All about Joani

All about Joani

Posted by Amber

Since today is Joani's birthday, I thought I'd tell you about her. Joani Rocha lives in Bolivia. She was born on September 3, 2006 and turned 6 years old today. I started sponsoring her on January 11, 2012.

Her student center is the Los Lotes Student Center which is located south of Santa Cruz. At the student center, Joani is educated, receives meals, health screenings, and medical treatment when necessary. She also learns about Jesus and plays with the other children in a safe environment. Los Lotes is home to approximately 8,500 people and the average home is constructed of cement with a tin roof. The most commonly spoken language is Guarani but her tutor speaks Spanish, so I believe Joani might as well.

Los Lotes is a tough place. The regional diet consists of corn, beans, bananas, chicken, bread, cassava, beef, plantains, rice, and potatoes. Common health issues are colds, diarrhea, dengue fever and skin diseases. Most adults work as street vendors or masons and earn about $150 per month. Luckily, the community does have electricity and water, but they need vocational training and hospitals. The region is also recovering from the deadly El Nino deluge in 2007, a rainy season that produced the worst flooding in 25 years and destroyed homes, croplands and cattle.

Joani is such a sweet little girl! Through her letters, I have learned that she likes to draw and play with dolls. She's a shy girl and doesn't talk a lot. She has 3 cats named Poter, Teresa and Poterr. Her parents are married. Her dad is a painter and her mom is a nanny. Here's a list of her favorite things:

Favorite food: Chicken
Favorite color: Red
Favorite activity: Playing with dolls
Best friend: Yenni
Favorite Bible story: Jonas and the whale
Favorite Bible verse: Psalm 34:14 ("Then keep your tongue from speaking evil and your lips from telling lies!")

Here are the two photos I've received of Joani so far:

Whoever is kind to the needy honors God. ~ Proverbs 14:31 (NIV)

About My Family

About My Family

Posted by Amber

Hi and welcome to Sponsoring Love! Let me tell you a little bit about my family. My name is Amber and I've been married for almost 11 years to my high school sweetheart Jeff. We have 2 children - Allison (age 5) and Will (age 2). We live in central Georgia.

A few years ago we began attending a church in our area and learning about how they work with the International Justice Mission (IJM). I liked donating to that charity but as I learned more about helping children, I wanted a more personal way to connect with children in need. I came across Compassion International and in January 2012, we decide to sponsor our first child, Joani.

We chose Joani because she is close in age to my daughter. We wanted my daughter to grow up and learn to give to others and thought this would be a good way to do it. Allison has fallen in love with Joani! She constantly draws pictures for Joani, asks if we can visit her, and asks me questions about her. She doesn't quite understand that Joani lives far away from us because she often asks if we can go to Joani's house. She also wanted to invite Joani to her birthday party.

In May 2012, we decided to expand our sponsorship and sponsor Godfred. Similar to Joani, we decided to pick Godfred because he is close in age to our son. He also had a similar mischiveous smile in his photo. Will is still too young to understand about sponsorship, but he does enjoy helping me pick out little gifts like stickers and coloring pages to send to the sponsored kids.

So that's our story! Feel free to contact me if you have questions about sponsoring a child. Honestly, this is one of the best experiences of my life and I wish everyone could experience how good it feels to help a child in poverty.