Sharing Special Time with the Sponsored Kids' Family

by Jennete T. Fariola

Just last May of this year, VFV, together with two different group of volunteers -- the Jacksonville University group and the University of Western Ontario group -- shared their time with the sponsored kids and their families. A meal with the sponsored kids and their families is one of the activities that the program offers. During this activity, the volunteers visit a sponsored kid in his/her home. The volunteers get to experience a day in the life of a sponsored kid and their family and in return, the sponsored kids hopefully teach the volunteers an important lesson or two in life.

The Canadian group brought the kids to a park, played with them the whole day and then prepared an early dinner. The Jacksonville group, on the other hand, went to San Roque Tanauan (one of the areas catered by the program), prepared an activity for the kids and right after the activity, bought food for the family of each of the sponsored kids. The volunteers stayed till evening and had a hearty dinner with the sponsored kids and their families.

As the saying goes, experience is the best teacher. Through this experience, the volunteers were touched by the way some of the poor families in the region live. Some would realize that while they are enjoying all the materials and riches they have, the other side of the world are suffering and trying to be contented with the little thing they have. Through the Sponsor-A-Kid program, the volunteers has a chance to interact and mingle with the families of the sponsored kids. In this way, they are able to experience and witness how the Filipino indigent family lives.