The twelfth grade of the Saarbrücken Waldorf School reports...

About three years ago, one of our students had the idea that we could support a child in Africa. Quickly the class agreed that this was a wonderful idea. After reading some brochures, our teacher took over the organizational part and contacted the Friends of Waldorf Education.

After some time we then received information about the possibility to sponsor a godchild at the Hekima Waldorf School in Tanzania. We all agreed that we would not only send money but also wanted to have regular contact with our goddaughter Hope. However, as we unfortunately do not speak the same language, we were very pleased that in her village and her school there were volunteers from Germany, with whom we were able to write regularly. We sent Hope pictures from our class a couple of times, so that she knew who was supporting her and we were always very happy when we received a photo or a painting from her. At Christmas, which Hope does not celebrate in the same way, and for her birthdays, we always sent a little something.

Although Hope lives very far away from us, she is always with us. On the one hand, in our hearts, on the other hand, she has taken up a lot of space on our pin board with photos and drawings!

We learned a lot about Hope's living conditions and family problems. In such moments, it became very quiet in our class. We then realized how much poverty there is in the world and that we should be very thankful for the kind of life that we can live here in Europe.

When our school time slowly came to an end, the sponsorship of Hope was at stake. However, we had taken her into our hearts and we wanted to continue to enable her to enjoy her present life in which she is very happy and totally flourishes. We therefore decided to continue the sponsorship. We hope that through good email communication we can continue to be able to follow Hope's growth, educational progress and experiences and we simply wish her a happy life.

regarding your question, which is why my husband and I decided very quickly and spontaneously to adopt two little girls, Mutheu and Koki as godchildren, I can tell you the following:

We ourselves have a large family - with our children, children in-law, grandchildren, grandchildren in-law and great grandchildren we are 28 people in our family - and therefore we know from our own experience about the needs and concerns of young people. Furthermore, after living in Brazil for 35 years, we know about the consequences they will face if they are not receiving enough attention.

In Kenya, we had to face the almost unimaginable suffering and misery of two little girl sisters (AIDS Orphans, their father had just left them!), who would have had no future without our support. It went without saying for us to give a little more of our “wealth” and thus allow these children to grow up in a friendly and secure environment. An environment, in which they receive healthy food, good education and schooling, and which opens up opportunities for them to find a way out of their misery.

We know that we cannot change the world fundamentally, but we know we can contribute a little bit to make it a better place. Also, we have learned to our surprise that the little extra effort that we invest duplicates manifold and comes back to us in many ways. The joy of children, their heartfelt gratitude, is deeply moving - not to mention the success that one can experience in their development.

Our little Mutheu was an underdeveloped, seriously ill, frightened child and has evolved in less than two years into a happy, hard-working and intelligent girl. Koki was from the beginning an adorable little beauty. She has become an open, alert and friendly girl and has developed greatly in that respect.

I hope that many people will have similarly blissful experiences with future godchildren.

With kind regards, Barbara Bartzsch