It was watching the 2004 film Hotel Rwanda that first sparked Sydney mum, Caro Webster, to sponsor a child. “It was such a heartbreaking movie that I immediately contacted World Vision, it was that very night and I was in tears saying, please, please, can I do something to help,” Caro recalls.
Today, Caro’s family sponsors five children – Esther and Jean Claude from Rwanda, Sukithathaash and Saythuhaa from Sri Lanka, and Mussa from Tanzania.
Over the years, Caro has seen how her support has impacted the lives of her sponsored children and their communities. “Watching the children grow up and progress has given me a firm sense that their entire community is progressing as well. My small contribution seems to make a real difference,” she says.
Sponsoring children has also been a positive experience for her own family. “It’s taught us about how important giving back is,” she says. “It’s that feeling of contentment that you’re doing something that is completely real and concrete. It’s very reassuring and satisfying.”
She encourages her 16-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter to write to their sponsored children about their lives in Australia. “I think it’s important for them to learn about their own privilege. And one of the easiest ways of doing that is seeing the communication that comes from our sponsored children and seeing what they have, or really, what they don’t have,” she says.
“For a sponsored child to get a letter back from another child, rather than me is far more powerful in terms of the relationship or the bond you can form with your sponsored child,” she adds.
“My daughter Grace is my little humanitarian warrior,” she says proudly. “She’s determined, she’s all over privilege and helping kids in need. Her main concern has always been water and sanitation, and as she gets older she wants to get more involved in helping and empowering women.”
Caro says that watching her daughter develop a strong sense of social justice has been very satisfying. “It adds another layer to the personal reward you feel by not only supporting a child but encouraging the next generation to do the same.”
For Caro, helping children in need remains her motivation. “They’re the most vulnerable members of society and they don’t have a voice. Anything I can do to give a child that voice, to help them be the best they can be, to grow strong, be happy and healthy, and have the basic things that should be afforded every child will continue to be my passion.”
I live in Indonesia and I am a 8-year-old girl. I really like playing regional games. My birthday is 9 April 2009.
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