A proud advocate at a young age. Photo by Aliana Gimena, InterAksyon.com.
At the age of 13, a young girl has selflessly opted to share her blessings to other people, especially children. For this girl, age did not stop her from helping and touching another child’s life.
Meet Chloie Lauryn D. Uy, a grade 8 student from the Immaculate Conception Academy. Apart from being a student, Chloie is an advocate of World Vision, a non-government organization dedicated to working with children, families, and communities to overcome poverty and injustice in the country. One of the major works of this organization is child sponsorship and Chloie is one of the youngest child sponsors of World Vision Philippines.
Chloie was 10 years old, a grade 4 student back then, when she started to sponsor a child.
In an interview with Interaksyon.com, Chloie shared the reason behind why she decided to help by sponsoring and sending a child to school: ”Before I sponsored, there was a part (of me) where I wanted to help somebody and then suddenly I saw my mom holding this progress report card and on the front page there was a kid and I asked her what it was about. She told me about World Vision and its purpose. Finally, I taught that this was my chance to help so I told my mom that I wanted to sponsor a child as well.”
For more than three years already, Chloie has been able to send her sponsored kid to school and help the kid’s family and community as well.
Besides being a young advocate, even more inspiring is how Chloie raises the funds to send her sponsored kid to school. Unlike other “parents” who simply put the child sponsorship work under their child’s name and simply pay for the monthly donation, Chloie had an arrangement with her parents so she could have the money to give to World Vision.
“I do work and they (my parents) pay for my sponsorship. I started by doing ‘work’ like bringing and cleaning all the dishes and plates after we eat dinner to the kitchen. And then as I grew older, I started doing the payroll of our office workers,” Chloie revealed on how she was able to sustain her sponsorship to an indigent 13-year old kid.
Chloie’s mom, Mrs. Eliza Uy, also shared in the interview how they came up with an arrangement. Mrs. Uy relates, ”Actually, it started with an agreement that when our kids become honor students in school, we award them with a gift. They usually choose what they want and it came to the point that when we go to the toy section, particularly, parang wala na siyang (Chloie) gusto. Then suddenly, she learned that I have a sponsored child so she said, ‘What if instead of giving me gifts if I get an honor in school, you give me the money and then I’ll give the money to World Vision?’”
But the arrangement did not end there. ”Then later on, we found out that it’s so easy for her to earn the money. We wanted her to feel she really worked hard to get the money for the sponsorship. That’s when we started giving her chores sa house like clearing the table and washing the plates.” Mrs. Uy said.
Chloie with her major inspiration- her mom. Mrs. Eliza Uy is also a child sponsor for more than 10 years already. Photo by Aliana Gimena
Though Chloie’s family is very blessed, her parents wanted to inculcate to their children that life isn’t about luxury and not everything is given on a silver platter. They wanted their children to have a better perspective in life by letting their children know that giving feels a lot better than receiving material things.
Mrs. Eliza Uy added: “Sa school, may assignment sila that involves telling something about your life line. Yung classmates niya talked about going abroad or the way they would celebrate their birthday. She said her life line is about World Vision.”
Though Chloie has not met her sponsored kid yet, both write letters to each other regularly. Chloie also receives a report card on how her sponsored kid does in school. “I feel happy because I always see her progress in school and how she does. I’m really happy because I also get inspired to study harder since I know that I am helping somebody.”
The commitment of child sponsorship ends when the sponsored kid finishes high school. Few years from now, Chloie will feel proud that she became part of the child’s success. When asked if she still wants to sponsor another kid, here’s what the young advocate has to say: “Yes. I believe that helping is not once, I think you can help a lot of times.”
• If you want to know more about Chloie’s advocacy and want to be part of it , you may visit World Vision Philippines’ website: http://worldvision.org.ph/
