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CFCA projects roll out the red carpet for sponsors
Colleen Gawley and her daughter, Elizabeth, were overwhelmed and honored when they were entertained by a community of 400 sponsored members and their families during a trip to the Philippines.
Watch more trip testimonials
Margaret Looper discovers how important a bag of groceries really is.
Hunter Hardin get to know his friend during a day of fun in Honduras.
Learn how you can go on a CFCA mission awareness trip and what to expect.
April 2, 2009 at 7:51 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
CFCA Walk with the Poor brochure wins top honor at Philly Awards
CFCA received the Best of Show honor at the sixth annual Philly Awards for our Walk with the Poor brochure.
The awards are presented by Nonprofit Connect, recognizing excellence in Kansas City nonprofit communications. CFCA also won first place for the Walk with the Poor brochure in the informational brochure category and second-place honors for the CFCA sponsorship brochure in the membership appeal category.
The Walk with the Poor brochure was created to encourage young people to go to the Walk with the Poor Web site and learn how they can impact global poverty by helping a student finish school.
The Best of Show Award is selected from the first-place winners in 11 categories.
We created a video of the multi-fold Walk with the Poor brochure. Watch it unfold as it connects the dots…
December 12, 2008 at 4:55 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 1 comment
World AIDS Day: Young HIV patients are the best teachers
Taking medicine is routine for young HIV patients
Many mothers will tell you how hard it is to get their young children to take medicine. For young patients with HIV at CFCA’s Dar es Salaam project in Tanzania, taking medicine is a matter of life and death.
When the patients from the Intensive Day Therapy program arrive at the project clinic at 6:30 a.m., Project Coordinator Mary Dawn Reavey has their medication measured and set out on the table. Young children swallow nine cups of liquid until they are old enough to take pills. At that point, they take six pills: an antiretroviral drug plus five supplements.
The 23 children range in age from 3 to 18 years and attend day school on the project grounds. They visit the clinic before leaving to take another round of medicine.
Children help each other
Reavey teaches the children to swallow pills at age 3.
“Liquid medicine is much more expensive and it is easy to counterfeit, so the goal is to switch the children to pills as early as possible,” she said.
The cost for antiretroviral tablets is $20 a month for one child, versus $100 for liquids.
Typical of children, they make a game out of taking their medicine.
“They have competitions to see who is the fastest to take their medicine and who can take the most pills at once,” Reavey said.
Success entails being firm, consistent and patient, and giving lots of positive reinforcement. Peer pressure helps, too. Though it can be hard for the young children, they are usually pros after a week.
“Often they are so sick when they arrive and they have been so stigmatized, that when they enter a community where all their friends also take medicine and are showered with love and care, they start feeling better in a few days and actually seem to appreciate the medicine,” Reavey said.
Patients spread message of hope and compassion
Every segment of the community has been impacted by HIV/AIDS, Reavey said. Family members, teachers, health-care workers and leaders have been lost to AIDS.
“We have a tremendous need for education and the promotion of hope and compassion,” Reavey said.
This is where the young patients help. They are the best teachers and advocates.
“We always have clusters of children coming for evaluation and often discover later that as one child enters the program and becomes well, other community members find the courage to also ask for help and bring their children and grandchildren out of seclusion to seek care,” she said.
December 1, 2008 at 1:26 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
Blog Action Day: “Our family’s poverty story”
From CFCA sponsor Zena Weist:
John and I began sponsoring a child in 1998. We were pregnant with our first child and felt so blessed. We heard about CFCA through our parish. During Mass while a CFCA representative was talking about the sponsorship opportunities, my husband left our pew. I thought he was going to the restroom.
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| Angelica is our sponsored child from Guatemala. She was 4 when we began sponsoring her. |
When he came back to our pew, he had our little Angelica Antonia’s profile. He just knew that I wanted to sponsor a child and he did as well.
He said, “Angelica called out to me.”
Her mother and father took turns sending us letters about Angelica, their life and how thankful they were for our support until Angelica was old enough to write. So, through letters and photos we’ve received, we’ve seen Angelica grow up through her parents’ and now her words.
Angelica is in seventh grade. She draws us beautiful flower borders with every note. She’s quite an artist! Angelica is growing up a confident, educated young woman. She walks an hour to/from school every day – amazing! She is so grateful for the opportunity to go to school (which is a great reminder for our kids) and in every letter reminds us how very thankful she is that our support covers her basic needs.
By sponsoring Angelica, we get so much more out of the relationship than we ever dreamed was possible! She is a constant reminder of how blessed we are, that the basic things we take for granted (shelter, food, clothing) are truly gifts from God. Angelica doesn’t know this, but her words and prayers are far more valuable to our family than the monthly donations.
