Couple visit World Vision sponsor child
"They don't like too much kindness showered on one child."
Carole Lynskey
John and Carole Lynskey were treated like royalty when they visited the child they sponsor in India.
The couple have been sponsoring a youngster there for about 15 years, Carole said.
‘‘We’ve been sponsoring Anjali for about three years, but we’ve had others over the years. They get to about 15 years old and then we get flicked off to another child.’’
They have written to Anjali in the past and sent her photos of their family. The little girl knew they were coming, she said. But the money they give to global charity World Vision as part of its child sponsorship scheme doesn’t go directly to Anjali, Carole said.
‘‘She is the face, but it goes to the whole village.’’
The couple were going to India for a friend’s wedding and decided to make the trip to Nawada in north east India to meet Anjali, 9.
‘‘World Vision were amazing at organising everything. They made it very easy for us.’’
John said the side trip to Nawada cost ‘‘quite a bit’’.
‘‘I actually thought about this and whether we should have given them the money instead of us going there, but I thought it is really important to go.’’
World Vision staff took the couple on a road trip that got ‘‘rougher and rougher’’, John said.
‘‘We are going along and suddenly I hear all this music and I asked the World Vision guys, ‘is there a big party here in the village? They said, ‘that’s for you’. We turn up and there are literally hundreds of people there.’’
Anjali’s village was further away, but she came to see them, because it was impossible to get to her village by car.
The money they donate goes towards all sorts of things, but in the last two years it’s gone towards fitting out more than 120 villages with toilets, John said.
‘‘So it’s an awesome project. And they also now have running water in every house.’’
They were impressed at how genuine the World Vision staff were, he said. And it was emotional seeing the work and meeting Anjali.
‘‘We saw her for a few hours. We were there for two days, it was definitely worth going. We didn’t have enough chance to have time with her one on one, they were so keen to show us around and what they’ve been doing.’’
Carole gave Anjali a t-shirt, Carole said.
‘‘It was awesome seeing her. There was a language barrier and she was really shy and quite overwhelmed, which you can understand for a little 9 year old girl.’’
World Vision was ‘wary’ of them taking too many presents over for Anjali, she said.
‘‘They don’t like too much kindness showered on one child when the rest are missing out. It makes that child stand out from the rest. It’s a tricky one really.’’
But now they know what she needs they can discretely send her presents, which they intend to do, she said.
And they are confident it will get to her. The couple were very impressed with World Vision, she said.