Child Impact
International is an organization
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that gives hope
and fosters permanent,
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positive change in the lives
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of disadvantaged
children and their communities.
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Countries include Zambia,
India, Nepal, Bangladesh,
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Sri Lanka, and Myanmar.
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Child Impact's
investment in the lives
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of more than 3,500 children
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continues to
yield infinite returns.
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Outreach spans from
child rescue operations
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to providing an education
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and a home for deaf and
blind children and orphans.
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Above all, Child
Impact's sponsors
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give hope to the
ones who need it the most.
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If you were to visit Bangladesh,
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you would see
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that it is a
country rich in history,
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culture and natural beauty.
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But those who live there
have little time to enjoy it.
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Due to economic challenges,
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most of the people
have to focus on working
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as much as they can
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in order to put
food on the table.
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Families with
both parents struggle,
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but if one
parent leaves or dies,
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the rest of the
family suffers even more.
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That is where
organizations like Child Impact
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offer children in
these situations hope.
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Today, we will be
hearing from two people,
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a current student
and a former student
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about the change
that sponsorship has had
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on their lives.
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On our trip to Bangladesh,
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we had a guy that helped
us every step of the way.
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His name was Shohag.
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He helped us find
students to interview
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and would
translate what they said
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when they
couldn't speak English.
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Jim Rennie from Child
Impact sat down with Shohag
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to learn more about him.
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Today, I'm going to have
a chat with Shohag Boidya.
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Shohag is our
sponsorship manager
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in Bangladesh.
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And over the years,
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I've got to
know him fairly well.
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And I can tell you
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that he's a very
committed hard worker.
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But today, we want to find
out a little bit more about him.
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And, Shohag,
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how long have you
been doing this job?
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I am doing now is 11 years.
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Eleven years?
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Wow.
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So let's talk
about your earlier days.
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Tell us about your mother,
and father, and your family?
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So my father is
a mission worker,
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and working in the
Sonapur village school.
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And when I was born that time,
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that village robber
attacked my father and he died.
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And then one of our
pioneer mission workers,
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they took us, me and my
brother to the KKMS Orphanage,
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and I grew over there.
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And as time passed
and after 10 years,
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my elder brother died
in the school somehow.
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That's sad.
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And my mother,
she is young lady,
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and she sacrificed
her life for me to grow up
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and get the education and study.
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And now, this is
our contribution.
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I am here
standing in front of you.
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Wow. Wow.
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It is heartbreaking to
realize that Shohag's past
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is one that most
children in Bangladesh
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are currently living.
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Approximately a third
of the 160 million people
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living in
Bangladesh are children.
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With proportionally fewer adults
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to take care of the children,
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they often have
little hope for the future.
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In spite of
these dire statistics,
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Shohag has been able to
use the gift of sponsorship
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to have a better life.
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And you have a family?
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Tell us about your family?
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Yeah, I have family.
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I have my wife
and my two daughters.
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One daughter is nine years
old and another is five plus.
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Both are growing fast,
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and they are
attending school in Dhaka.
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We live in Dhaka
in the union office.
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Okay.
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Shohag is not the only
person to have his life changed
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for the better by Child Impact.
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While visiting SAMS,
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Jim Rennie got to sit
down with one of the students.
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So we're here at SAMS
Seminary in Bangladesh,
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and today we're going to meet
another Child Impact student.
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She doesn't
speak a lot of English,
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she speaks Bangla
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and I don't speak much Bangla.
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So we're going to ask her
some questions about family
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and what she wants
to accomplish in life.
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So what is your name?
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My name is Sita Mumu.
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Sita Mumu, and how old are you?
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Sixteen.
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Sixteen. Okay.
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So tell me about your family?
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Do you enjoy
being at the school?
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Are you happy at the school?
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Yes.
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Yes.
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And what do you want
to do when you grow up,
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when you get older?
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What do you want to be?
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A teacher, okay, that's great.
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So here's a young
lady that lost her father
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at an early age and
thanks to her aunty,
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she was introduced to the school
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and now the family
have been given hope
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with sponsorship.
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If it wasn't for
her loving family
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and the
opportunity of sponsorship,
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Sita Mumu story
could be very different.
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Children of
impoverished families
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are often sold by their parents
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who hope that they will be fed
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and cared for better
than they are able to do.
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But these children are
rarely in a better situation.
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Most have to live
and work in the streets.
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For girls, they often
start out as domestic servants.
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But as they get older,
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they are forced
into prostitution.
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For poor children in Bangladesh,
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sponsorship is their only hope.
