Kulsum's Birthday SNG reply - 2014

I finally got the reply for Kulsum's birthday SNG. She celebrated her b'day in March. 
From the report - 
Child's / Family's comments - 
The child said, "We have purchased so many useful things with your donation. These items will meet many of our regular needs. Thank you my sponsor.
How will it benefit - 
On the request of her sponsor, the child was gifted a special cake in remembrance of her birthday. This was very well received by the child and her family. The child was also given a dress as her birthday gift from the sponsor. The family was provided with large supplies of rice, pulses, edible oil, health drinks and other essential grocery items of regular need. These will take care of their daily consumption needs for a while. 
This is my third letter from her since my visit. I am yet to reply to her though. :( I promise to get back to the reply sooner. 
And now for her letter. 
"Dear sponsor,
Hello! My family and I are doing well. I hope you too are well. All of us here thank you for providing us with the groceries, health drink and energizer, cake and chocolates. My mother is very happy to receive these useful items. I am also very happy to receive a new dress from you for my birthday. In your honor I will celebrate the occasion now and wear my new dress. I will cut the cake also to mark the occasion. All of us are happy with the gifts and thank you a lot for your generous support.
Your loving child
Kulsum"
She is such a sweet kid. I have been able to converse more and more with her after my initial visit. I will probably be seeing her much more once I move to India. 
~ChEeRs 

Kulsum replies - May 2014

After my wonderful India visit, I got replies from Suman and Kulsum. It was really great to meet them both and I was able to converse better with Kulsum's family because I would manage with some Hindi. So here is her letter :)
"Dear Sponsor,
Hello! I am fine here and hope you are also well. My sister and I were delighted to meet you when you came to my house to visit me.I thank you for providing me with health drink, chocolates and other groceries and a pair of sandals for myself. I really enjoyed to go shopping with you and have delicious food. I loved the biryani very much. We have also purchased a mixer-grinder that we really needed. I thank you for the useful gifts and for visiting us. My family and I send you lots of love. 
Your loving child
Kulsum"
She is growing into a beautiful lady now and can converse much freely than last time. Her sister too conversed freely and I had a great time with them.. Hopefully I will be able to see them again next year :)
~ChEeRs

Double joy from Kulsum!

And so I am back after a long vacation, and to my surprise there were three letters from CI. I always love the letters in bulk. Especially when they are from the same kid. I got two letters from Kulsum within a space of a month. Not sure how. But I am not complaining :)
So here are the two letters.
First one - 
"Dear Mr Sukumar,
Hello! My family and I are fine here. I hope you are also well. I thank you for fulfilling all my needs and my studies are going well. I hope to pass and get promoted from grade 8th to 9th. Our annual exams are now going on and I am doing preparation well for it. I hope to pass with your blessings. I went to my aunt's house in the winter season. I like winter season. I hope to pass to grade 9 with good marks. I hope to hear from you.
Your loving child
Kulsum"
I can clearly see from the above letter how scared she was about her exams. I did see her on my vacation and I can guarantee that she is really interested in studying. She really wants to do well. And that's good. Also got a good news in the very next letter that she did clear (Of course I knew that when I went to meet her :)). So here is the second letter too.
"Dear Mani dada
Hello! My family and I are fine here and I hope you are also well. I have passed my exams and have now been promoted from grade 8 to grade 9. I am able to study so far with your kind support. It is now winter season here and it is very cold in the morning. I went to the park for outings on new year's day. I like to go to my aunt's house in the winter also. I send you my love and wish you a happy new year. I hope to hear from you.
Your loving child
Kulsum"
I was very happy to see the letters. I am always happy to get letters from CI and it was double the joy to get two letters in quick succession. I will soon be updating about my visit too.
~Cheers

Kulsum's letter - August 2013

I received Kulsum's latest letter this weekend. She is one of those sweet kids whom I met and conversed comfortably as she knew Hindi :). Another sweet letter from her...
"Dear Mani,
Hello! My family and I are fine here and I hope you are also well. I thank you for helping me and for fulfilling my needs. I study in grade 8. My first unit test is now over and I will get good marks in all my subjects. Summer has ended here and rainy season has now started. I went to my aunt's house during the summer holidays and enjoyed there a lot. I am now preparing for my  second unit test. I am trying to promote from grade 8 to grade 9.
Yours loving child,
Kulsum"
She is studying real hard. Her mom really understand how hard it is to survive and how important education is for her daughters to get thru. I wish her all the best with her studies and wish her to get good grades. Cant wait to see her next year again :)
~ChEeRs

