Posted: 1/24/08
CERI launches child-sponsorship
program in Sri Lanka
By Haley Smith
Baptist Child & Family Services
Three years after a massive tsunami triggered an international outpouring of support for Sri Lanka and opened the door for a Texas Baptist agency to establish that nation’s foster care program, relief funds that had been used to help orphaned children are nearly depleted.
In response, Children’s Emergency Relief International has launched a child-sponsorship program and is appealing for individuals to provide monthly financial support for those orphans.
| Sri Lankan orphans like U. Amasha treasure the photos and letters they receive from their CERI sponsors, who make it possible for them to remain in foster care. (CERI Photo) |
CERI began work in Sri Lanka soon after the tsunami struck, eventually setting up a foster care program at the request of a government that historically had rejected similar programs.
In 2008, CERI cares for 172 children placed in foster homes in Sri Lanka.
In addition to children orphaned by the tsunami, an increasing number of children have lost parents because of the reignited civil war.
“Until now, CERI—the international arm of Baptist Child & Family Services—has sustained the Sri Lankan foster program primarily with gifts received immediately after the tsunami and has not needed to request individual sponsorship for each child,” CERI Executive Director Dearing Garner explained.
“Unfortunately, with those funds depleting and an increased need due to war and requests from the Sri Lankan government to receive additional children into the program, an emphasis for individual sponsors becomes necessary.”
CERI offers a $50 per month sponsorship for each child, which benefits an orphan and their foster family. The monthly support makes it economically possible for relatives to provide foster care. The money pays for food, clothes and schooling for the sponsored orphan, as well as monthly training for the foster family on parenting, communications, money management, and health and hygiene.
Each child and family in the program is assigned one of 12 case workers in Sri Lanka who then follows the child and foster family to ensure proper care and a loving environment. That includes making sure a small portion of the monthly disbursement goes into a savings account for the child for future education or vocational training.
Sri Lankan sponsors also have the opportunity to write and send photos to their sponsored orphan, as well as receive reports from the child.
“As the need for sponsors for orphans in Sri Lanka grows greater, CERI is looking for God’s people to answer the call,” Garner said.
To find out more about the CERI sponsorship program for Sri Lanka and to begin a sponsorship, visit www.CeriKids.org or call (281) 360-3702.
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