Suman Replies - May 2014

I am actually on such a backlog that I have two mails from Suman unanswered. One before and one after the visit. I received this one along with Kulsum's reply. So without further a do, Suman's latest reply.
"Dear Sponsor,
I hope you and your family are well. My family and I are fine. It was a pleasure to meet you when you came to visit me. I keep remembering the day. It was your second visit to my house and I was delighted to meet you once again.  I liked all your gifts, but the toy car was the best. (I still remember his super cool smile with that car). I will use the color pencils to draw pictures that I like. I thank you for the gifts. I would love to meet you every year. I will study attentively. I thank you once again for taking your time off to visit me and for lending me all your support. I end with love and regards
Yours lovingly 
Suman"
I have made no secret of how much I am a fan of his drawings. And I got another great drawing from him. It always makes me happy :)

~ChEeRs

Suman Replies - April 2014

I am again late on updating letters. So I got a letter from Suman recently after the visit. It was great to get another letter from him... I couldn't talk much to him during the visit as I didn't know Bengali. It was a festive letter :)
Here goes the letter 
"Dear sponsor,
How are you? I hope you are well. We are all fine. I am studying in grade 5 and I am studying attentively. Soon we will celebrate Holi festival (festival of colors). My family and I play Holi and we all enjoy it. We all put colored powder and water on each other and play Holi. The weather is very nice at this time. Flowers like Simul and Palash bloom at this time. The sweet voice of the Koel is heard from the trees. If you come to our country at this time you will like it. The festival is celebrated throughout India. My family and I are very happy to receive all your support. We thank you for the same. I end with love and regards. 
Yours lovingly
Suman"
It was a very descriptive letter about the season and the festival and I can't wait to get back to India again. Hoping for it very soon. Waiting for more lovely letters

~CheErs

Suman's Update including new photo :)

I got Suman's new pic and an update about him. He has definitely grown from when I saw him last time. 

So here is the latest update on him. He has grown 4 feet 1 inches. He still loves playing cricket. (All the kids always do :)). His hobby is drawing and I still remember his amazing drawings. He has got an amazing talent there. His fav. subject is writing. He actually started writing late. But good to know that it is his fav. subject. 
Now on to his family details. The family makes around $83 a month. That is down from $170 in the last update. But I totally believe it was a mistake then. They were earning $66 the year before and it suddenly jumped to $170 and now it is back to $83. It is still hard with 4 siblings to also look out for. The water source and the sanitary facility is still from the community sadly. They do have a bed but that is one big bed for the whole family and that takes more than half of their room. Got his recent reply from the b'day SNG I sent. So more updates to follow soon :)
~ChEeRs

Suman's latest reply Sep - 2013

Got Suman's latest reply just last week. A letter from him has been due for sometime now. One of the first kids I decided to sponsor, he always has a special place in my heart :). Also he is celebrating his birthday later this month :) Here is the sweet letter he wrote..
"Dear Mr...
I am very happy to write to you after a long gap. Hope all of you are well. We are well. Now I study in grade 4. I like to go to school. Our school teachers are very  good. They love me. And I also like them. Please write me about your school (I did not tell him I am in a school :) and I am not :P) Thank you very much for your help.
Yours lovingly
Suman"
I didn't get any drawing this time around. But let me tell you that he is an amazing artist... When I saw him couple of years back, he had a note full of amazing drawings :)

~ChEeRs!

Suman's set of letters - Backlog!

