How one small act can make a difference

We all know that adoption is not for everyone. We also know that adoption also frequently falls prey to the scrutiny of others. Adoption allows us the gift of adding to our family, but only at the loss of their own. Imagine how many lives you could have saved with the 30K you spent adopting? This money could have allowed a dozen or more children to stay in their birth families.Yes. But, unfortunately it's not that easy.

There are fundamental problems with many of these countries that are beyond our control. Most of us can only do damage control and try and pick up the pieces of the devastation brought forth from a terrible reign of government etc.

Many children in Kenya are abandoned and left for dead. Perhaps, if we were able to have gotten to the young, single Mother before the day she gave birth - we may have been able to support her and her baby. But infants are given up for many other reasons outside of poverty. Shame. Babies of incest and rape. Tribal beliefs. Many peoples are sent down the river for all sorts of reasons, maybe it was born with a tooth, or there was a great flood on the day of the child's birth. It is also quite common for a single Mother to give her children up so she will be accepted by a man. Special needs - cleft palate etc. Abuse/neglect - many children are taken from their birth parents because of abuse and neglect.  AIDS - many children are orphaned because their parents died of AIDS.

So you see, it is not as easy as taking that $30K and handing it out to families in need - there will still be babies who need families. But there are families that do stand to be helped and supported by sponsorship. Families that may have been forced to give their children up without sponsorship.

We currently sponsor a 9 year old girl and her family in a remote village outside of Nairobi. With the help of Plan Canada, we will visit her while we are there.

As sponsors, I don't think we are able to fully understand the impact we may have on these families.
A Small Act is an inspiring documentary filmed in Kenya about how one person can make a difference. The ripple effect or domino effect - how one small act can compound very quickly.

A young Kenyan is sponsored as a child by a Jewish teacher in Sweden. This sponsorship afforded him education, which resulted in  a scholarship to Harvard where he became a successful lawyer, who then decides to give back the kindness he once received.

I really enjoyed this movie. If you are a sponsor or contemplating sponsorship, please watch this.