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I just want you to tell me
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how important is
sponsorship to these children?
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This is a really huge
impact on the children.
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You can see, in my life,
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in full of my life
I got the sponsorship.
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And I get
education, and I am graduated.
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Now I'm serving children.
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Same time, children
have three times meal
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in boarding
school, they get education.
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Even this is the big
impact for their families also.
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Some of the parents very poor,
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even they don't
have work every day.
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But most of
them are day laborers
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in different work.
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So this is the big
help and big impact,
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in the child life
and also in their family.
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How many children do you manage?
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We manage over 3,200 students.
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Three thousand two hundred?
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We have four field managers
and I am supervising them.
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And we have big and
small, around 10 partners.
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Right. Yeah.
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Do you know how
many children there are
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in Adventist Mission schools?
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Yeah.
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All of them are
in mission school
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and many of them graduated.
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And some of them get
job inside the church
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and some of them go
outside doing some work
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in the private organization.
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Some are working in NGOs,
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and also some of them working
in government office also.
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So how big is the
school system in Bangladesh?
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It is a big school.
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We have seven
boarding schools, like SAMS,
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and including one college,
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and we have around
100 village schools.
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Hundred village schools?
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And we in total we have
more than 7,500 students.
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Also we have 11
Adventist Mission schools
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around the cities.
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So you say you have
four field officers.
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Just tell us, what
does the field officer do?
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Just very quickly,
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what does the
field officer's role?
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The field officer main
role is to check the roll call,
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and prepare the new application.
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They prepare the photograph.
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They do collecting
the thanks letters,
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translating even,
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they collect Christmas
cards, distribute gifts,
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and also check other
school like, office supplies,
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and other activities they do.
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They travel in the
village schools also.
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This is their big role to
handle all village schools.
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Right.
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So the field
officers in all the countries
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where we have children
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are very key to the
success of the organization
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both in checking the children.
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Now they're getting
feedback with letters and APRs.
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In the team that
works with Shohag,
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we also handle our projects.
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And starting now at KMMS School,
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we have a very
large building project,
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and the critical thing for us
is to have people on the ground
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that we can trust
that we can work with.
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And I guess
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over the last
four or five years,
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I've got to know
these guys personally.
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I see them as my friends.
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I see them as
my work colleagues,
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and I see them as our partners.
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And so for us,
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to ensure that the donor's money
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is being well spent,
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it's critical
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that we have good
support on the ground.
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And here in
Bangladesh, we have that
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and we are grateful
to the workers here.
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But we're also
grateful to the donors.
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And by bringing
the two together,
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we can ensure
value for the donors.
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For those children
who are lucky enough
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to be sponsored,
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they can look
forward to a future
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where they can live
in a safe environment,
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in environment where
their immediate needs
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will be taken care of.
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And through education,
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they will be empowered
to help not only themselves,
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but also others.
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There is a very different future
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for those that
are not sponsored.
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Shohag, tell us
about some children
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who can't get
into a boarding school,
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who can't get into an orphanage.
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What's the sad
thing that could happen?
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What's the bad
impact that could happen?
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So the bad impact of
their families and life
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that they will definitely
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addicted into smoking, drinking,
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and they don't
get to the school.
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They don't go to the
school, even they do other work.
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And they will not
have bright future.
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They don't have the education.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, we visited a
village the other day
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and there was a solo mom,
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and she's having a challenge
with her 10-year old boy.
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Because he can go
into the field sometimes
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and earn some money,
doesn't have to go to school,
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and she was very distraught
as if we could help her.
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And so, children,
as we're driving along,
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you see the brickworks
and you see the children,
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and the brickworks are a place
where children are exploited.
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And so, we're just so excited
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that we can give
some children hope
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and through sponsorship,
that's what happens.
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We are very reliant
on people like Shohag.
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And what makes
the big difference
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that some of them
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have actually been
sponsored children.
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Some of them have had to
come through the orphanage,
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and so they have a passion.
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And I know that Shohag
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and most of the
staff in Bangladesh
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have a real passion,
00:12:48.40\00:12:49.90
and we're very excited
that they partner with us.
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And we're very excited
that we can sponsor children
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and that you the
sponsors can make a difference.
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While the need for
sponsorship is still large,
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the difference
that every sponsor makes
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is it changed life,
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a life that doesn't have to live
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on the streets,
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a life that could find
hope even in the shadow of loss.
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Sponsorship may not be
able to change the world,
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but it does change the world
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for one of God's
precious children.
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