CFCA’s sponsorship program helps our family see that poverty is a worldwide problem that affects each of us in some way and even more so, how each individual can help end it.
October 15, 2008 at 7:22 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 1 comment
Blog for CFCA and join the discussion on global poverty
Join the discussion about global poverty on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008.
We know that people in the blogosphere can learn so much through your CFCA sponsor experiences: what it’s like to join with families living in poverty; telling about how your own view of poverty has changed through your sponsorship, and how poverty now has a personal meaning for you.
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| Blog Action Day ’08 gives bloggers around the world a chance to focus one day – Wednesday, Oct. 15 – on one topic – poverty. |
Blog Action Day ’08 gives bloggers around the world a chance to focus one day – Wednesday, Oct. 15 – on one topic – poverty.
Here’s how the Blog Action Day Web site describes it:
“Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.”
To be a part of the event:
- Register your blog on the blog action day site (blogactionday.com) between now and Oct. 14.
- Start preparing your blog message based on your experiences as a CFCA sponsor.
(e-mail us if you have questions) - Post your blog entry on Oct. 15.
At the end of your blog post, please feel free to include the following description of CFCA:
CFCA is a Kansas City-based international movement serving people living in poverty in 25 developing countries. We help families put food on the table, send their children to school and have a decent place to live so that together we can end the cycle of poverty. Founded by lay Catholics acting on the call to serve the poor, CFCA serves people of all faiths. To learn more, or to sponsor a child, visit www.cfcausa.org.
If you don’t have a blog, but would like to start one to post your message about poverty, here are a few blog sites that make it quick and easy:
Thank you for joining CFCA and sharing your personal story to help the world gain a better understanding of poverty and ways to help.
October 6, 2008 at 12:47 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
International Youth Day – You can!
Today is International Youth Day – a day designated to draw attention to youth issues worldwide.
Recently, youth from the Kansas City area created this video to share with other teens why it’s important to care about people living in developing countries and why it’s important to help: because teens CAN make a difference.
We hope you enjoy their video!
We can all make a difference. How are you involved in global poverty issues? Let us know!
August 12, 2008 at 3:23 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 1 comment
Givers’ high
It’s like a runner’s high, except it keeps on giving as long as you do! And now it’s laboratory tested.
Researchers have concluded that “giving unto others” produces a strong dose of happiness for the giver. According to a study published in March by researchers at the University of British Columbia and the Harvard Business School, there is scientific proof that financial generosity makes a person happier. The reward comes to donors large and small. From large Bill Gates-sized contributions to the normal working person’s offering, it’s not in the size of the donation, but in the act of giving. The UBC press release HERE explains it in greater detail.
The study states that people experience the same kind of physical endorphin rush from making charitable donations as runners get when they’re “in the zone.”
So, in scientific terms, giving a one-time donation is like a jolt of joy, and sponsoring a child or aging person is like a happiness marathon.
ADDED BENEFIT: Learning from those we sponsor
A sponsor told us that his family helps support Vanessa who is interested in science and lives in the Guatemala rainforest. They find spiritual enrichment through sharing their lives with Vanessa and her family. But also, they’ve learned more about nature from Vanessa’s letters and have become more conscious about recycling and being caretakers of the environment.
July 23, 2008 at 3:16 pm Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) Leave a comment
Scholars rehearsing for concert in Zamboanga
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Xarina (foreground) and other CFCA scholar students learned and performed on traditional Filipino instruments for a concert in the jungle surrounding Zamboanga City, Philippines, in January 2008. The concert will be featured in ZAMBOANGA, a documentary film. Visit www.zamboangathemovie.com for more information. |
Scholarship students from the Philippines formed a special bond while studying traditional Filipino instruments such as the kulintangan, the dabakan and the agong. The students rehearsed throughout the year for a CFCA concert on Jan. 30 in Zamboanga on the island of Mindanao.
The experience awakened an interest in composing and writing for scholar Xarina, 16. Xarina is featured in the Spring/Summer issue of The Scholar, a CFCA publication that highlights the accomplishments and challenges of students in the CFCA Scholarship Program.
“I am used to composing in English and Tagalog,” Xarina said. “Now I am writing in Chavacano [a Filipino dialect]. I am experimenting.”
Hours of rehearsal put a strain on Xarina’s studies, but the hard work paid off.
“They did brilliantly,” said Kansas City-based musician Barclay Martin. Martin arranged the concert music and wrote original songs combining traditional Filipino and modern music.
The day after the concert was bittersweet for the students, Martin said.
“We played music for each other as a gesture of thanks and to mark a significant life experience for all involved,” he said. “As it neared time to leave, members from all of the groups began to laugh, sing and cry out of gratitude for what we had shared.”
June 23, 2008 at 11:01 am Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) 2 comments
