are now.”

When we leave, Khang and his family will start their weekend — arguably for most kids the best part of the week. But Khang is counting down the minutes until Monday, when he gets to go back to school again. n

On all sides, and in all places, Khang is surrounded by people who love him. At school, at home, and in his newfound community, he is seen for the person he is, not the things he can or cannot do.

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MADE WHOLE THROUGH

SPONSORSHIP For lead singer Jason Roy of Building 429, finding sponsors for children is not just a calling — it’s his greatest legacy.

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“By believing in a child, sponsors create hope, which can ripple out far beyond the scope of one child’s life.”

“

You can do that.”

Fifteen-year-old Jason Roy turned around in the middle of a Third Day concert to hear these words from his youth pastor, Paul Collier.

Unsure of himself and part of a family that he says was very poor and “falling apart,” Jason was broken and discouraged. But suddenly, these words — spoken through the music in the middle of the crowd — brought hope. Paul continued to believe in Jason. He bought him his first guitar, and told him, “Go change the world.”

Jason likens this story, his own, to what sponsors do for children. “It’s all because of Paul Collier, one person, believing in me,” Jason says.

Jason is the lead singer of Building 429, a Grammy-nominated, chart-topping Christian band that inspires and encourages fans to remain unashamed and unshaken in their faith, and to trust God to do the impossible.

But over his 18-year music career, his most lasting legacy, Jason says, isn’t the music.

Over the past 15 years, Jason has used his platform to help advocate for children through sponsorship. “If by chance the music ends [when my record deal ends],” Jason says, “my legacy is the tens of thousands of children I know I was able to help. It’s the legacy of what I’ve done for the kids.”

As Jason talks, an engine hums and a train passes in the distance.

He’s on a tour bus, getting ready for tonight’s Winter Jam concert in Springfield, Missouri where he will play in front of thousands of people.

At tonight’s concert, he will also talk to the audience about sponsoring a child through Holt — something he is deeply passionate about.

Through the years, Jason’s passion has also become personal as he has traveled around the world to meet sponsored children, and seen for himself how sponsors can truly transform

lives. One of these sponsored children is a young man in Haiti who is now a college student. Because of sponsorship, he grew up eating three meals a day and had the opportunity to go to school. Through sponsorship, he also found hope, confidence and purpose.

“He said that because his sponsor cared for him, it unlocked in his mind that God cared for him as well, [and] that he didn’t have to be ordinary,” Jason says.

Today, this once-sponsored child is pursuing his dream of ending child slavery in his country. “It’s amazing,” Jason says, “how hope can change the trajectory of a country through one person.”

By believing in a child, sponsors create hope, which can ripple out far beyond the scope of one child’s life. What they do is anything but ordinary. And it is this message that Jason shares with every new Winter Jam audience, night after night.

But before Jason jumps into sharing about all that sponsors do — how they provide lifesaving food and medical care to orphans, how they tear down the roadblocks that keep children from attending school, how they empower vulnerable children and families to become self-reliant and overcome poverty once and for all — his appeal is brutally honest and unexpected. “[Before I start talking], I usually tell volunteers backstage, ‘You’re not going to like me in the first three minutes,’” he says.

Why? Because Jason immediately tries to get at the root of why someone might hesitate to sponsor a child. And this, he says, is all about trust — or rather, distrust.

On the count of three, he asks people to yell what comes to mind when he mentions sponsorship.

Some shout, “Praise the Lord!”

Others are silent. But the loudest response? “Scam!”

This, Jason says, is what he’s going for. Because he gets it — he used to believe the same thing.

“For years,” Jason says, “I heard people talk about [sponsorship] and I thought, ‘Shut up so I can hear some music! I’m not here to have a sad cry story.’” He laughs now as he shares this, because over the years he’s come to such a different conclusion.

Everything changed when he witnessed poverty for the first time, on a trip to Uganda.

“I walked down the street and saw children younger than my son, cross-legged, asleep on the street,” Jason says. “My heart got ripped out of my chest. No child should ever sit alone on a sidewalk and be ignored by a society of people. I realized I knew the pain of feeling like you’re ignored, but I was never completely alone in the world like those children are.”

