Sponsor a Child as a Christmas Gift
27/11/2007
We are delighted that people want to give child sponsorships as presents. It is a sort of double gift of love: once for the loved one and once for a lone child. People do this as a gift for their wife, grandchildren, godchildren or someone special for Christmas or a special occasion. If you wish to set up this type of sponsorship, you can do it on our website: just explain in the "instructions" box on the secure online Child Sponsorship form what you would like us to do. We could send a letter to you about the sponsorship on Christmas Day, and then mail the child sponsorship pack and subsequent child updates and so on to the person the gift is for - we are flexible and will try our best to match your request.
If you complete an application after 8 Dec we will try to get a sponsorship pack together but you may have to settle for a letter to the lucky recipient saying "a child has been sponsored for you and details will be sent very soon". Of course it is still a special gift and they will get a pack with their child photo and country details early in the New Year.
Thank you for your understanding and we wish you all a very happy festive season.
SOS Children Nov 2007
A Christmas Past for an SOS little boy
Taciturn, shy and withdrawn that was Thomas when he arrived at our SOS Children’s Village when he was five years old. “Hungry, thirsty, cold” those were the only words he ever spoke. But a little incident at Christmas brought the first smile to his face.
Just before Christmas there was a heavy fall of snow. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve we decided to build igloos at the edge of the woods. Thomas was sitting on the fence in his thick warm snowsuit watching us. Suddenly we heard a whining sound from somewhere nearby - it was a little dog that had fallen into a deep snowdrift and was whimpering mournfully.
We stood around the pit in the snow wondering what to do, when Thomas came up, pointed to our sledges and shouted “rope!”. He wanted the ropes we used to pull our sledges. He used the ropes to tie some small branches together, and in no time at all he had made a kind of stretcher that he lowered into the hole. Thomas pushed the stretcher under the dog, and we helped him pull the trembling bundle of misery out of the drift. Thomas then gave the dog a reassuring hug and us a broad smile.
He carefully inspected the dog. “Dog ok!” he pronounced and asked for the old blanket we were going to use as a coat for the snowman. We were all amazed and said what a good job he had done. It was a proud Thomas who wrapped the little dog in the blanket and set off for the village with it.
That Christmas Eve was the day on which Thomas started to speak in whole sentences, the day on which he began to live with us and not beside us. It was also the first day he let our SOS mother take him in her arms. For her that was doubtless the best possible Christmas present. We later learnt that Thomas had lived on a farm for a time and so knew a lot about animals. We also learnt other details about his past and stopped wondering why he had so little trust in us at the beginning.
The dog’s owner was never found, and Thomas was allowed to keep him. Since then they have been inseparable friends.