More than 450,000 children and their family members in the Philippines have a hopeful future because of people like you. Rowena is one of them.  

The bamboo house where she grew up had only one bedroom for her family of eleven.  Housekeeping and selling vegetables helped her mother make ends meet while her father grew rice as a tenant farmer. He was too poor to own his own land. 

When tuberculosis took her father’s life, her brothers worked to support the family. But Rowena was able to continue her education because of her ChildFund sponsorship.  She was one of only three children in her family of eight siblings to attend high school. 

Rowena became a sponsored child when she was in the third grade. Even as a small child, she had a dream of becoming a teacher. Her ChildFund sponsors inspired her.  

“My sponsors were a couple of teachers,” she remembers. “They are the reason I wanted to be a teacher.” Their inspiration, and their sponsorship, helped Rowena finish her college education. Today, she is a teacher at the college where she was a student. 

“ChildFund gave me an allowance for my school supplies and supported my development – even acting, dancing and other activities,” she says. The sponsorship support helped her “come out of her shell” and motivated her to become the teacher she is today. “I was shy,” she says.  “But I was told I was a good facilitator.” 

While she was receiving her education, Rowena’s family also benefited through her sponsors’ support. Her mother was able to buy and care for cows and pigs as a way to generate income. And the bamboo house where she grew up, which had been severely damaged in a hurricane, was repaired. 

Rowena still thinks about her sponsors and reads the letters they wrote to her many years ago. And, although she hasn’t met them, she feels a strong connection to them and thanks them for their help and inspiration. 

Because of people like you, Rowena is inspiring her students to succeed and prosper.