The lives of children like these, he shares from the stage, are the ones Holt sponsors truly touch.

“We’re not just creating a system,” he says. “People’s lives are being changed to the glory of God the Father.”

When Jason received his first guitar, when he learned that someone believed in him, he began to fill in the missing pieces in his life. Despite coming from a place of brokenness, he had hope. And over time, how he viewed himself and his purpose in life began to radically change.

“I’m a much-loved child of God, made whole because of Him and because He loves me,” Jason says. And this, he says, is what sponsors do for children around the world — believe in them and offer hope. And in doing so, they are a part of something even greater.

“God is doing this,” Jason says, “and He’s giving you the opportunity to be a part of what He’s doing worldwide.”

Megan Herriott | Staff Writer 23

When Hope Was Gone At 7, Evans’ life took a horrible turn. At 16, sponsors and donors gave Evans the chance to dream about a future she never thought possible.

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vans poses in pictures with her students, each holding an award for their accomplishments in her class. One at a time, she hands them their award, smiles, and gives them a quick hug or makes a funny face while the camera snaps a picture. Evans loves her students.

She believes wholeheartedly that each of the kids in her class is special — and that education can help them reach their dreams.

She knows this is true because education also changed her life.

When Evans was 7, the abuse started. In the Philippines, poverty is rampant, jobs are scarce and many families migrate to find work.

That was true when Evans was a child, and it’s still true today. When her mom got the chance to work as a dressmaker in another part of the country, she left Evans with family friends.

Evans didn’t see her mom again until she was 9, and when she returned, she didn’t stay long. When she left again, Evans had no way of knowing where her mom went.

For the next four years, Evans endured physical and emotional abuse, neglect and the pain of her mom’s abandonment. She grew rebellious, and her sadness grew into anger. At 13, her mom’s friends left Evans at a government orphanage.

That could have been the end of Evans’ story. But because of Holt sponsors, Evans received a second chance at life.

When she was 16, Holt’s partner in the Philippines invited Evans to join the Independent Living and Educational Assistance Program (ILEA) for orphaned or abandoned kids aging out of institutional care. Because

of sponsors and donors, the young adults in the ILEA program have a safe place to live, and positive adults who teach them life skills like cooking, selfcare and financial literacy. ILEA students receive scholarships to continue in vocational or extended education.

The goal is to help these kids overcome their tough childhoods, and go on to live successful, independent lives.

When she joined the ILEA house, Evans hadn’t been interested in school for many years. She hadn’t dared to dream about her future. But suddenly, because of the support of people she’d never met who lived half a world away, she found herself living among teens just like her — teens who had also endured abuse or neglect or abandonment, teens who were now succeeding in college or excited about a newly learned job skill. They were learning to find joy and hope. And, they welcomed Evans with loving arms.

Evans decided to become a teacher, and donors paid for her tuition. Staff from Holt’s partner office, Kaisahang Buhay Foundation (KBF), met with Evans regularly and encouraged her to study hard. Slowly, her rebelliousness was replaced by compassion for kids and teens like herself.

“I cannot imagine my life without the help of ILEA,” Evans says. “This service made me a strong person with humility in my heart. It sounds funny, but ILEA taught me to love and take care of people who are not blood-related and without expecting in return.”

Without having to worry about food and shelter for the first time in many years, Evans grew happy and healthy in the loving, supportive environment at ILEA. She graduated from college and received her first teaching job at a private high school in Paranaque City.

Now, she continues to give back to her community every day — spreading encouragement to her students. She’s living independently and studying for her master’s degree in education.

Evans is deeply grateful to the donors who supported her.

“They say ILEA is a training ground for us to face the real world with resiliency and confidence, but for me, ILEA showed me what money cannot buy; it is the unconditional love of God for us,” Evans says. “I would like to send my warmest gratitude to the sponsors at Holt who always support ILEA. You give hope and a bright and sure future for the children in need.”

Billie Loewen | Creative Director

TOP LEFT: Evans poses with one of her students. BOTTOM LEFT: Evans, front in the white shirt, poses with students and other teachers at her school. RIGHT: Evans today.

