DesanaGiving

Every once in a while a letter or email finds its way to us and reminds us why we do what we do. It certainly isn't the pay (all Desana board members serve on a volunteer basis and pay all the overhead expenses and their own travel expenses), it isn't the seemingly endless international flights in cramped "economy class" (Aeroflot, but I'm not mentioning any names), the "adventurous" dining ("we're eating what?"), the "quaint" low budget hotels ("there's no sheets on this bed!"), the overnight buses (you can't see the road in the dark!) or our inability to grasp foreign languages ("what did he say?")............what it is, is the following (I have taken the liberty to correct spelling and paraphrase a bit for your ease in reading):

To Any Sponsor, U.S.A.

Re: Application for Requesting a Sponsorship
Dear Sir/Madam:

I humbly submit my request as I have mentioned above. I am in Senior 3 (high school) but reaching Senior 3 has been by God's mercy. I am an orphan not having a father and now I don't even have a mother. The guardian who used to pay for my school fees has died. The one who gives me the fees now first asked for sex and I refused to do so. I love education. Let me hope that my request will be put under your parental consideration. Yours sincerely, Name withheld

"I love education." We believe her. These young people either walk miles each day to attend school......no breakfast at home and no money for lunch, a long day of studying in a facility without running water or electricity, a library consisting of old US textbooks, no science lab, and a long walk home. Or, they are are enrolled in the boarding program, same facility but add in overcrowded dormitory rooms and remember no running water or electricity. Most orphans (and there are many) have lost their parents to AIDS, completely manageable for 40 cents a day......IF you had 40 cents a day (average income is $1 a day) and IF the ARV medicines were even available. This young lady will receive a Desana sponsorship, from whom, I don't know. To the many of you who are already sponsoring a student: Thank You! The cost is small, $75 annually for a day student and $225 annually for a boarding student......please consider helping. If you help us help them the rewards will be invaluable. Through education (and the love it), we can help break the cycle of poverty. You can't change the world, but you can improve the life of one child, making the world a far better place.

Will you please help this child? If we will not help, who will?