SOMEBODY LOVES ME
Every year when June 1 rolls around, I think about all the children who know, because of the work we do, that somebody loves them. Not just on Children’s Day, China’s official day to celebrate her children. Every day.
Just a few days ago, we welcomed 29 medically fragile babies into our Half the Sky family at our new China Care Home in Beijing. Ting and KangPing and LiuFang have complex heart conditions. ZiMing was born premature with multiple complications. Tao has cancer in both her eyes. JianBing was given up for hospice but continues to fight. TongTong and Lan have had their surgeries and need a few months to recuperate.
They all have lost their families. They are all little fighters…struggling to stay alive. They all need somebody to love them.
At one of our Little Sisters Preschools, YunLi has just arrived. She was found wandering in a market. Waiting for a mama who never came back. 
She, too, needs someone to love her.
Around this time each year, we issue our Children’s Day Challenge. During the entire month of June, every unrestricted gift you give goes to the challenge. In the past we’ve asked you to help us build a new HTS Children’s Center. This year, when times are hard, our request is simple:
Help every child who’s lost the love of family know that somebody loves her.
Become a “Somebody Loves Me” child sponsor.
This June...
Become a Somebody Loves Me sponsor for a special baby in the China Care Home who’s awaiting or recovering from life-saving surgery.
Your gift of $600 for one year, or $50 per month will provide for one baby’s basic and nurturing care while in the HTS China Care Special Care Nursery or the longer‐term Family Housing Unit.
Or become an exclusive Somebody Loves Me sponsor for a baby or preschooler in one of Half the Sky’s 43 Children’s Centers all over China. Over 1200 children still lack sponsors. Your Somebody Loves Me sponsorship means that your child is assigned only to you.
For $600 per year, or $50 per month, you can give the gift of nurturing care to one child for an entire year. You can request that the child be from any institution where Half the Sky operates a Children’s Center.
Let Ting and KangPing and YunLi know that somebody loves them. Every day.
As a Somebody Loves Me sponsor, you will receive periodic photos and progress reports about your child through the year. You will also receive a beautiful sponsorship certificate commemorating your special gift.
And with your sponsorship gift, the children will receive a special gift too – a meaningful token of recognition that somebody loves them
.
Babies will receive a beautiful set of traditional silver bangles. Older children will receive adorable Somebody Loves Me dolls.
And for any Somebody Loves Me sponsorship you select, if you add an additional $150 gift, we will send the same beautiful Somebody Loves Me dolls and a set of bangles (adjustable for baby to young child) to the child of your choice, anywhere in the world. We will include a beautiful card that says, “In your honor, an orphaned child in China has somebody to love them too.”
You don’t need me to tell you that times are hard. I know that making a gift to help children on the other side of the world whom you’ll likely never meet is not so easy these days. But one thing we know without doubt at Half the Sky – there is strength in numbers! Why not gather your friends or your family or your neighbors or your school or your church or your co-workers together to become a “Somebody Loves Me” sponsor?
If a Somebody Loves Me sponsorship is not for you, please know that any gift – large or small – will be greatly appreciated and put to good use. On your own or with a group, this Children’s Day, you can help a child know she is loved. There is simply no better gift.
With love and gratitude,
Jenny Bowen
Founder and Executive Director
Half the Sky