A DOORWAY

“I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my

TO THEIR WORLD

voice and opens

Your sponsored child lives across the world from you. Maybe he lives in China or Mongolia, maybe she speaks Tagalog or Hindi, maybe his favorite food is injera or even durian! But because of sponsorship, you share a connection that transcends your differences. Sponsorship is like a doorway into their world — an invitation to know them by name, see their life and invest in their future. Learn about children, like your sponsored child, who live in a different country and culture. As a child sponsor, you’ve opened the door…

the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Revelation 3:20 >>

>>

Uganda

Linda slips off her shoes before running inside her concrete-and-stone house in rural Uganda’s Biika Iwamigo village. She lives here with her grandmother, sister Lillian and cousins Sophia, Ronald and Paris. It takes Linda an hour to walk to school, but with the help of sponsors, all five of the children have their uniforms, fees and books covered. After school, she helps sweep around their home and helps her grandmother collect firewood and food from their garden.

Thailand

In a fishing village in southern Thailand, Daris and Anis stand on the front porch of their thatched home, elevated several feet off the ground. Inside, mattresses are neatly propped against the wall and the room extends to another open-air porch — the kitchen where they cook nutritious meals from their garden.

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China

While modern China evokes images of bustling cities, many of the children that sponsors support live in rural areas. Pei’s home in northern China is actually a cave — a single room dug into the side of a mountain.

Families living in cave communities are among China’s most impoverished, and are often headed by a parent with medical or physical special needs — such as Pei’s father who, after hurting his leg in a motorcycle accident, could no longer work the hard manual labor jobs available to families in these communities.

“O Lord, you see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.”

Psalm 139:3 NLT

Enkhdulguun holds his younger cousin in front of his family’s “ger” — a traditional home in Mongolia. Heated by a coalburning stove in the middle of the room and insulated with sheep’s wool, their ger keeps them warm in temperatures that can plunge 40 degrees below zero.

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>>

Mongolia

>>

Down a narrow alleyway adorned by clotheslines in Pune, India, a boy who attends a sponsor-supported afterschool program stands outside of his home. This small slum community shares a single water source and neighbors chip in to pay the electricity bill for a single street lamp — bringing light and safety to their homes after dark.

India

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Ethiopia

Ten-year-old Sebsibe stands in the doorway of his “tukul,” a traditional, cone-shaped home made of eucalyptus branches and mud plaster with a high thatched roof. Sometimes, to prevent theft, families in Ethiopia will share their tukul with their cow, goat or chickens. Sebsibe lives with his older sister and her three children, who all attend school with support from sponsors.

Their home is surrounded by the lush, vibrant foliage of their garden, including high-reaching corn that his family grows for food.

>>

Cambodia

Still in their school uniforms, these sponsored boys are having an afterschool snack outside of their home in rural Cambodia. Like many Cambodian — or “Khmer” — homes, their house sits several feet above the ground in order to protect their family and their belongings from flooding, which is frequent in areas like these that are surrounded by rice paddies. The structure also provides room underneath the house for storing supplies, keeping livestock or hanging out in a hammock!

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LEFT: Kiran’s mom (left) cries today when she thinks of all that her daughter has achieved. RIGHT: Every year, Kiran’s sponsors provided funding for her books, uniform and supplies.

Where Are They Now

K

Making Her Life Meaningful

iran Gangurde has always had a spark.

As a schoolgirl in Pune, India, Kiran shined in every class performance and beamed in every photo. She loved to dance and sing, and excelled in her classes — earning numerous academic awards. Our partner staff at Bharatiya Samaj Siva Kendra (BSSK) met Kiran when she was in the second grade. From the beginning, they write, “she had a spark in her personality.”

Today, Kiran is a poised 18-yearold college student with long dark hair, kind eyes that sparkle with intelligence and a warm, confident smile.

“My life until now has been per my wish and I have been brought up in a free and healthy environment,” Kiran says. “I hope to have this for the rest of my life.”

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But growing up the only daughter of a single mother with multiple health issues in a country where girls are valued less than boys, she knows that her life could have easily taken a different turn. When she was just a year old, her father abandoned his family — leaving Kiran and her mom with nothing. Unable to care for Kiran on her own, her mom approached her own parents — Kiran’s grandparents — for help.

