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Today, Annapoorna from Andhra Pradesh in India is a successful primary school teacher, earning her own income. She`s in a happy marriage that was her choice, and is the mother of a young daughter. She met her husband in an evening computer class.

Child sponsorship helped Annapoorna finish school and become a teacher

“If I had not been supported by ChildFund, I may have ended up as a school dropout, doing agricultural labour and household chores until my parents got me married,” she says.

ChildFund`s child sponsorship program enabled Annapoorna to continue her education into adulthood and complete university. After fulfilling her dream of becoming a qualified teacher, Annapoorna made a conscious choice to return to her village and help her community.

A role model for the next generation

Annapoorna now teaches at a local primary school and is instrumental in helping students with difficulties in mathematics and English. Her goal is to be a great teacher because she was very much influenced by one of her teachers as a young girl. She is also active in a ChildFund-supported children`s club and child protection committee “ and has even helped protect a young girl from a forced marriage.

“I help so many others through my work as a teacher, as a community role model, and as a volunteer leader of a club where children learn about issues like health and child safety,” says Annapoorna.

Explore Annapoorna’s community with our interactive video

Recently, a team of filmmakers, along with ChildFund staff members from India and the USA, travelled to meet with Annapoorna for a special purpose: to create a 360-degree video that gives viewers the experience of visiting her village and experiencing her life.

Not everyone has the opportunity to fly across oceans and continents to visit the communities where ChildFund works, but you can watch the video below for the next-best thing: an immersive virtual reality experience!

Sponsor a child, create a better future

Child sponsorship creates better futures for people like Annapoorna. With the opportunity to complete her schooling, she is now a role model for the next generation in her community. Sponsorship gave her purpose, and empowered her to give other children the same gift. You can too. 

Child sponsors begin a partnership with us and their sponsored child. We’re partners in an effort to reduce global poverty, empowering the world’s most vulnerable children with the opportunity to say: “I am safe, I am educated, I am heard and I have a future.” 

Together we can help one child escape poverty. Start the journey here. 

About 25 years ago, when he was a boy, Makeshwar served food at a roadside hotel in the Jamui District of Bihar, India. He was a child labourer, and so was his friend Rajesh, who worked as a kitchen helper. One day, two staff members from ChildFund`s local partner Parivar Sevar walked in, and Makeshwar and Rajesh’s lives changed forever. Once connected with ChildFund, the boys became sponsored, enrolled in school and eventually obtained good jobs. Nonetheless, Makeshwar and Rajesh never forgot where they came from.

Constantly reminded of their past, the young men showed a keen interest in the poverty stricken areas of their district. With continuous visits and research, they concluded that lack of education and an absence of community engagement were the major contributing factors to the conditions of the underdevelopment. Together with two other friends – who were also sponsored by ChildFund as children, they began to organise community meetings and left their own jobs in order to pursue their passion of making a change.

In 1999, the four friends opened a not-for-profit called Samagra Seva, loosely translating to ‘complete service’. Dedicated to helping children and families in their local district, the organisation has since focused on health and education to make a change to the lives of thousands of children. Samagra Seva has developed alliances with several NGOs such as the National Foundation for India and UNICEF, and had their work promoting children`s rights recognised nationally and internationally.

Last month, Makeshwar and his organisation collaborated with ChildFund for the launch of their second phase of the Books, My Friends program €“ to improve the literacy rates of children throughout India. In the first phase, ChildFund donated books and tote bags to thousands of children to encourage them to practice reading for pleasure; the second phase is focused on removing existing barriers to education, commencing with the distribution of solar lanterns to children and families in rural areas without electricity.

Makeshwar and his organisation have already donated 30 solar lanterns to adolescent girls from the Dalit and tribal communities of Juami. They have also made a commitment to provide solar lanterns to 50 more girls in the area.

“Without help, we all would have ended up as daily wage labourers. We will always remain indebted to ChildFund and our sponsors. We have taken a vow, and we will continue to serve underprivileged children and help them live with dignity,” Makeshwar says.

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