Summer 2008: Inside a Sponsorship Community - World Vision

WHERe are they
no w?
Sheuli’s sponsor helped her fulfill two
dreams: to learn and to teach.
Back to School»
Sponsorship helped a girl overcome the odds to be
educated. Now she is helping others do the same.
By Ryan Smith
amio ascension/world vision (2)
Sheuli Som, 28, still remembers the
terrifying day in 1988 that a flash
flood hit her hometown of Durgapur,
Bangladesh. While her parents sent Sheuli
and her two older siblings away to safety,
they stayed to watch over the house. “The
boat left us on a highway,” Sheuli says. “We
three brothers and sisters were crying and
screaming, sitting on the road.”
Later that night, relatives found the
frightened children and helped them
reunite with their parents the following
day. All of the family was safe, but the
flood had destroyed their home, forcing
them to relocate.
After the move, Sheuli’s father could
not continue his job as an agricultural
laborer. He was able to find some work as
a tutor, but it did not pay much—especially
to keep three children in school.
Two years after the flood, visitors
came to Sheuli’s school, wrote down the
children’s names, and took their photos.
Sheuli’s teacher said that the visitors were
from World Vision, and they were there to
sign up all the children for sponsorship.
“During that time, I did not know
much about World Vision,” Sheuli says.
“First, I thought [it] might be a kind of an
educational institute. Later I realized that
my teacher did a very good job for us by
enrolling us with World Vision. I have come
to know that World Vision is an organization
that works for development of children
and community.”
Shortly after being sponsored, Sheuli
received a photo of her sponsor with her
daughter. “She wrote me that I am like
her daughter,” Sheuli says. “It touched me
most—a woman who never saw me but
treated me as her own daughter and supports
me. I became so emotional reading
her message.”
28 | World Vision Summer 2008
www.worldvision.org