“Initially everyone had sympathy for both of us,” Kiran says, “but no one talked of my schooling.”

Determined to educate her daughter, Kiran’s mom did everything she could to enroll her daughter in school — choosing a program where she could learn English. But her mom increasingly struggled to pay for her fees, books and uniforms, and with-

out the intervention of two compassionate strangers, Kiran would have likely had to drop out in the second grade. Kiran’s spark could have gone out in that moment. As a school dropout, she would not have the freedom to follow her dreams and choose a life that she wished for. Rather, her life would be consumed by the traditional burdens and responsibilities of a girl growing up poor and uneducated in the slums of Pune, India.

But Kiran’s mom would not stand for that. She would not stand for her only daughter to lead a life like her own.

“My mom has always been under stress due to conservative traditions at home,” Kiran says of her mom, who cries today when she thinks of all that Kiran has achieved. “She could not take education or choose her part-

“Without her sponsors, Kiran would not b e w h e r e s h e s t a n d s t o d a y. ” ner on her own, and had to live life on other’s terms and conditions.”

Sick and struggling, with no family support, Kiran’s mom reached out to BSSK for help keeping Kiran in school.

Upon hearing her story, a couple overseas immediately stepped up to sponsor Kiran. They, too, would not stand for this bright-eyed spark of a girl to drop out of school, and for the next eight years, they sent support every month for her to continue her studies.

Throughout that time, Kiran regularly corresponded with them — sharing about her life and goals — and at 16 years old, Kiran had the rare opportunity to meet her sponsors in person when they took a family trip to India.

“I was happy to have them at my home and to meet my family,” says Kiran, who thanked them for helping her achieve the life she dreamed of.

“I told them it was only because of their support that I could take education,” she says.

Happy to see Kiran accomplishing her goals, her sponsors continued supporting her through 10th grade, when students in India graduate high school.

Kiran passed her graduation exams with high marks, and quickly enrolled in a degree course to become a medical lab technician. Once she earns her diploma, Kiran hopes to set up her own lab and offer free medical services in the rural communities outside Pune.

“I wish to go into villages and do free camps for sick people there,” she says.

“The medical facilities are very insufficient in the villages.”

She also plans to help advocate for girls in her community. By telling her story, Kiran hopes more girls can receive the education — and the life — they deserve.

“I see young girls in the community getting married off and then they hardly have time for themselves,” she says. “The life they then live is not what they really deserve. It is not only

important to advocate for girls, but also their parents to make them understand how important education is for their daughter’s bright future.”

Kiran is grateful for her own mom’s commitment to educating her, despite the challenges she faced. But both Kiran and her mom know that without Kiran’s sponsors, she would not have the life she deserves.

Without her sponsors, her mom says, “Kiran would not be where she stands today.”

When Kiran sees girls in her community, out of school and married at ages younger than she is now, she feels even more grateful to the generous couple who sponsored her year after year — keeping her future, and her spark, glowing bright.

“They had a big part to play,” she says, “in making my life meaningful.”

Robin Munro | Managing Editor

Pg. 29: Growing up, Kiran loved to dance and sing — shining in every class performance.

holtinternational.org 29

Tha Sala, Thailand

A Place to

2

Walking through the gates of Tha Sala Learning Center is like stepping into a greenhouse with no walls. The warm, thick air smells wonderfully of earthy soil and sweet flowering plants.

Black-and-white spotted butterflies flutter through it — catching your eye as you walk, dodging around long-hanging vines and shady fruit trees. But plants aren’t all that grow here.

Tha Sala Learning Center in southern Thailand is a place for children and families to grow. This threeand-a-half-acre property is a shared community garden, summer camp and community center all rolled into one. In this impoverished rural community where so many families subsist on instant noodles and pre-packaged food rather than fresh fruits and vegetables, the learning center is a place where Holt-sponsored children and their families learn to cultivate and cook healthy food, work together to accomplish tasks and be part of a vibrant, healthy community.

On this particular Saturday in May, 21 Holt-sponsored children and their mothers have volunteered to do gardening work at the center — with lots of life lessons, learning and fun hidden within each task.

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3 1 1: Seven-year-old Anis places his sapling into a recycled plastic bottle holding several inches of water.