Kulsum's profile & pic updated 2013

Its that time of the year again... Kulsum's profile pic was updated. I believe it was taken during her b'day SNG. But here it is - 

Also her profile was updated. I know this is a little late. But her favorite subject (language) and favourite pass time (playing with dolls) haven't changed in two years :). She has grown to 4' 11" which is a good thing. 
But not everything is good. Her family income has come down from 132$ to 80$. I believe it is mainly due to the fact that her mom is not working anymore. Also she is still using community latrine. I still can't forget when I visited her. She has one room and a very small area for a kitchen where the kids bathe too. Its a pretty hard life. I am thinking about SNG for her too.. But one at a time. Let me finish with Yulissa and Nicolle. And then to Kulsum.



~ChEeRs

Kulsum's Birthday SNG 2013

It was Kulsum's 15th birthday this March and I had sent her a SNG. I sure hope she had a good time. I finally go the report in April. So here goes :)
So here are some sweet photos and the beautiful letter she wrote - 

"Dear Sponsor,
My family and I are well and hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. With your extra donation we have bought large supplies of groceries, toiletries and health drink for our regular consumption. We have also bought pretty dolls for myself and my sister. Thank you for my b'day cake, it was lovely . Thank you so much for your love and care. Presently I am in grade 8 and I want to become a teacher when I grow up. Now, here the weather is warm and sunny. My family and I send you our love and best wishes.
Yours loving 
Kulsum Parveen"

She also drew a bright red kite in the back... Also her profile picture was updated :)... So a lot of good things. I hope I get to see her when I go to India again sometime next year.

~ChEeRs

Kulsum's set of letters - Backlog and latest from 2013!

As is the case for Suman, I am still trying to catch up with the Indian letters. There are 3 letters from Kulsum that I am yet to catch up with... So without further a do - 
The first one was around Apr 2012 - 
"Dear Mani
Hello My family and I are fine here. I hope you are also well. Thank you for your love and care. I study in grade 7 and like to read English. My first unit test is over. I hope to get a good result. I wish to study and become a teacher. It is now summer season here and very hot. Sending you lot of love and awaiting your reply.
Yours loving child
Kulsum"
The second letter was around October I guess. I had already visited her by then and was back from my vacation. Here it is- 
"Dear Mani
Hello! I am fine here and hope you are also fine. Thank you for your love and care. I study in grade 7 and like to read. My 4th unit test is over and it went very well. My final exam will be held soon and I am now busy preparing well for it. I wish to study and become a doctor. My favorite subject is English. It is also rainy season here. I like having bath in the rain. I miss you a lot. With love.
Yours loving child
Kulsum"
And finally I am catching up with 2013... I got a letter from Kulsum last week :)
Just a reminder that I started sponsoring her for my friend and we had so much in common that I told my friend to sponsor another child :)
Did I ever tell you that she has an amazing handwriting? It is a shame that I can't read Urdu. Even in her drawing, she has written something in Urdu, which is not translated.
The third letter - 
"Dear Mani,
Hello! We are all fine here and hope you are all also well. I was very happy to get your card and stickers and liked it very much. My final exam is over and it went very well. I hope to pass to grade 8 with good marks. It is now winter season here and it is very cold. My family and I send you our love and regards and best wishes for Christmas and new year!
Yours loving child,
Kulsum"
She had also drawn a house and written something. But I have no clue what it means. If any of you out there knows, what it means, help me :) The drawing - 

~Cheers

Kulsum replies - Feb 2012

I was looking at the mails from CI and I realized that I had missed to update a reply from Kulsum. It was a very short and sweet letter. You might recall that I had started sponsoring her for my friend. But I do all the communications. So I might as well say she is my kid now :P. Without further a do, her sweet letter - 
"Dear sponsor,
Hello! My family and I are fine here and I hope you are well. I got your lovely letter and enjoyed reading it. I like to study and my studies are going well. I have been promoted to grade 7 this year and I am very happy. It is now winter season here and very cold. My family and I send you our love and I hope to hear from you.
Your loving child
Kulsum"
There was also a neat coloring of a flower on the other side of the letter. She just celebrated her birthday few days back (march 10th). I have sent her a SNG for that and I cant wait to get the photos :). I am planning to reply after that.
~ChEeRs

