Bangladesh: A Remarkable Story of the Power of Child Sponsorship

It’s been an emotional and educational few days in Bangladesh for Mathew, but also for all of us back here in the World Vision offices, learning of the progress the communities are making with your support.

If you haven’t already, check out Day 1 and Day 2.

This post really is an amazing story. Read on:

By Mathew Neville, Director of Public Engagement, World Vision UK
Nawabgonj: Day 3
Wednesday 14th November, 2012

There once was a king, a labourer and a minister in Bangladesh. The labourer wanted to know why the minister was paid more than him when he obviously worked harder.

Some time later a dog had a litter of puppies in the kingdom and the king wanted to know all about them. Each time he had a question the labourer had to go back to the litter to check – only prompting more questions from the king: how many were there? what sex where they? what colouring did they have? how healthy were they? and so on. Each question meant another trip for the labourer.

The minister, however, prepared a detailed report on the litter and handed it in full to the king answering all of his questions in one go.

The lesson of this story – as it was explained to me today in a school here in a remote rural area of Bangladesh – is to ‘think carefully’, to look past the surface of things and see the details that really matter. How could I not see the lesson myself?

Poverty is such a difficult subject to capture in adequate words, and solutions to poverty are even more complex and often more amazing than you could ever imagine – take the story of Jafar and Diane for instance.

Jafar Ahmed is a young English teacher in one of the schools I visited today that World Vision has been supporting. This school is so remote that there are no actual roads that go there; we took a boat for half an hour up the river to reach it.

Jafar gave a passionate speech to the children about World Vision and said that every time he hears mention of us his ‘heart leaps for joy.’ He said that he was a sponsored child and it was World Vision that gave him the encouragement and support that he needed to become a teacher.

I have just got off the phone with Diane and her husband who have been sponsoring children for 17 years with World Vision. They sponsored Jafar until he became an adult. It was so fantastic to hear the excitement in their voices to get news of Jafar – like hearing news of a long lost friend or relative. They said they had often wondered how he was getting on. I felt so privileged to be able to tell them how grateful Jafar was for their support and how he had insisted that I pass on his heartfelt thanks to them.

If asked by the imaginary king of the story to give a report on the impact she has had on a remote rural community in Bangladesh, what would Diane say?

How could she ever know that the donation she made each month to sponsor Jafar would have such an impact on his life and, through him, on the children of this community so many years later? How could Jafar ever know that he would bring so much joy to the lives of two people living thousands of miles away in England?

Diane and her husband now sponsor two new children in different countries – who knows what stories are only just beginning…..?

Take a look a Mathew’s final post from Bangladesh here.

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