I am just catching up with my Indian letters. It is like I am almost biased towards Nicolle and Yulissa that I haven't updated the Indian letters for a while. I am just catching up - 
The first letter is from Apr 2012. I will have to tell you that I don't get letters that frequently as I am used to from Mexico. 
"Dear Mani
I am feeling glad to write to you after a long time. It is spring now. The weather is very pleasant. Different kinds of seasonal flowers blooms in this season. We can also hear the sweet song of the cuckoos in spring. Bengali New Year day will be celebrated after few days. It is day of joy for the bengalees, schools and offices remains closed on this day. My school also remains closed. I am extremely thankful to you for your help.
Yours
Suman"
There was one more letter in 2012. It was after my vacation. It had come sometime in October (before his b'day SNG). Here s the second one :)
"Dear Mani
Hope you are well. I am quite well with my family. I read in class 3. The worship of Goddess Durga will start soon. This is our greatest festival. My parents, uncle, maternal uncle and relatives buy new dress for me. Every afternoon I go out with my parents and make(have) lot of enjoyment all together.I visit many deities and ride on swing. The festive days are spent in merriment. Thank you very much for helping and supporting me. 
Suman"
Surprisingly he has started to write very late. There were a couple of letters in between where he wrote one and then someone else wrote for him later. But good news is, that the last few letters have been from him (or from an adult who has a very bad handwriting :P).
I am hoping I can see in a year again ...
~Cheers

Suman replies (January)

I should have updated this a month back. I got this in Jan itself. Another sweet mail from my first sponsored kid Suman... And the letter goes - 
"Dear Mr Mani
Hope you are well. I and all are well at home. We are having puja holidays. I have enjoyed heartily with my friends this year.I had got four garments. I have seen many idols of Goddess Durga. We had lots of fun. Thank you very much for supporting me so long. I pray for your well-being. 
With my love to you
-Suman"

There was a very nice flower drawn by connecting the dots and also he had colored it beautifully. They had asked him on what he likes about CI center and he had selected School, health center, Playground and Garden...
This was a short yet sweet letter... it is great to know that he had fun during the puja holidays and had a great time with friends. CI letter always remind me on how important the smallest things in life are and I am so grateful that I got a chance to sponsor such an amazing kid...
~ChEeRs

Suman's New Pic

Yipppeee....You would remember that they had updated the wrong photo for Suman a few days back. I called up CI and they promised to look into it. They confirmed that it was not Suman and promised to update as soon as the can. And voila, when I logged into the CI account today, I see the new picture. The good news is that he does not have that bandage above his eyes which was in his latest SNG. I was worried about the wound. He seems super fine... I have got a couple of other CI updates too on the way... Should get everything sorted out this week :)





~ChEeRs

Suman's new pic... Really???

I logged into my children's account in November after Suman's birthday knowing very well they will update his profile pic. And just as I expected, they did change the profile pic. But I couldn't believe what I saw. I could have sworn anywhere that the pic I was seeing was not of Suman. Have a look for yourself...

That to me is definitely not Suman. Except for the eyes I couldn't see a single similarity in the photo. Even that was starting to look different when I started comparing his recent SNG pics. I have already asked the CI representative to have a look into it and update his photo. The rep on call also accepted that it just did not look like Suman at all and promised to get back to me with the details. 


UPDATE:- The CI representative sent me a mail the next day and confirmed that it was not Suman and said they will upload his new pic as soon as they can.


~ChEeRs

Happy Belated B'day Suman

I should apologize. I should have posted it long back. I missed it. And since then I couldn't update anything about CI in my blog. Luckily I was able to update (albeit late) in L1 atleast. Suman's birthday was on 31st October. A very belated birthday wish to him. I was plain lazy and slow and hence couldn't update sooner.
Actually I even got the SNG reply I sent him for his birthday. Although I was a little unhappy that there was no mention of his birthday in the SNG reply, a wonderful CI representative eased my mind confirming that the memo stated that the SNG be used for Suman's birthday. They got a steel almirah and some cooking items. I also got a couple of photos from him. I am not posting the pic for the only reason that he was hurt and had a bandage above his right eye. It seems he got hurt while playing with friends. So here is the reply I got from the SNG -
"Dear Sponsor,
I send you my regards for the Durga puja festival that we celebrated recently. I hope you are well. We are all fine. With your financial support we have purchased a steel almirah, rice, cooking oil, sugar, noodles and candies. We are very happy to receive these useful gifts. They will be beneficial for us. I study in grade 2. I hope to do well in my studies. I thank you for you generous support. I end with love. 
Yours lovingly
Suman"
So that is it with the letter. There were a coupla drawing in that report which I will try to upload later if possible.  It was more of a colorin than drawing actually. Just waiting for his updated profile pic now.