Once roots begin to grow, the children will take their tropical croton plants home to plant in their own gardens.

2: Before completing any other task, children first move fresh dirt into the plant beds.

3: A mother and daughter in sponsorship carry a basket of freshly grown mushrooms.

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6 5

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4: Pineapples — which the children are planting here — are just one of many fruits and vegetables that grow at the learning center. At Tha Sala, children and families also learn to grow mangos, mangosteen, rose apples, sugar cane, rambutans, cashews, corn, cucumbers, green tea leaves, mulberries and more! Families in need take home some of this food, and they sell anything extra at the market — giving children and families in sponsorship the opportunity to learn how to manage a small business.

Fun obstacle course activities dot the property, and each one of them teaches an important life lesson.

5: As they balance on the rope bridge, these sisters learn that sometimes you have to work hard and develop strategies in order to avoid or work through bad situations.

6: Daris holds onto his sister, Nada, as she balances on a suspended pipe. This exercise stresses the importance of community — how it is easier to walk forward in life when you have help from others.

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7: A boy crawls through the last of nine tires, lined up to form a tunnel. This represents the nine months that a child grows inside a mother’s womb — one of the many reasons to show her appreciation and respect.

8: Children cheer and root each other on as they wait in line to complete the next obstacle.

9: Eleven-year-old Madee, pictured here crossing the rope bridge, has attended the learning center since she was in kindergarten. What does she love most? Cooking, growing vegetables and — on extra special days — swimming in the canal at the back of the property!

Written by Megan Herriott Photos by Brian Campbell 31

ONE SPONSOR,

CONNECTED TO KOREA FOR A LIFETIME

For Clare Graham, sponsoring children from Korea is a connection to his past.

When Clare Graham decided to volunteer at a Winter Jam concert, it was just the latest in a lifetime of ways he found himself connected to Korea­­— and to child sponsorship.

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command radio and radar repairman for the U.S. Air Force, Clare Graham was just 20 years old when he found himself stationed near Seoul during the last year of the Korean War. On his rare days off, Clare and his buddies would sometimes drive the 30 miles into Seoul to find ice cream — a nearly unheard-of treat in Korea in 1954. But one day in April, he decided to stay close to base. He headed out for a walk, and it became a walk he’d never forget.

“I went out walking in the neighborhood and came across what had to have been an orphanage,” says Clare, now in his 80s and long retired from his military service. “There were dozens of kids lined up in front of the building … 3- and 4-year-olds bundled in polka-dot and plaid clothes.”

Curious, and captured by their sweet innocence, Clare walked over to

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them. He had some candy stashed away in his pocket, and handed it out to the children. His friend snapped a photo, forever sealing this moment in his memory.

His heart broke for these children, orphaned and abandoned in the wake of the Korean War. And his wasn’t the only one.

Several years after he returned home from the war, his mother began sponsoring a child through Holt — from Korea.

“My mom used to say, ‘If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right,’” Clare says. In 1973, when his mother passed away, he felt moved to continue supporting the child his mother had sponsored for many years through Holt — continuing the mission that she felt was so worth it.

This began what for Clare and his wife Nancy would become 45 years of

child sponsorship — first sponsoring the child his mother had sponsored, then Chil Duk, then Sang. Each one of them a boy living in Korea.

In 1982, Clare returned to Korea for the first time since the war as part of an international convention with the YMCA. At the convention, he had an opportunity to meet his then-sponsored child — actually a young adult living at Holt’s Ilsan Center, a long-term care center for children and adults who have special needs. This young man continued to receive support from Clare and Nancy through sponsorship after he reached adulthood.

“He couldn’t live on his own, but he went out and worked — was a very outgoing person,” Clare says of this young man, who he got to meet while visiting Ilsan. “It was emotional,” Clare says, reflecting on the legacy his

In February 2018, Clare and his wife, Nancy, visited Holt International’s headquarters (above).

While there, they learned that children like the ones he met and photographed at an orphanage during the war (left) are the reason Harry and Bertha Holt began Holt International over 60 years ago.

mother began, as well as the hope and opportunity this young man experienced because of sponsorship.

