My parents decided to sponsor a second child in Rwanda and I was able to meet her when I was there. Her name is Diane and she has no parents. She lives with her aunt and she is 9 years old. I had the pleasure of taking her shopping. She had never been in a vehicle before and this was her first trip off of the mountain that she lives on. As we traveled into town I was able to ask her a few questions through a translator and discovered that she has worms. Worms is a very treatable disease, but due to a lack of education and the lack of a health card (which costs $2) she has never received treatment for it. We arrived in Byumba to go shopping and she had a huge smile on her face. I also discovered that she loves school and has a desire to be a nurse.

After spoiling her rotten and buying her a nice dress, a pair of shoes, a sweater, a jacket, a warm blanket, a sack of potatoes, a sack of rice and a pair of socks for $100 US. Keep in mind the average Rwandan makes $40 US/month. I asked her one question through the translator. "If you can have anything in the world...one special thing...anything you want... regardless of the price... what would it be?" She whispered something shyly into the ear of the translator and he says to me..."a tennis ball".

This child's biggest dream in the world was to have a tennis ball!
I was able to make that dream come true for 80 cents!

Sometimes we think that $40 CAD/month isn't worth giving. Or sometimes we believe that we can't possibly make a difference in the world. I urge you all to reconsider and understand one thing -- You can give a child hope for $40 CAD/month and maybe even help them to dream again. You might just make a dream come true for 80 cents.   You can make a difference!

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