Real People | Real Stories

A couple months ago we wrote about Shanta. Amy wrote, “…she really gets it!” –meaning that Shanta seemed to sense that being part of our film might have a bigger effect on her life than just the several days’ interruption us and our cameras made.

On our first day with Shanta, as we had with most of the other girls, we noticed that along with the pop singers and movie stars she had on her wall–there were snapshots from America. We suspected (and she confirmed) that these Friendly, nondescript looking foreigners on her wall were her sponsors. 

We looked a little closer, and–well I was actually reminded of this story a couple days ago when I ran across this posting on a stranger’s blog…. Read down a little and you’ll pick up the thread of this story (then come back here, cause it’s not over.) 

Or, if you can’t be bothered to click through, long story short: the sponsors are the parents of Chris F. a friend we knew when we were teaching in Ecuador. And we knew because we saw our old colleague in the pictures. 

In this photo, Chris is in the snap of people on the stairs, next to the older couple (his parents) dancing. You can click on it then zoom in to view in more detail.

Our email to Chris was in hopes of letting his family know the girl they sponsor now knows not just one, but two random (and randomly connected) sets of Americans. And Chris’s cousin, Suzanne (who’d set in motion Chris’s mom’s sponsoring Shanta by telling stories of the time she spent with ‘her’ sponsoree girl on a trip to Nepal)… well naturally Suze got wind of the chance encounter, and that’s how it came to be posted on her blog.

Well, when I came across this post on Suzanne’s blog, I made a comment, and she happened to be traveling through Seattle. She had a few minutes between the bus and the train, and we met up at a coffeeshop downtown.

I brought her a picture of Rakshya, the girl she sponsors, from a day we spent filming some of the graduates doing mentorship and tutoring in a school. This is actually a remarkable and wise aspect of the Little Sisters Fund program, but I’ll save that for another post.

We had a great conversation. Right here and now I want to invite anyone who sponsors a girl through the Little Sisters Fund to drop us a note. Chances are pretty good we met and photographed the girl whose education you’re supporting. We would love to meet you and deepen the connection, as we did with Suzanne and Rakshya and Shanta and the Friendly family.