Fati.

In 2009 I got the opportunity to go to Sierra Leone in West Africa; there is an orphanage there that contains a school, church and Therapeutic Feeding Center. It takes care not only for the children living in the orphanage but also for the villages that surround it. This is the first time I got to see the effects of sponsorship first hand. The children who are sponsored are well fed, educated and clothed and the children who aren’t are basically the complete opposite. A few weeks after I got home I was reading a friends blog who lived at the orphanage and was heartbroken to read that a three year old little girl named Fati was brought to the clinic in a state of major malnourishment. It was a typical case in which her mother did not know what to do and could not afford to get to the center sooner. Fati was receiving calories on a daily basis but none of them were calories from protein. She stayed in the center for a month while the staff attempted to feed her. They did everything they could with the resources they had but she could not hold anything down. A little after a month’s stay at the Feeding Center Fati died. This is one of those stories that we hope will end with healing and the joy of a child going home healthy with her mother but unfortunately the alternate ending is more common. I am sharing this story because it is one that tugged on my heart when I heard it, it made me angry and that anger turned to passion. I don’t share it to guilt people, but to move them to action. I share it so that maybe Fati’s short 3-year life will mean something. Fati can be a part of saving children like her, her name can represent hope instead of tragedy. I want advocates and sponsors to adopt this story- use it to give people a clear picture of what sponsorship can do. No child should have to go without food, education, basic clothing and medical care, children like Fati can be sponsored and not have to suffer in this way. Stories like Fati’s can drive us and others to make an impact on children’s lives. Help her short life have a huge purpose by sharing this story with the people you know and encouraging them to sponsor and/or advocate for children like her.

This is a photo of Fati a few days before she passed with her mother and the cardboard box was used as her coffin.