Sponsored youth, elders express themselves in art
Juan (left), who has since passed away, sings while another sponsored elder, Francisco, accompanies him on the guitar.
When you support education through Unbound, you’re investing in the dreams of students. Your contribution means children and young adults can continue their education into secondary schools, technical schools or even university programs.
One of the ways we’ve been celebrating our 35th anniversary is by hearing from sponsored friends and staff around the world. We asked them how Unbound has changed them, what their favorite thing about being sponsored is or what greeting they have for us at this milestone. We’ve featured 35 snapshots of our global community over the past several weeks right here on the blog. Check out the final set of snapshots in the series below, and check out previous posts in the series here!
Check out the snapshots
One of the ways we are celebrating our 35th anniversary coming up on Nov. 20 is by hearing from sponsored friends and staff around the world. We asked them how Unbound has changed them, what their favorite thing is about being sponsored or what greeting they have for us at this milestone. We’re featuring 35 snapshots of our global community over the next several weeks leading up to Nov. 20, right here on the blog. Check out the next set of snapshots in the series, and stay tuned!
See more photos!
Yami is a sponsored youth in El Salvador.
For some Unbound families, there are more obstacles to receiving an education than just the cost. For 18-year-old Yami, it has been a struggle to complete her education because her family lives in a remote, mountainous village in El Salvador.
After finishing the 9th grade, Yami temporarily stopped attending school. The nearest high school is hours away, and the transportation cost and distance became too overwhelming for the family.
The trek to the highway is an hour walk or a 40-minute horseback ride. It goes along a deserted path and across a river. On top of all this, it’s not safe for Yami to travel alone, so her father, Jaime, accompanies her.
However, she is determined to finish school.
Maria has been sponsored for five years and has a spirit of serving others — even when she’s not feeling well, she does her best to care for her community members as a midwife.
Maria joined the Unbound community in 2011, when she was sponsored by Gary from Missouri. The support from Unbound has been a great boost to her health and quality of life.
Taste of tradition
Nancy gets ready to enjoy a bowl of mukimo, a traditional Kenyan dish of mashed vegetables, which she makes for her family. Nancy’s 17-year-old son, David, is sponsored through Unbound.
A water barrel belonging to a sponsored family in El Salvador.
By Henry Flores, director of the communications center in El Salvador
The more I learn about people living in poverty, the more I discover how expensive it is to be poor and how their fragile personal economy forces them to face high costs of living and social prejudice.
We all know that the less you earn the more expensive getting credit becomes. You have to pay more in interest for being a “risk” to the creditor, as earning less makes you a higher risk to default on your loan.
Something similar happens to poor people. Most of them don’t have a steady income, so they aren’t eligible for credit, and since they live off daily earnings, they can only make small payments daily. How do you conduct business in such a fragile economy? How do you make products and services available for people in such economic conditions?
Ana Alicia, 68, is a sponsored elder in El Salvador.
If you were to ask Ana Alicia what drives her, at age 68, to stay as active as she is, she would probably tell you it’s the desire to help others.
“My secret for a long life,” she said, “is to pray, to get on my knees and pray to God to grant me life and health to help people.”
Henry Flores, communications center director for Unbound in El Salvador, takes a moment to play with Dulce, who’s sponsored through Unbound in Guatemala. Henry was in Guatemala to help shoot a series of commercials featuring Dulce and her family.
By Henry Flores, director of the communications center in El Salvador
Communications in our day can be challenging. Everything is fast. Many prefer short videos, fast-scrolling in their social media. They get bored with stories with a lot of words.
These same people, however, still appreciate true, honest, life-changing stories from real people, videos that capture the dignity of the person and natural photos depicting the true beauty of the humans of our world.