The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Campaign for child sponsors

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 26, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Campaign for child sponsors

Staff Reporter

`Mottukkal' series to be telecast on Star Vijay channel from July 29 A sponsor spoke about how she grew up in a World Vision hostel and later gained enough resources to sponsor a child

SAVING FOR A CAUSE: Actor Pooja at the launch of World Vision's child sponsor campaign. — Photo: R. Ragu

CHENNAI: Pooja just might give up pani puri to save some money to sponsor a child.

The pretty actor on Tuesday said she was seriously thinking of redirecting all unnecessary expenses to sponsor one more child through non-governmental organisation World Vision India.

At the launch of the NGO's campaign to attract more sponsors, the actor said she had been receiving emails and letters about the life of nine-year-old Sowmiya Kumar from the NGO's Gingee Area Development Programme. "All I have been spending is Rs.600 per month," she said.

Another child sponsor Jeyakumari Janet Swamidas spoke about how she grew up in a World Vision hostel and later gained enough resources to sponsor a child through the NGO. According to the organisers, 2,000 children across the country would be windows to developing their respective communities. "We focus on community development through children," said Jayanth Vincent of World Vision.

Director Arun Thomas said cash was never sent to the sponsored child's family. The money collected from various sponsors was used for community development projects through World Vision's field workers. However, the organisers did not present a working model of how this would be achieved at the media interaction on Tuesday. Instead, they organisers focussed on a television campaign featuring the lives of several children to encourage more sponsorship. `Mottukkal' series, said the organisers, would be telecast on Star Vijay from July 29. For details, contact www.worldvision.in/child or call 1 800 425 4550.

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