Review

1:1 Overseas Child Sponsorship l World Educational Cultural Aid WECA (WECA, 02-2689-3959,www.weca.or.kr)

What about WECA’s 1:1 overseas child sponsorship?

A 1:1 relationship is formed between a child in an impoverished area around the world and a sponsor to take responsibility for raising one child. We support the child's basic livelihood and education with the sponsorship money sent by the sponsor. Through this, it is a designated sponsorship that helps the child's holistic growth by breaking the cycle of poverty that continues repeatedly and at the same time supporting the child's emotional development.

    ▶ Purpose: Visit to Malaysian sponsored children and understand their living conditions

    ▶ Schedule: March 18 - March 22, 2015 / 4 nights and 5 days

    ▶ Visit target: Iban children from Sarawak, Malaysia 

March 2015, 4 nights and 5 days journey

WECA, the World Educational Cultural Aid, headed to Sarawak, Malaysia for a 5-day, 4-night trip last March to meet children who need more attention and better education. Sarawak is a Malaysian state on the island of Borneo, famous for its jungles and timber, and inhabited by an indigenous people called the Iban.

Sarawak is home to more than 20 ethnic groups, including the Iban, Gayan, Knya, Penan, Malays from the Malay Peninsula, and Han. The Iban are the largest ethnic group, but they are also unique and maintain their own traditional culture.

The Iban people mainly live in groups by building long houses called 'long houses' along riversides in the jungle. A long house is an apartment building conveniently built for 10 or more households to live together. Of course, when building a house, the work is divided equally and the space used for living is divided equally.

▶ ‘Long House’, a traditional residential style of the Iban people in Malaysia

The road to meet the children of the Iban tribe, who still maintain their past lifestyle in the jungle, was not at all smooth. A village that can be reached by wandering through the jungle for 5 hours along the river of the yellow-colored Rajang River. The children here are isolated from the world, even in their own homes. We were able to reach the first Iban village only after both the car and the people in it were exhausted due to the winding ups and downs of the road.  

▶ On the way to meet sponsored children in Malaysia

Longhouse, a traditional residential style of the Iman people. These long, shabby houses are a precious place to sleep for children and are the only cultural facility. 

▶ A house built for insufficient living space. It takes a year to build this shabby house. 

▶ The household goods needed for household chores are collected from trash discarded in the city.

▶ The grandmother was inconveniently taking care of the children on behalf of their parents who had gone abroad to make money.  

The crisis of the Iban people, children abandoned in places where their homes have disappeared...

This peaceful Iban village, where people live together as a community, is now facing its greatest crisis. Due to indiscriminate development, timber, which was the tribe's main source of income, has almost disappeared, and the fish stocks in the rivers have become almost extinct, making it difficult for them to make a living. Unable to endure the difficulties of making a living, many people move to cities, but even that is not easy. No special skills or went to school? Most people live from day to day doing the worst jobs in the city.

The children are left in poor environments without anyone taking care of them. To ensure that children no longer fall into this trap of poverty when they become adults, WECA, the World Educational Cultural Aid, has started “Overseas Child Sponsorship that Changes a Child’s Life.” 

▶ Jjanang, a sponsored child with a bright smile.

Starting with the first Iban village visited, WECA, the World Educational Cultural Aid, visited five other Iban villages and visited Iban families living in difficult situations in urban slums. Are the children sick? Are you doing well at school? Is there anything you need? With so many worries and questions, I ran non-stop for 4 nights and 5 days to meet all the children. 

▶ Levena is helping out at the logging site with her father. The child is helping his father with his work at a logging site more than an hour away from the village of the Iban tribe by long boat.

“Ayo (Let’s) Photo” The children happily took pictures despite their poor Malay language. Despite the harsh environment, I felt a little reassured by the children's cheerful appearance. However, when we looked a little closer, the children's lives were extremely hopeless.

The story of the recent death of a father who had been in a vegetative state for two years, the story of a father who got into a car accident while returning from work late at night to raise eight children, the story of a child helping his father working at a lumber yard, the child's mother tearfully thanking the child for the support, the family giving up everything and going to a difficult construction site to make money, the children living day after day in a slum built on filth... To these children, sponsorship was very precious. 

▶ Bright children who immediately smile brightly at strangers and unfamiliar objects (camera)

▶ A child holding a WECA pencil. Clothing collected in Korea is being delivered to Iban children who do not have money to buy clothes.

A partnership that changes a child’s life

Through sponsorship support, children who were unable to attend school were able to continue attending school, and a child who was struggling due to lack of medical expenses was able to receive treatment at a hospital.

▶ From video letters from Malaysian sponsored children

However, there were many children who were in such difficult situations that they could not yet go to school. There were so many children who lived in places covered in various smells and filth, without any adults around, taking care of each other, and who could not even afford meals, let alone pay school fees.

Children who desperately need a bowl of rice today. However, WECA, the World Educational Cultural Aid, is instilling in these children not only today's meals, but also hope and vision for tomorrow and the future.

 Each pencil and notebook you share becomes the hope and future of these children. Through teaching, education, and learning, we impart a true life as a human being to these children.

WECA plans to continue providing sponsorship so that children around the world can grow up healthy and pursue their dreams at school.

Your small touch can change the lives of these children.[Inquiries: 02-2689-3959 /www.weca.or.kr]