|
|
| | A special thank you goes out to Mustafa for sharing his experience and opening up my eyes to this opportunity.
This is Tejay Tating Tolledo:
He's 11 years old and lives in Catanduanes, Philippines. I'm sponsoring him through an organization called the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging (CFCA) www.cfcausa.org. With a donation of $30 a month I'm able to help Tejay with necessities like healthcare, food, clothing, and education. I don't think I could ever make a wiser investment.
I finally sent my first letter to Tejay after a couple weeks of toiling through revisions. Unfortunately, I'm only supposed to write a relatively brief and simple letter that gets translated at the site, so my main message may go unread (or uninterpreted), perhaps indefinitely. Regardless, I cling to the hope that one day Tejay will be able to unfold the papers, read through my words through his own ability, and understand.
This is a copy of the letter I wrote to him, it pretty much sums up how I feel about this sponsorship:
Tejay,
It is both a pleasure and an honor to be your sponsor. I am very thankful for the opportunity to help you and your family. I hope that in time, we can also grow to be friends despite the seemingly vast distance between us.
To introduce myself, my name is Jeremy James Dela Rosa. I was born in Queens, New York, USA. My parents are Rosita and Jaime Dela Rosa, who both came from the Philippines. My mother was from Manila, and my father was from Bataan. I was raised in New Jersey and New York for most of my life, where I was very lucky to have a healthy environment, a good education, and a diverse cultural experience. I consider myself an open-minded person. I am always willing to listen to anything people have to say, and I am always interested in learning and understanding the perspectives of others.
There is so much that I would like to share with you, but I will save some of it for future letters. Overall, I am extremely grateful for the things that I have, and all the opportunities that I have been given. I thank God every day for all the wonderful things in my life, in the world, and throughout the universe. I thank my family, my friends; all of my loved ones for enriching my life, not simply by saying 'thank you', but rather by showing them through my actions that I care about them. In the same way, I choose to show my 'thanks' to God (and everyone) by sharing my blessings with you. I believe that it is my responsibility, my duty, to give you opportunities as I have been given opportunities, because I am not the only one that should have them. I am not a perfect person, I am not even a great person, and I am no more worthy to receive the things I receive than anyone else. I am just someone trying to figure out what is right and just, and I feel that helping you is the right thing to do. I want to make the world a better place, and if this small sacrifice of money will help you even a little bit, then I would consider it an act well worth taking.
Tejay, always remember that the money that I give to you represents more than just the means to purchase the things you need. It represents more than the time and effort it took for me to earn it.
It represents COMPASSION. Everyone should care about the people around them. We can never make a better world until we stop thinking about ourselves and start helping each other.
It represents LOVE. We are all the same people, we are all brothers and sisters, and we should love everyone as we would our closest companions. Whether you are Filipino, Chinese, American, Iraqi, or Russian; or if you are Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, or Athiest; or if you are short, tall, blind, crippled, ugly, or beautiful: the truth is we are all still family.
It represents HOPE. Hope that your life will improve, hope that you will experience the same joys that I have felt in my life, hope that you will grow up to be healthy, wise, and kind. It is my hope that together, we can make the world a better place, one person at a time.
I wish you the best of luck, and I will pray for you and your family. I know that this will be a great experience for the both of us, and I know that I will learn a lot from you. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Your new friend,
Jeremy Dela Rosa
| | | Posted 5/17/2006 11:15 AM - 1 view - 7 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- give stars
- votes0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
|
