Is it Worth Sponsoring a Child?

This is the true story of one HVP student that should make you think so.

When Pradett was found as a newborn baby under a tree in Ghorahi by the lady that would become like a mother to him, he was as vulnerable, as alone, and as helpless as it is possible to be.

Naked and still covered in amniotic fluid and placenta from the madwoman that gave birth to him, Pradett was left without clothes, a family or any hope of future support, and had he not been found so soon would probably have died there before his life had even had a chance to begin. Probably the result of a rape, no one could say who the father might be, and the poor madwoman who gave birth to her unwanted child simply wandered off unheeded in the early hours of the morning. Pradett was brought up through the kindness and charity of the lady who found her, although finding the additional funds to support a sudden addition to the family was not an easy task. When he was old enough to attend school Pradett moved into the hostel in HVP Dang, where his living costs were subsidised substantially by the school to make them affordable for his foster-parents. When the sponsorship scheme began Pradett was one of the first to benefit, and now he’s fully supported for his life at HVP by regular donations from his international sponsor.

It is heartbreaking to think of the various scenarios that could have arisen for a child abandoned as Pradett was.

Even if someone in the community was willing to support him as he grew up, it would be unlikely that such generosity would stretch beyond the age when he could fend for himself by working in the fields or as a bus tout. It is practically inconceivable that he would have had any more than the most basic education, and without financial support or an inheritance from a family he would most probably have remained an uneducated labourer or beggar for the best part of his life. At HVP, Pradett is receiving a private-school standard, English-medium education, and lives as part of a large, mixed hostel community in the school. He thoroughly enjoys his life, and at the end of his school career will have opportunities available to him that one could never believe possible after such a tragic beginning.

Whether or not he wishes to and is provided with funding to pursue a further education after SLCs, he will grow up having benefited from a full education, as well as a balanced and loving community during his formative years. Already Pradett is becoming a well-mannered, intelligent and generous young man, when he could so easily have faced a life of bitterness, discomfort and frustration. He is a testament to the importance of the sponsorship scheme, and an inspiration to keep it growing and expanding to help more and more underprivileged and unfortunate children in a country where so many are victims of circumstances outside their control.

Names have been changed.