Did you know that for many of our sponsored children and aging friends, a CFCA birthday celebration may be the first time they’ve ever formally celebrated their birthdays?
These much-anticipated celebrations often include family members and others in the local community.
Here are a few photos of recent CFCA birthday celebrations in Guatemala, Colombia and India. They were too precious not to share with you!
Edgar, left, a sponsored children in Guatemala, is really enjoying his cake! A birthday tradition in Guatemala calls for the birthday child to eat the cake without utensils, and when they lean in to take a bite, they are pushed into it.
It’s a special day in Colombia as sponsored children wait for their birthday cake and drinks.
Little Leydi from Guatemala is excited to join in the CFCA birthday festivities. She can have her cake and eat it, too.
More birthday fun in Colombia. Children know their sponsors have provided for these celebrations to take place.
Beyond the cake and party, CFCA staffers select and purchase age-appropriate gifts in the community, which also supports the local economy. These blankets will be given to sponsored children in Colombia as birthday gifts.
Bonus: Calculating one’s age in a rural village in India
People in the U.S. usually know the day, month and year when they were born, but that’s not true for every sponsored friend we serve.
Sreekanth Gundoji, our communications liaison in India, recently interviewed a family in a rural area and asked about the age of their daughter, Sona.
“Her mother, Maku, thought for a while and then replied that Sona’s teeth had fallen out recently, so her age must be 7 years,” he wrote. “That’s how they calculate their age.”
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How often are the birthdays celebrated in the CFCA community? Is it done monthly? Does everyone who is sponsored and having a bday in that month get invited? It would be great to post the photos so the sponsors could see the parties & possibly see their sponsored child celebrating!
Hi Mary,
All CFCA sponsored friends get to celebrate their birthday, receive a gift, and have the feeling of family and community because of sponsor donations to the birthday fund, which for many of them might be the only birthday celebration they will enjoy.
The frequency with which birthdays are celebrated depends on the size of the project. For example, the children and aging members in the Hermano Pedro projects celebrate birthdayís every month because they have over 75,000 sponsored members, while the members in smaller projects celebrate less frequently. The celebrations can vary from group parties as a community to large outings as a group.
We encourage you to watch the video about birthday celebrations in El Salvador featured on our website. This short video really helps capture the excitement and joy the children feel during these celebrations and we are thrilled that so many sponsors make these celebrations so special for everyone.
~Christina from Sponsor Services