Kanika's set of letters - Backlogs, updates and more! :)

So.. Yet again... I am still catching up.. But this is the last of it... Got a lot of updates from Kanika.. A letter from last year, A SNG reply and a new letter this year.. Lets start with the letter from last year... This was after my visit to her place - 
"Dear Mani
Hope you are well. I am fine. My family also fine here. It is autumn season here. My programmes are held in our place. Durga puja is near. I will get new dress from my parents during puja. School will remain closed before puja. Pandals are built in our locality for the puja and idol as Goddess Durga are brought. I accompany my parents and friends for pandal hoping.  I enjoy a lot during the puja. I convey my love and thanks to you. I pray to God for you.
Yours
Kanika"
The second letter is the reply for the SNG i sent for her birthday. And here is why I really like this kid. All she got for her b'day was 8 months of private tuition and a woolen cardigan. Guess what she wanted for last b'day - School bag. And do you know what she wanted when we met her? Not a single toy. All she wanted was a school uniform.
I am amazed at her dedication and her priority for education above all other things kids her age crave for. I really hope she does well in her exams. Please pray for her.

Child's comments - I am happy to be provided with tuition support for my studies which I really needed. I thank you sponsor for your care.

Her SNG letter had this to say - 
"Dear Sponsor
How are you? My family and I are fine. I study in grade 10. I am very happy to have a sponsor like you. I am doing well in studies. With your financial assistance I will be provided with 8 months of private tuition support and that will be really beneficial for my studies. I have also purchased a cardigan which is keeping me warm in this winter season. I thank you for the useful gift and for taking care of my educational needs. I end with love and regards to you. 
Yours lovingly
Kanika"
What's SNG without photos... Here is one from the reply - 

And the final letter which I got recently (last week)
"Dear Mani
How are you? I am happy to get your letter. I am well with my family. My brother and I have passed. I have been promoted to grade 10. I will study more sincerely and will try to get good result. Thank you very much for your best wishes and greetings for my b'day and New Year. When you will visit India, please come to my house. Stay well. With love and thanks
Yours 
Kanika"
That's about it for the letters and finally they are all done. I promise to be more regular with my updates going forward.

Kanika's updates - 2012

I was happy to receive the progress report on Kanika. She is 18 now (you guys should know that she celebrated her birthday on Jan 20th). She has gained height by a couple of inches and is now at 4' 11". She weighs around 88 pounds. I guess it should be fine. Both her parents are working actually but the increase in income is very little. It has increased by a couple of dollars to 85$ on an average. Kanika is still attending school and is in her last year of sponsorship I believe. The good thing is that some amount has been sent for the IGP only last month. Hope it increases their income to some extent. Can't wait to get more updates... :)
~ChEeRs

Kanika's new photo- 2012

Fnally, I got Kanika's new photo... It is generally updated in Jan... This time I realised they had changed it only after I got the hard copy. Kinda confused, I checked the site and I figured it was updated... I don't know why the thumbnail in her record was not updated. It is still showing the old photo. But once you go in to the album, there is a new picture. Maybe there is some issue with the site, I am not sure, But I guess if anyone thinks their child's photo is long due, they might wanna check inside the album as the profile doesn't get updated. Anyways, I am late to update it as usual... But I am super happy about it... She is 18 yrs old and is in her last year of sponsorship... I have already sent her the amount for IGP and waiting for the reports now... Hope everything turns out good... I know it has been a very short time that I have been her sponsor. But I always wanted to sponsor an elder kid and I am happy I did... I hope I am able to make some difference in her life... I so wish...
~Cheers

Kanika's Birthday SNG - 2012

As you all know that my sweet Kanika's birthday was on the 20th of Jan, I had sent her SNG and got the reply and photo back. The report said that they got a steel almirah and  school bag for the kid.The kid had commented - "I am happy to be provided wit ha school bag and a steel almirah, which are both very useful for me. Thank you sponsor for remembering my birthday"
I have hardly seen her smile. And I haven't seen one still. I hope I can get a smile out of her soon. She wrote a sweet letter with a nice drawing on the back.The drawing has a house near a lake with a boat and trees and lots of greenery.. :) The letter is as follows -

"Dear sponsor,
I start my letter with best wishes to you for the New year. I hope you are well. We are all fine. We are very happy that you are sponsoring me. With your financial support we have purchased a school bag for myself and a steel almirah. We are very happy as both the gifts will be very useful for us. We will benefit from the gifts. I thank you for the same. I end with love to you. Please take care. I pray for your well being. Yours lovingly, Kanika."


