25452: Wharram - news - Sponsored child ostracised by peers (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>

The Chaser

WORLD NEWS
Sponsored child ostracised by peers

Port au Prince, Haiti: Ever since 8-year old slum dweller Jean Wadson Bildad
was deemed needy enough for World Vision?s child sponsorship scheme her tiny
universe has changed. But not always for the better. While she now enjoys
education, immunisation and improved water supply, she has unfortunately
become an object of resentment for her unsponsored peers.
"They don?t understand that I?m still poverty-stricken, just like them. I
still eat rice from a tin plate and play soccer with the old cane ball that
we used to use. It?s just that now I?ve got no one to kick it to," says poor
Jean Wadson. Former friend, 10-year old John Ley, says, "She thinks she's so
good with her rubella immunisation scar and her daily litre of agricultural
poison-free water, we just can?t get along. I'd love to have a book and wear
a school dress like she does and she flaunts it every day."
Jean Wadson's ambition to become a doctor may one day be realised due to the
generous AUD$30 per month donation she receives from Kerry and Ron Harrison
of Double Bay. Former playmate Frantzcesse Stanove has a bolder ambition: to
actually see a doctor. "I don?t really care if she wants to be a doctor or a
teacher. It's no good to me, I need to see a doctor or a teacher right now,"
says the 9-year old garbage-pile sorter.
Even her former neighbours have noticed a change. "She?s been on television
and rarely comes back to the old community since she moved to a hut far from
the burning tip that I live in. She?s just a snooty bitch; she can have her
new friends like Sigrid Thornton or that Ben from Big Brother," says
shantytown dweller Makenzy.
Unfortunately for this sweet little girl, the celebrity visits don't last
long, so Jean chooses World Vision relief workers as friends. She says,
"Some of the old white men are really generous and talked about giving me
something later when we are alone. I don't need my old, boring, diseased
friends, World Vision has given me a real chance in life."