Asked about his reasons for sponsoring all of these years, Clare says it’s a “tying together” of his mother’s influence, his personal experience in Korea and his awareness about the need for sponsors. But Clare doesn’t see this as coincidence.

“Isn’t it crazy how God works, how God puts all this together?” he says. “It seems like Korea and I were intended to be connected for all these years. In different ways, but one way or another.”

Just last November, Clare volunteered at a Winter Jam concert in Tacoma, Washington. Joined by his daughter and grandkids, Clare helped sign up new sponsors during intermission, and took the opportunity to share about his sponsorship experience through the years. But he never

expected to step up on stage, in front of thousands of people.

As the Tacoma concert fell on November 11, Veteran’s Day, Clare wore a Korean veteran’s baseball cap. Spotting him among the volunteers, a Holt team member quickly came up to him.

“We’re going to sing God Bless America,” he told him, “and we’d like you to come up on stage with us.”

“You never expect that,” Clare says.

While on stage, he answered questions about the Korean conflict and his time in Korea. The audience then stood to honor him for his service.

“God has blessed us,” Clare says, reflecting on his life. “Just because I said yes to serving. The more I served and volunteered, the more I got blessed — always giving God the glory.”

In February, Clare and Nancy visited the Holt headquarters office in Eugene, Oregon. They learned more

about Holt’s beginnings, how Harry and Bertha Holt felt called to care for children left orphaned or abandoned in the wake of the Korean War, and how this is what led them to begin Holt International. Understanding this connection, and how Holt sponsors are still a part of this critical work in Korea and around the world, he felt moved.

“I now have a better perspective on what attracted my mother to become a sponsor,” he says. While the circumstances are different today, the work is very much the same: caring for orphaned and abandoned children. And for this reason, Clare says he will stay connected with Holt for many years to come — through sponsorship, and through prayer.

“We continue to pray for Holt daily,” he says.

Megan Herriott | Staff Writer 33

Linda met these children while volunteering at the National Children’s Sanatorium in Mongolia.

Once home, she signed up to sponsor two of the children she met, including the little one on the right and the girl pictured below.

Before Her Eyes A

s a 35-year sponsor and the sister of a Holt adoptee, Linda Voelsch has had a long and meaningful history with Holt International. For a time, her mom worked for Holt, and in the mid-1970s, she and her sister, Jeanne, traveled to help bring children from Korea home to their adoptive families in the U.S. But it wasn’t until last year that Linda had the chance to see the impact of her years as a sponsor — while traveling as part of a donor team to help build new homes for vulnerable families in Mongolia.

“Holt’s just been a part of our lives forever, but I hadn’t taken a trip like this,” says Linda, now a retiree living in Vancouver, Washington.

As someone with a master’s degree in social work administration — who spent her career working in non-profits — Linda took particular interest in observing the Holt Mongolia team as they provided direct care and support to women and children in crisis. “It was nice to see social work unfolding right in front us,” says Linda, referring to a couple of unplanned experiences during the trip. One experience, in particular, gave her the opportunity to see how donors can come together to meet the needs of vulnerable families.

On a blustery afternoon in Ulaanbaatar, the donor team hiked up a hillside to distribute food to families living near the city garbage dump. While there, they met a mother and her 3-year-old daughter. The mother looked so emaciated, you could not tell that she was six months pregnant. She confided that she felt trapped in an abusive situation, and after meeting this family, our Mongolia staff relocated the mother and child to a safe place. One team member stepped up to sponsor the 3-year-old, and several more donated funds to build and furnish a new home for them. Three months later, when the young mom gave birth, another member of the team committed to sponsoring her newborn baby.

“We actually saw this situation develop in front of us, and it gave us opportunities to participate right then and there,” Linda says.

Moved by what she witnessed, Linda also hoped to support children and families in Mongolia in a greater capacity.

This opportunity came after most of the team departed — and Linda stayed an extra week to volunteer her time at the 34 holtinternational.org

National Children’s Sanatorium (NCS), Mongolia’s primary state child caring center, which Holt sponsors and donors have supported since the late 1990s.

“I would just get on the playroom floor and just play with the kids,” Linda says of her time at the care center. “The first two days, it was warm out, they asked me to sit out in the sun with a baby.”

