There's her encounter with a 33-year-old HIV-positive woman who's caring for children orphaned by AIDS. There's also the grandmother who says her grandchildren now have a future because of child sponsorship. Or there's Mariam, the little HIV-positive girl whose smile is etched in Mallett's memory forever.

Life-changing Experience
Mallett spent 21 days in Tanzania with Destination Life Change this summer. She helped plaster and paint a classroom and saw first-hand what World Vision child sponsorship is doing to change the lives of children and the communities in which they live.

You can hear the emotion in her voice when she talks about her first visit to the school.

"People in Canada question how useful child sponsorship is. 'Are the sponsor children real, and do they really benefit?'" Mallett says.

But Mallett and her teammates discovered the families of sponsored children have their own questions. "We were asked if the sponsors were real and why would strangers from the other side of the world love our children?"

While they were at the school, one member of the Destination Life Change team recognized her sponsored child in the crowd.

"She started crying. The little girl started patting her face. The people got to see first hand the love that led to child sponsorship," Mallett says.

The Effectiveness of Child Sponsorship
Mallett and her teammates visited two Area Development Programs-geographic areas where World Vision serves. One had been operating for four years, the other for 14. Both programs were well-organized, but Mallett says the more mature program had dams, wells and well tilled fields. She says it gave her hope for both communities.

"They were proud to show us what they accomplished. They have the will, we give them the way."

Before she went to Tanzania, Mallett says she found it hard to recruit child sponsors. But it's a different story now.

"To have these personal stories about how child sponsorship is making a difference, saving lives—it's not a cliché. I've got pictures and stories to back it up," she says.

"We know the money helps, but you have no idea of the impact until you've seen people with tears in their eyes, thanking you for being a child sponsor."

Click here for more information about World Vision's Destination Life Change program.
Click here to sponsor a child.