Suman - Updated Family record

Yipeeeeeeee! To my joy today, I found out that Suman's family record is updated. Although most details remain the same, I am not sure about the height, weight as I don't remember exactly how it was before. Right now he is 3'9" and weighs around 37 pounds. But here comes the good news. His previous family income was just 66$. But in the updated report it is about 170$. That is definitely a good increase, considering it is almost tripled. Now I am not sure if anybody else contributes to the income, coz it was only his father working back then too. These are some of the times I wish they could add last update date in the main account page. That way it is easy to figure out whose data has been updated... Either ways it was super cool and I was super happy to know this. This whole week has been kind to me... And guess what... it is my sweet Nicole's b'day tomo... Also welcome letters from Nicole and Kanika are in... Should update it tomo :) Yipppeeeeee!

Suman CP letter - 1

While I was sad that one of my kids had left the program, I was a happy to see another letter from CI. My spirits were lifted a little thanks to that sweet letter from Suman. This is supposed to be the CP letter I guess. Surprisingly, this letter was again written by Suman. I believe the SNG letter was written by him because of the number of items and the uses they were supposed to write. He is still just a kid. Anyways, it was a letter from him. One more thing about this letter was his handwriting. I must say it has improved tremedously (or he should have written it pretty slowly). It was really crystal clear. For some reason, the translation was not printed this time. It was hand written by someone. Luckily I was able to make out the hand writing. So this is what the letter said

"Dear Sponsor,
How are you and your family? I was very happy to receive your letter. I thank you for it. We are all fine. I study in grade 2. I like to go school. I have many friends there. I play with them during lunch break. Please let me know in which city of India you lived?

I would also like to know how you like the country you live in now. I was glad to know that you liked my photo. I thank you for your support. Please keep well.
With love,
Suman"
Reading the letter once again makes me realize this must be the reply to the first letter I sent, even before receiving the welcome letter... This time he had drawn a house and a flower pot in the back of the letter. Anyways, it is great to see a CI mail in the mail box always. I know from whom my next mail will be... Waiting for it. Should get it by next week...
Cheers

Suman SNG Reply

Suman is my first kid and I sent him a SNG as soon as I learnt about the SNG. All I had to do was call CI and they processed it while I was on call... I must say that this was my first SNG. Let me tell you how the SNG works. You can call up CI and ask them for a SNG report and then based on the report you can decide how much you would wanna give. But this would also mean a trip to the family from the CI (which has its own cost) and 6 weeks to get the report back to you. Otherwise, you can just donate the amount to CI directly and tell them to check out the needs of the family. This is faster because they have the money to spend while inquiring the needs. There is no lag in time. You have an option to tell the CI representative what to get, or you can let the family decide what they would wanna do with the money. Any amount above 100$ would get you a reply with photos. Also donations above 100$ would mean it is dispatched immediately and it reaches the family in 2 weeks. I donated more than 100$ and let the family decide what they wanted to do with it.

I got some super cool super smiling photos of him with the SNG report... I loved all the photos. He has such a genuine smile... :). The SNG amount was not that high. But it was another example of how much deep a dollar reaches in India :). The following items were bought as part of the SNG - Rice, Pulses, flour, cooking oil, Sugar, Detergent powder, Biscuits, Health Drink, Tea, Book of rhymes, Coloring book, Bed covers, pillow covers and pillows. And his wide smile reminds me so much of one my own photo when I was a kid showing all my teeth smiling wide :)

I believe that would be his mom and his beautiful sister. I had already inquired and was told that she is also sponsored. One queer thing about the report was the response. While the first CW letter was written by Suman, this was written by his dad. The reason given was that he was not old enough to write. I really wonder how he wrote his first letter and cant write the second one. Of course some forum members have explained that the first letter might have been bad or he might have struggled. So they might have asked his dad to write it. The message was there. I don't care who writes the letter (maybe I do :P ) as long as the kid is happy. Here is what was given in the letter...