Linda bottle-fed babies and helped feed lunch to the older children. She escorted two girls, both malnourished, for their 18-month checkup at the hospital. She bought and delivered baby rockers for the children at the center. And she bought new clothes for the pregnant mother and her daughter, who received treatment at NCS for malnutrition.

Although Linda saw that the caregivers did their best to love and nurture the children, she came away with a very vivid understanding of why children need families — reinforcing what she, as the sister of an adoptee, already knew to be true.

“I think what I saw by being there, even just a few hours, is while they get good care, it’s still an institution,” she says.

Once they’ve changed, bathed and fed every child, little time remains, Linda observed, for the caregivers to just play and interact with the children.

When it came time to leave, it was hard to say goodbye.

But as soon as she got home, she signed up to sponsor two 18-month-old girls, including one of the malnourished little ones who she accompanied to the hospital. Holt is now working to reopen international adoption from Mongolia — ensuring every child at NCS can have the loving, permanent family they deserve. In the meantime, Linda still has a list of children who need sponsors.

“I’m going to see,” she says, “if I can talk my friends into sponsoring a couple more.”

Robin Munro Managing Editor

STORY BEHIND THE PHOTO

When Adam and Stephanie Baird first met their adopted 2-year-old son, Landon, at a hotel in Taiyuan, China, it was not a fairytale beginning. Many people think that the first time adoptive parents meet their child, it’s full of tears and smiles and overwhelming laughter. While that is often true for the parents, who fully understand what adoption means, it’s not always true for their toddler-aged child, who might be scared, sad or simply indifferent.

Landon was sitting on a window ledge in a carpeted hotel lounge, looking out at the smoggy city from 30 stories up. When Adam and Stephanie entered the room to meet him, he barely registered their presence. He quietly and shyly kept looking out the window as Adam and Stephanie knelt next to him on the ground. After about 30 minutes, Landon willingly took a toy car from Adam and began rolling it back and forth — passing it back to Adam, his dad.

Some adopted children need days, months or even longer to open themselves up to their adoptive parents. Some grieve very hard with tears and fear and behaviors normal for kids facing trauma.

And, many respond like Landon — a little shy at first.

That’s why this photo is so special. Just 24 hours after Landon joined Adam and Stephanie, the sound of his beautiful, high-pitched laughter rang out on a bus trip to finalize some immigration paperwork. Then, his smiles and laughter never stopped. Here, Landon giggles as Adam makes funny faces with him.

For the many children waiting for adoptive families, sponsors provide the caregivers, medicine, food, clothes, blankets, diapers, formula and other care they need until they join their parents. Thank you for helping children have the greatest gift in life — family.

PHOTO BY DANIEL HESPEN

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NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID EUGENE, OR PERMIT NO. 291

Post Of fice Box 2880 E u g e n e , O R 9 74 0 2

Change Ser vice Requested

“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me.” Mark 9:37

Waiting for a sponsor...

Krittipong and Shafinah are just two of the many children who are waiting for a sponsor.

Krittipong

Shafinah

1 year old, Thailand

3 years old, Uganda

Krittipong is growing up in the loving care of his mother, who gave birth to him at a young age. They live with his grandmother, who struggles to support them on the income she earns selling fruit juices. Krittipong shuffles around by holding onto furniture, and he loves playing with puzzles and cars. As his mother doesn’t have enough breast milk to feed him, Krittipong needs infant formula to grow strong and healthy. Your monthly sponsorship can provide nutritious formula for Krittipong, and income-generating resources and parenting support for his mother.

Shafinah and her mother live with extended family members in a singleroom home. Her mother works hard doing casual labor, but she doesn’t earn enough to meet her daughter’s needs. Shafinah doesn’t have enough clothing or bedding, cannot attend preschool because her mom can’t afford school supplies, and eats only one meal each day. She is a sweet, outgoing girl who loves to dance and sing. As her sponsor, you will provide nutritious food, clothing and school supplies for Shafinah, as well as resources to help her mom grow a vegetable garden and generate income to support her.

When you sponsor a child, you will also uplift their family and community.

To sponsor one of these children, email sponsorship@ho ltinternational.org.