Healthy is the way to be

July 27, 2011 - PRLog -- 14-yearold Varsha, her mother, father and two younger sisters are a picture of a happy family.Varsha is a World Vision sponsored child. Her story testifies to the life-saving impact of World Vision’s child sponsorship programme.
About two years ago Varshafell ill. Although it seemed like a normal fever that would subside in a few days, Varsha continued to become weak. It was then that her parents took her to a hospital, many kilometers away from her remote hilly village. And the diagnosis –Typhoid!
Varsha had to be admitted in the hospital. For a poor family like theirs, hospital stay meant money which they did not have, and treatment that they could not afford. It was at this time that World Vision stepped in with  financial assistance for the treatment. Through this timely support, Varsha received treatment for a week. Today, she is a healthy girl studying class 9, aspiring to be a teacher. “She was very weak. But now she’s in good health,” says Varsha’s mother, Sukhra, with a happy smile.
However, child sponsorship did not stop with that, as is the promise of child sponsorship: two of Varsha’s sisters received timely help that saved them from what could have otherwise been fatal. Sonia, 1½ years, was severely malnourished. With the family’s meagre income from seasonal labour, they could not afford nutritious food for their children. World Vision’s Nutrition Programme in the village saved Sonia from severe Grade 3 malnutrition. Her health gradually improved and today she is a healthy little girl, with no symptoms of malnourishment that nearly threatened to take her life.
Omdevi, 5 years, another sister of Varsha was also affected by typhoid and with support from World Vision India for her treatment she has fully recovered. Child Sponsorship reaches beyond the child to help the family and community. In Varsha’s case, her sisters received medical and nutritional care.

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World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organisation working to create lasting change in the lives of children, families and communities living in poverty.