A story of hope!

A lot has happened in the past few years. Sad things, beautiful things and hopeful things. The number of sponsored children has grown tremendously. Unfortunately, children have also died in recent years. But a lot of sad stories have also turned into stories of hope! One of them is Charles!

Charles was born in 2014. From birth, there were concerns about Charles' health. He was often sick and his mother usually had no money to go to the hospital with him. As he got older, he was sick more and more often. And not only that, often they did not have enough to eat. The little money his mother earned was used to buy food. But Charles was getting sicker and sicker, and his mother was distraught. What could she do? Until she heard about For a Change and she came to us to ask for help.

Fortunately, we were able to provide help and take Charles to the hospital where he was diagnosed and given the right medication. He was included in the sponsorship programme through which he now receives nutritious meals. It has been up and down with Charles' health for a long time as his immune system was very weakened and he also got another illness on top of it. We held our hearts several times when he had to be hospitalised for the umpteenth time and sometimes wondered if he would still come home.

But because Charles has a sponsor and he was able to get the care he so desperately needed each time, Charles has still recovered. With the help of proper medication and supplementary feeding, which the Lord has been willing to bless, Charles' health has really improved. Last year he ‘graduated’ from nursery school, which felt like a miracle to us. Who could have ever thought that. There was a time when he couldn't even walk or go to school because he was so sick. Now he is in grade 3 and is almost never absent due to illness. He enjoys school and likes to learn new things. He is learning to read and write and he gets to hear from God's Word every day!

Charles is still on medication and still has to go to hospital regularly for check-ups. Without a sponsor, this would never have been possible. His mother also says that without For a Change, and without a sponsor, Charles, humanly speaking, would no longer be alive. They could never have paid for the countless hospital visits, hospital admissions, tests and medicines themselves.

That is why she is so grateful that Charles got a sponsor. Because without healthcare, there was no hope of him getting better. But now his life has changed so much. There is hope again!

There are other children in Kwanjana who are also in a hopeless situation. Would you also like to bring hope? Sponsor a child and turn a hopeless story, into a story of hope!