Dear Sponsor,
I hope you are well. We all are fine. My son Suman cannot write so I am writing on his behalf. With your financial help, we have purchased large supplies of rice, pulses, flour, cooking oil, sugar, biscuits, health drink, packs of tea, detergent powder, bed covers, pillow covers, pillows and plastic bucket. My son is very happy to receive a coloring book and a book of rhymes. My family and I are grateful to you for the useful gifts and I thank you for the same. I end with regards to you.
Yours,
Suman's father on Behalf of Suman
And I would still stick to my title for Suman, "The kid with the most amazing smile on the planet"...
~ChEeRs

My first welcome letter! :)

Finally... After days of waiting and walking to the postbox, I finally got what I was looking for. My first welcome letter from my first kid Suman :). For those who don't know Suman, he is my first sponsored kid via CI (Children International). It generally takes about 6 weeks to get the welcome letter. And bingo, on the 6th week I got my letter. I believe Yulissa's should be coming anytime soon too. In the first page they had a little fact about India (about Bharatnatyam). In the same page there were two questions to which Suman had answered. What he would like to do on holidays and What is his favorite season?
He likes to play (cricket I guess) and watch television during his holidays and winter is his favorite season. I can understand that as the summer can sometimes be unforgiving. In the second page you have the actual letter from the kid. This may have been written by the kid or by someone in the family or even with the help of a CI representative. But somehow I get the feeling it was written by the kid. You will know when you see it yourself :)

Of course it is the handwriting that made me think it might be from the kid though my hand writing can be worse than that :). Also that I cant read Bengali makes it easier for me to assume that the handwriting is kiddish :D. CI knows I don't understand a word of it and thankfully they also give the translation. Thanks to the benefit of photography, you can see the translation too :)

For those who can't read from the pic -
"Dear Name
I hope you all are well. We are all fine. I am very happy to write to you for the first time. I study in grade 2 and I like to study Bengali. I like to play cricket. There are 8 members in our family. My family and I are very happy to know that you are my new sponsor. I thank you for sponsoring me. I end with love and regards.
Yours
Suman"

One thing I definitely like about the letter is the drawing. A nice house near by the river with trees and flowers near by. Fishers are flowing in groups. A bright sun which is crossed by birds (and I hope clouds or more birds). And a wonderfully colored flower plant near by. This is such a happy drawing and I am so happy for him after seeing this.
As much as I am happy about the letter he had written (it sounds very sweet), I was worried to find out that there are 8 people in the house. He has a sister. The family income is only $66. I really wonder how they are managing. The facilities are also not that great. They use community faucets for water and they also have to use the community latrine. I am hoping something can be done about it. I will be inquiring with CI after a coupla months as I know I will be a little tight with two girls' b'day coming up shortly. I don't wanna end the blog on a sad note.
In the original letter he had written, there was an image of a girl which says "Namaste". He had colored that too wonderfully. Somehow I get a feeling that he is really good with colors. Coz I like them at least :) God bless this child and I pray their situation soon improves for the better.

Peace...

Welcoming Suman!

This is my first trial with children International in making a difference in a child's life. I am happy that I found that amazing volunteer who explained to me about this beautiful organisation. When I signed up, the only choice I made was the country. I wanted to sponsor a kid in India (India is where I am from). And a week later I got the information that I will be sponsoring this wonderful boy SUMAN from Kolkatta. He has the most amazing smile in this planet. Kinda reminds me of a photo when I was a kid. :)

He is 6 yrs old and attends school. his favorite subject is writing, (another blogger on the way folks) and his favorite past time is playing cricket. He is interested in drawing and he is a Bengali. Did I tell you that I started my education in Kolkatta? But I didn't learn any Bengali. He lives with his parents. His dad is a driver. He has one beautiful sister Soma (I am told she is also sponsored, thank the heavens). Their home is of brick walls, concrete floor and tile roof. They have two multi-use rooms. They have a gas stove to cook and the child sleeps on one of the two beds. They also have electricity. The sad part is they use community faucets for water and a community latrine. The whole family income is just $66. I hope I can make a difference in their life for the better. If I can touch one kid at a time, I am sure a change can be made. Suman's photo reminds me of myself. I sure would want him to grow better in life and make us all proud.
Peace...