There is a good chance that I will be meeting her this year... I am all excited about it :)


~ChEeRs

Kanika's IGP request

Kanika is the eldest kid I sponsor and she is in her last year of sponsorship. I had requested about an IGP sometime back and I got the reply. I know I am updating it late... I have already sent the amount requested for IGP. I am waiting on the reports. I thought I did update my blog at least before I get a report... :)
Long story short, the details are as follows...
Dad is a fruit seller and mom is a daily laborer and does embroidery work on clothing items. So they need the following...
Cost of sewing cum Embroidery machine - $184
Cost of Embroidery thread, scissors and other sewing accessories - $20
Cost of a van-Rickshaw - $184
Total - $388


Also Kanika is doing her grade 8 now (I wonder why only now. I might need an educational report)... And they had given the expenses for Grade 9 and 10... The kid wants to finish her schooling at least till 10th for sure (which is a good sign), but not sure after that (which is not so good a sign). I understand that they might be thinking about marriage and stuffs. But for now, she wants to do at least till 10th and I wanna make sure she gets the chance to do it. The educational costs are as follows -
For grade 9 - $88
For grade 10 - $174


So the total comes to about $650. And only while writing the blog did I notice the amount correctly. I always thought it was $600 and asked CI to deduct $600. I can be an idiot at times and mess with numbers. I live on a month to month basis. I sure will be adding the extra $50 by next month. With the disbelief still hanging on how I messed up with such an ordinary thing, I hope it helps them for now...


~ChEeRs

Happy Birthday to Kanika

I am so happy to know that today is Kanika's birthday. I wish she gets everything she needs and has a wonderful birthday... Many more happy returns of this super beautiful day. I have already sent a SNG towards her birthday. So the next thing to do is to wait for the pics :-)...
The only sad part of all this is that this is probably her last year with CI as she is 18. So I wanna make this year as special as possible for her. I had already sent an inquiry to CI on the IGPs possible. I have also got the report back. I will start working on that pretty soon too. For now nothing much but wait for the photos and another letter :)
~ChEeRs

Kanika replies... :)

New Year has been very good to me so far (even though it is only first week) :)..
Got a very sweet letter from Kanika a couple of days back. It was rather on New Years Eve I guess. It was a direct reply just like Nicolle's. Of course she is elder. Still, I always like direct replies. She had drawn an apple at the back of the letter. So the letter goes - 
"Dear Mani,
How are you? I am glad to get your letter. My studies are progressing well. I have a younger brother, I teach him. I like to play with my local friends. Kho-Kho is my favorite game. I play kho-kho in school. I wish to do a good job in school future. I remember you a lot. Now it is winter here. We are all well. I like the subject psychology because my seniors told me about that. Please accept my thanks.
Yours lovingly,
Kanika"
This is as direct as it gets. I like that she loves to teach her brother. I had asked about the weather currently and also how come she was interested in psychology. The good thing is that her b'day is just around the corner... And I have already sent the money. So the next wait will be for the SNG reply :) Looking forward to it...

Kanika's first letter

Finally after a while, I got the letter from Kanika too. I got it quite a while back. Not sure how it was missed. I had updated it in LiftOne but missed to update here. Just to refresh, Kanika was my replacement to Sunandita who had left the program coupla months back. Of course she got married and I hope she shifted to a better life. And so Kanika writes 

"I hope you are well. We are all fine. I like to study. I like to play hide and seek. My best friend is Arpita. There is a playground beisde our house and we play there after school. I like to study english. I wish to be a psychologist when I grow up. My family and I are very happy to have you as my new sponsor. I thank you for it. I end with love and regards. Please keep well.
Yours lovingly,
Kanika"
It was just the type of letter I would expect from a matured girl like her. Simple and sweet. There is more to come soon :)
~ChEeRs

Welcoming Kanika

And so I welcome my latest kid. Technically she is latest only for the blog. While I am writing it, already two more kids have been added :)... As you all know of the sad news about Sunandita, she had to leave the program. She had to leave the program because she got married. CI suggests you replacement kids, if any of your current kids go out of the program. Kanika was suggested by CI> I was thinking if I should sponsor her. I was having a couple of group sponsorship in my mind. But then I realised she is also of the same age as Sunandita. She is also still attending school. Here is to hoping that she goes thru with her education (even if she gets married). So without further a do - My newest kid - Kanika

Kanika is 17 yrs old. She was born on 20th of Jan. She is a Bengali and lives with her parents. Her talents are drawing (looking forward to welcome letter for sure :)) and her favorite pass time is to play with friends. She is 4" 9' tall and she does general housework at home. She is attending school which is a good thing and her favorite subject is Languages. I am not sure if it is Bengali or English. She has 3 siblings. Two younger brothers, Bikram aged 8, Karthik aged 10 and an elder sister Sathi, aged 19. Sathi is 19 and she is listed with the family. Not sure if she is studying or not. I will have to inquire and if she does, I think some help can be provided there too.
And now comes some of the sad stuffs. Even though both parents are working, the monthly income is only 74$. Her parents are daily workers. Their house has two multi-use rooms. The walls ae bamboo and the roof is tiled. It is a mud floor but luckily they have wooden beds. Will have to wait for the welcome letter to figure out how many beds are there. They have electricity and latrine. But water is from community faucets. I really believe their house needs some work. I need to check on what is possible. I am just waiting for the welcome letter with more details. I think I will start requesting reports soon. Again, I sincerely hope she is able to complete her education. And hopefully Sathi too, if she is still attending school.

