A Story from a Big Sister

Raquel Branchik has been matched to her Little Sister Kara for just about one year and recently shared this story with her Match Support Specialist.

I just wanted to let you know about an awesome thing that Kara is doing. It’s a long story but it is really cool.

As a side note - in addition to mentoring, I sponsor three girls overseas through Compassion International. I have been doing that for over 15 years.

When I picked up Kara this past Saturday, we went through the typical conversations about what she is learning in school. She was really saddened about a film she watched in Social Studies. Apparently she saw a film about Tanzania. She said that the people had to choose between a meal and a doctor visit. She said many did not have shoes and had scraps for clothes. She seemed genuinely bothered by this and said she wished their was something she could do.

I told her that it would not be easy, but there is something she could do. I told her Compassion does work in Tanzania. I told her that sponsorship costs $32 a month and she knows I already sponsor three girls. I had her do multiplication to tell me how much I spend a month. She did the math and correctly said $96. I told her I could not afford another one. But I asked her to guess how much I spend with her in a month's time. Even if we do not go skating or bowling or something, we usually do go out to lunch. We wrote down where we went the past four weeks and what we spent. We spent $50. Three times we did fast food and once we did Eat N Park. She loves Eat N Park. I told her if we stop going to Eat N Park and if we eat at my place twice a month - she could raise the $32 and still be able to eat out twice.

She really took time to think about it and I made sure she understood that in six months from now, we still cannot do Eat N Park. Then I called her mom and told her what we were considering and made sure it was okay with her. After much thought, Kara agreed. We went on to Compassion's website and searched for girls in Tanzania. She chose to sponsor a 6 year old girl in Tanzania named Neema who was wearing scraps for shoes. I contacted Compassion and we worked it out that it will be in Kara's name but c/o to me at my address. The little girl in Tanzania will get Kara's picture and will write letters to Kara (not to me). They will even bill me separately than my other three so that Kara and I can put money in a tin and once a month get a money order to pay the sponsorship. I also made sure Kara knew that she will only receive 3 letters a year from this little girl but she can write to her as often as she wants. For only 9 years old, she was very serious about it. She even said "I can't believe we are doing this."

I think this will be such a good experience for her. It will teach her that there is a bigger world than her immediate surroundings. It will teach her responsibility, commitment, and patience. Most importantly, it will teach her the joy of helping others. I am sure there will be times when she wants to go to Eat N Park. But as soon as she gets a letter - it will all be worth it.