Make an impact while planning for your future

Over the course of many international trips, that moment stuck with her. And when a friend mentioned sponsoring a child for an organization called Plan, she was interested in learning more. For Christmas of 1986, she made the decision to become a child sponsor. Her first child lived in the Philippines.

Now, Roberta sponsors two children: Jhonny, 3, from Brazil, and Ngoc, 11, from Vietnam. She’s made a difference in many children’s lives over the years. She remembers another child in the Philippines whose father was a seasonal fisherman. The job wasn’t enough to keep the family afloat. So, the child’s mother got involved in a small cooperative store organized by Plan, and the family became self-sufficient year-round.

Another child, Lap, lived in a modest wooden house when Roberta started sponsoring. But, over time, Plan helped the community and the child’s family learn new skills and flourish. Roberta watched their home transform in photos, from wood to much more stable, safe cinder blocks. Best of all, Lap got a bookcase and a small desk so he could do his homework.

“I saw the impact I was making over the years,” Roberta says.

Because Roberta has endowed one of her child sponsorships, she will provide access to life-changing sponsorship programs for generations of children even after the end of her lifetime. An endowed sponsorship pays the annual sponsorship fees for one child in perpetuity, and as one child graduates from the program another one can be added to take his or her place. In this way Roberta’s impact will continue, child after child, for years to come.

Roberta says that with Plan, you can be confident your contribution is going exactly where you intend.

“You see the progress and the accomplishments, how these families and communities change for the better,” she says. “It gives you great satisfaction to be part of the process.”