Say hello to Promise.  She is a 1^st grader in the Kyalulangira area of Uganda, and our family has been blessed to sponsor Promise since last Spring when her picture got the attention of the boys at the end of a “Step Into Africa” program at a local church.  Thanks to World Vision, Promise’s family has received health education about HIV and AIDS and malaria, which is the deadliest childhood disease in her area, and Promise now has her own treated mosquito net that she sleeps under at night.  World Vision has also built four classrooms and provided furnishings to several other schools in the area so Promise and the other kids in her community can go to school.  Promise is really just like millions of other little girls in the world.  She loves singing and jumping rope and the color pink.  But she also happens to live in a very poor part of the world where access to basic healthcare and education are not easily come by.  Thankfully, World Vision is working tirelessly in Promise’s community and hundreds of others throughout Africa to improve the chances that Promise will have a healthy and happy life, and our small $35 per month contribution plays a role in that. 

Tumelo, the boy in Lesotho we have been sponsoring for several years, and Promise, are two of the people who have inspired me to raise money and child sponsorships for other children in Africa as part of my training activity for the 2011 Boston Marathon.  Would you please consider helping?  A small sacrifice of a little more than a dollar a day for sponsorship can make a huge difference for one of these kids.  A cash donation to World Vision can do the same thing.  World Vision is one of the most financially responsible charities in the world.  Their overhead for management and fundraising is only 11% and the remainder goes directly to the programs that support impoverished communities (http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf/about/why-donate). 

If you would like to make a cash donation, you can easily do so by going to my fundraising page, click on “Make a Donation”, and follow the instructions.  I would like to raise at least $100 for every mile of the marathon for a total of $2,620.  

If you are interested in child sponsorship, even better!  Follow these simple steps to check it out:

1. Visit www.teamworldvision.org.
2. Click on “Make a Donation” in the left menu bar.  [direct link]
3. Click on SPONSOR a child on behalf of an athlete for $35 each month.

At this point you will see a picture of a child and some information about him or her.  You can also use the menu on the left to look for a child you would like to sponsor.  I personally have a really soft spot in my heart for kids in Ethiopia so I’d love it if you pick an Ethiopian child, but you may feel called to sponsor a child from a different country.  Follow your heart!  When you’ve found that kid that grabs your heart:

4. Select “Sponsor Now”
5. Fill out the on-line form and put “Joe Heikes” in the Athlete Name field.

In the end, I don’t really care if I get “credit” for your sponsorship of a child.  The important thing is that you get the joy of sponsoring the child and the child gets the help!  But it would be nice to track my effectiveness in raising support for these kids if you would put my name in that field before you submit the form.  It’s even okay if you misspell it – World Vision said they can sort that stuff out.  The most important thing is to help the kids!

Love and God bless you all.

Joe