~ChEeRs

Sad News!

A bad day for me. It ends even before it really started. Today to my dismay, I found out that Sunandita whom I have been sponsoring for less than 3 months had to quit the program. She had to quit because of change in location. If you move out of the sponsorship area, CI won't be able to provide benefits anymore. This would mean opting out of the sponsorship program. CI selected her for me after I gave very specific requirements. I wanted to sponsor an elder child who was going to school. She was 17 and the eldest among my other kids. I very recently sent a SNG for her and also got a reply. Definitely it should have been too recent. I know this has happened to others and have read about it. It is not new or unexpected. It does happen at times. Still, only four months into my sponsorship experience and even lesser with this kid, it kinda makes you feel sad when you think about it. I sponsored her so that she can go ahead and finish her studies. Kinda feel bad that it didn't happen. CI has of course suggested a replacement. She is also a 17yr old. It is my choice to take or not. Still, I am thinking, coz, for one, she doesn't seem to be going to school. Two, I am also thinking about a group sponsorship with my best friends. Three, I might just wanna hold back so that I can sponsor another kid whom I select just out of impulse. 4 months into sponsorship and I have already been tempted 6 times. Keeping my fingers crossed. Where ever Sunandita is, I hope she is happy and gets what she wants. And I am hoping this will be the last time a kid goes out of sponsorship before 19 in my group.
~ChEeRs

Sunandita - SNG/ B'day report

I got last week and was a little held up (lazy) and couldn't update earlier. Sunandita was sponsored via phone. While sponsoring her, I also asked the patient representative about her b'day, which she pointed out had just gone by. So I decided it is never too late to send a belated b'day wish... So this was more of a b'day gift than SNG... They bought a steel almirah and a quilt. And the Letter had this

"Dear Sponsor
I start my letter with love. I hope you and your family are well. We are all fine. With the money you have sent me for my birthday we have purchased a quilt and a steel almirah. I am very happy and I thank you for remembering my birthday. the almirah was something that we really needed as we did not have one. Now we can keep our clothes and other important documents in the almirah in a proper manner. This will save them from dust and insects. The quilt will keep us warm in winter. I thanks you for providing me with lovely gifts. I end with regards to you.
Yours
Sunandita"
There were only two photos and both looked the same to me... She had drawn a nice flower at the back of the page which I couldn't take a pic of. Will upload that too soon :) Overall it was a very happy and satisfying day thanks to CI and the USPS. I really like sponsoring these kids. All these letter kinda make my day... And I am loving it :)
~ChEeRs

Welcoming Sunandita!

Sunandita is my third sponsored kid. She was chosen with a purpose. While I chose Suman because I wanted to do something good and Yulissa because I liked her photo more than anything else, Sunandita was chosen entirely for a different reason. By the time I had added two kids, I was going thru the Lift One forum where all the CI donors discuss about a lot of things. One particular discussion caught my attention on how young kids get sponsored easily because they are cute and how the older ones are ignored. This kinda itched me as I just added Yulissa because she was cute. Also it was mentioned that the older kids would need more help as they would be nearing college and they are the ones in need of fund more to continue their education. That kinda got me on the chat with the wonderful Michelle from CI as they don't list the older kids on website (for a reason of course). And so you have it - Sunandita from India.

I asked for a girl from India as I know how bad women education is there. Sunandita is 17 yrs old. Luckily she is still attending school and her favorite subject is science. (Somehow I get the geeks and I like it ). Her favorite pass time is playing outdoor games (I wonder what game would that be) and she is interested in drawing. She is also a Bengali and at home she does general house work and also washes the clothes. She lives with her parents and her dad is a daily worker. She has a sweet sister, Mamata, aged 15 and wonderful brother, Subrata, aged 11. She has obviously been sponsored before as I see a lot of photos for her. Their house is pretty similar to Suman's. Two multi use rooms and a kitchen. Her house is made of brick walls. The roof is corrugated tile and it is mud floor. Luckily she sleeps in one of the three beds in her house. The saddest part is that their family income is just 38$ and the water source is community pump. The electricity is on a regulated use and thankfully atleast they have a latrine at home. I do not have more information on whether her sister and brother are sponsored. Her birthday just crossed by on May 1st and so I have sent her a SNG which is kinda belated b'day gift from me. I am hoping she can continue with her education and get better in life.
Peace...