As we work to expand our school, our goal has always been the same: keep our children at Seeds of Hope for as long as possible. By growing our school each year, we hope to keep them with us until high school graduation. The other important factor in keeping children at Seeds of Hope is child sponsorship.
We work hard to keep Seeds of Hope affordable for families. While we want parents to have a personal investment in the experience, we never want money to be a reason that a child cannot continue with us. So, while families pay a small tuition, most funding for a child’s time at Seeds of Hope comes from sponsors.
Over the years, you’ve been incredibly generous in sponsoring students. However, we’ve never reached our goal of having 100% of our students sponsored. Hitting that benchmark would mean that all our educational program expenses are covered by tuition and sponsorships.
Currently, around 47% of our students have sponsors. Considering how much our school has grown over the past few years, we’ve been blessed to stay near the 50% mark, but with all visits and tours canceled since October, we haven’t had our typical inflow of new sponsors.
“We normally get to host over 20 groups a year that visit our school and interact with our students,” shared Khader Ghanim, Seeds of Hope CEO. “They are often motivated to sponsor a child after they visit, but now we don’t have groups coming in.”
As we wait for visitors to return to Jericho, we would love to ask you to consider sponsoring a child! Each child can have up to two sponsors. Across our entire program, from daycare through sixth grade, we have 90 students fully sponsored, 91 students partially sponsored, and 148 students unsponsored.
Not only does the funding of your sponsorship make a massive difference for Seeds of Hope and the child, but sponsors can also write letters to their children. This communication opens our children up to a broader world. It allows them a different perspective on the world than what they see on the news or hear at home. Knowing someone across the world cares about them, sees their value, and is invested in their future is not something that they forget.
“I’ve always been thankful for the sponsorship allowing my kids to stay at Seeds of Hope and receive a great and safe education,” said Najwa, a Seeds of Hope parent. “But now I’m grateful for the communication the sponsor has with my child. I think during this time we are facing, it provides a kind of hope for my child. It makes them feel connected to the outside world and like someone cares for them beyond Jericho!”
Now more than ever, we see the importance of the hope you provide. We see the benefits of our focus on teaching core values and character-building curriculum. And by investing in the next generation of leaders in Jericho, we know that our impact will live on for years to come. Thank you for helping to make that impact possible!
