As I mentioned last week, I’ll be introducing you to my current sponsor children over the next few weeks. We’ll be meeting them from oldest to youngest. Today, I would like to introduce you to Sakthi.

However, in order to do that, we first have to start with Soumya.

Soumya

Soumya was my second sponsor child and my first girl. She lives near Trivandrum on the southernmost tip of India. I sponsored her for approximately 13 years until she graduated from Compassion’s program at the age of 19. I plan on giving Soumya her own post at a later date.

Sakthi

When Soumya graduated, Compassion sent me another little girl from India for me to consider sponsoring. For me, there was nothing to consider, and so I immediately began my relationship with a little girl named Sakthi.

Sakthi was five years old when I began sponsoring her. In the five years since, she has grown up a lot!

In her most recent picture, which I received this year, Sakthi had traded her Western attire for a traditional salwar-kameez.

I’m not sure when it becomes customary for girls in India to make this change, but I remember when Soumya did the same thing.

Letters from Sakthi are unique as she is the only child I’ve had who writes to me in English. It’s kind of nice, but because she is still so young, and English is not her first, or even second language, I often wonder if she would be able to express herself better in her own tongue.

Her handwriting is improving. That’s fun to see. 🙂

In one of her earlier letters, she answered a questionnaire about her favorite things. Take a look at her best friend’s name.

Isn’t that cool? That just served as confirmation to me that we were meant for each other.

I am looking forward to many more years as her sponsor.

There are many girls in India waiting for sponsors. Perhaps one of them is waiting for you.

~Janet

Compassion.com