Happy Birthday Kulsum

Today is my sweet Kulsum's birthday. She has turned 14 now. I actually sponsor her for a friend. But I do all the communications and also find a lot of things common between the two of us :). I am scheduling the blog to align in order. But I am late to update. I have already sent her the SNG for her birthday. I just cant wait for the photos now... I wish her the best of her birthdays and may god bless her...
~ChEeRs

Kulsum's educational Report

While this is also one of those catch up posts, I certainly missed this out of carelessness than anything else and saw it pretty late. My bad... So I had inquired for education reprot on Kulsum... If you remember she is sponsored for my friend... But we have a lot of common interests :) So without further a do her educational report - 

On the child's school and infrastructure - 

The child's school is a three storied building made of brick walls with concrete floor and roof. The school has proper sanitation, drinking water facilities and electric connection. It also has a courtyard which is often used as a playground by the students. 

Approximately 600 students attend her school. She goes to school by walk. She studies in grade 6.

Her overall grades are supposed to be 'Fair' while her educational progress seems normal. She is already going for tution which is supported by the family it seems. She likes to study Urdu and English. 

She definitely plans to continue her education and her family is supportive of completing her education.

Now that is a good thing to hear. And I had already requested them on the amount that the family is spending on tuitions as I thought I could help them with that. I got the reply for that too. They have already paid for the current school year and the next one is requried by March. I should be able to take care of that without any issues. So that s it with the updates. Let me see if I get anything more :)

Finally, Welcome letter from Kulsum

My friend might almost kill me for this late update. It has been more than a week since I got the letter. Though it was after quite a delay, as I always say, it is worth it.
I finally got the welcome letter from Kulsum. It really looked like ages and I guess it indeed was. While her letter was super sweet and definitely her hobbies and likes match with mine, the translation and the whole letter gives a look of hurried work. It might just be the translator's cursive handwriting or the delay which might make me think that. So without further-a-do -
Dear Mr ####
Hello! I am fine here and hope you are also fine. I welcome you to the sponsorship program and I am very happy to have you as my sponsor. I study in grade 6 and love to read (I really think I get the studious bunch and I like it too). My first and 2nd unit tests are over and I have done well in them. I am now busy preparing for the 3rd unit test. (I love when kids use the word busy. It really shows how serious they are!) It is now the end of summer season here and soon it will be rainy season. I like to get wet in the rain. (Hey I love it too!) I love to eat mangoes (Every single friend of mine knows how crazy I am about mangoes!)
My family and I send you our love and regards and I hope to hear from you.
Your loving child
Kulsum

As I said, the translator's handwriting might have made it look it was hurried but her handwriting was as clear as pearls. It is shame though I can't understand Urdu. I will soon upload the pic with her handwriting. I really enjoyed reading this letter. One for the obvious reason that it was from kid and it was sweet. The second reason I love these letters from Indian kids is that the translator's handwriting. It feels so good to see some handwritten stuffs. Working in front of the computers for years now, I can't remember when I last used a pen seriously apart from signing for my bills :) Even though she is sponsored for my friend, I already feel like a bond forming as she has similar likes as mine :) Hoping to see more letters soon.
ChEeRs

Welcoming Kulsum!

Kulsum is my fourth kid. Technically she is added in my account, but unofficially she is sponsored by one my wonderful friends. The best thing you can do in these cases is spread the word and hope more ppl pitch in to help the kids in need. I was satisfied when my friend volunteered to sponsor a kid. But yeah, he is lazy to fill in the details and create a new account and said he will use my account instead. He also wanted to sponsor an older kid. When I pushed him to call CI himself, he kinda asked me to select from the website instead. I did like to add that he is a lazy goose yet again (for my satisfaction). And so I selected this charming young lady - Kulsum

Kulsum is 13 years old. Thankfully she is still attending school. Her favorite subject is language and she speaks Hindi. (I am ok with Hindi and hence I can communicate with her easily :)). Her favorite pass time is playing with dolls just like any other girl I guess. She is interested in drawing and she washes the dishes at home. She lives with her parents. The family income is a meager 132$ and that is so because both their parents work. Dad is a brick layer and mom is a daily worker. She has a beautiful sister Rukaiya, who is 11 years old. I have no idea if she is sponsored or not. Maybe in future I will sponsor her. She just has one multi-use room and a kitchen for a home. The house is of brick walls, tile roof and concrete floor. They have an earthen stove. There is only one bed and I believe Kulsum and her sister shares it. Though electricity is available, the water is from a public storage cistern and they only have a community latrine. I really hope the sponsorship could improve their living. I know my friend will do everything in his power to help. God Bless...
Peace...