Today’s blog post has been a long time coming! Why? Because it was the first time Secia had a blog post interview of her very own. She was joined by fellow S4P staff member Camila, who served as translator. That was a good thing, since the person writing this understood approximately every 20th word in Spanish!
Together, this dynamic duo shared what goes into giving and receiving sponsorship letters. Spoiler alert: It’s a LOT!
“The sponsorship letters are very important (muy importante),” Secia explained, “because they are the way the kids and their sponsors are able to relate to each other.”
The children send letters to their sponsors three times a year. If that doesn’t sound like a big deal, let’s break it down.
Three times a year, letter questionnaires are created and delivered to approximately 2,000 children at 32 different locations. Teachers then have three weeks to help the students complete the questionnaires. After that, someone from S4P returns to all 32 locations to collect them. Secia, Kirstin, and the translators then sort through the mountain of paperwork.
And that’s just the beginning!
Each of those 2,000 letters must be processed. Someone (usually Secia or Kirstin) matches each child’s name to their sponsorship number and sponsor’s name. Then, every letter is painstakingly translated, and the original is stapled to its translated version. A huge shout-out to Camila and everyone else who helps with the translating!
Sponsors receive letters for backpack season, general greetings, and Christmas. As you might imagine, all this takes time.
In the past, sponsors didn’t receive their Christmas letters until March. This year, the children wrote their Christmas letters in June! Processing the letters takes approximately a month and a half. The good news? The translated Christmas letters will be mailed this month, meaning sponsors should receive them in time for Christmas.
Now, let’s do a little math.
If it takes a month and a half to process 2,000 letters, and the children send three letters each year, that adds up to four and a half months devoted just to processing letters from children to their sponsors.
And that doesn’t include the time spent creating those adorable questionnaires, delivering them to 32 locations, and returning three weeks later to collect the completed letters.
Guess what else that calculation leaves out?
The sponsors write to the children, too! Those letters must also be processed, translated, and delivered. Remember that spoiler alert? We weren’t kidding. It really is a LOT!
But there’s a reason the S4P team puts so much time and care into this process.
“When the children send or receive a letter, it’s not just a card to them,” Secia emphasized. “We do this because of the importance to the children and their sponsors. We know that receiving a letter and photos from a sponsor is a way of building a connection between sponsor and child.”
For the children, those letters are an opportunity to get to know the people who care about them from far away. They’re excited to learn about their sponsors’ daily lives. They ask about their work and their children, and they love receiving pictures that help them put faces to names and feel connected to their sponsors.
And that makes every bit of the work worthwhile.
“That’s why it’s all worth it,” Secia said. “I see their happy faces and how much joy they receive from one letter.”
Secia has a challenge for sponsors: Make it a goal to write at least two letters to your sponsored child each year. Send one at the beginning of the year, which also marks the beginning of the child’s school year, and another at Christmas.
Ask your sponsored child questions. Answer the questions they’ve asked you. Share a little about your life, your family, and the things that matter to you. Include photos when you can.
It may take the S4P team months of work to get those letters where they need to go, but the joy a single letter brings to a child is something you can’t measure in hours or paperwork.
Your letter is more than a piece of paper. It’s a connection, a reminder that someone cares, and a relationship that grows one message at a time.
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