All That They Are Able

“This has become my mission,” Tracy says, “to help these children with special needs, and I’m using ChildFund as a vehicle to be able to do it.”

ChildFund
ChildFund
Jul 10, 2017 · 4 min read

By Rachel Ringgold

Nancy is able to watch her favorite cartoon, Tom and Jerry, because she recently learned to hold her head up. Cousins Thaddeus and Cyprian, who live next door to one another, are able to have more fun together since they both learned to walk using crutches. Elizabeth is able to play outside with her friends now that she has a wheelchair. Tracy* works as a computer programmer and fosters kittens for her local animal shelter.

These people are all connected by sponsorship, and they all live with some form of physical or mental disability.


As a child growing up in the United States in the ’70s, Tracy saw ChildFund (then Christian Children’s Fund) commercials on TV, and she decided that when she grew up, she would be a sponsor.

Born with cerebral palsy (CP), Tracy went to therapy as a young child, attended school, and now lives and works in Wisconsin. In 2009, Tracy read a story on ChildFund’s website about a woman who was blind and who sponsored children with disabilities. Tracy wanted to do the same — so she began sponsoring her first child with special needs, Caroline, who lives in Kenya and also has CP.

Since then, many more children have become part of her sponsored family. At the end of the first letter she writes to each child, Tracy tells them she has cerebral palsy. “They hear all the other stuff about my life and then they read that at the end, and I think it gives them hope,” she says. “I can relate to them.”

Some of the children Tracy sponsors — Caroline, Thaddeus and Cyprian, and Hawa.

When she first wrote to John, Tracy received a reply from his mother that has become part of her own vernacular: “I guess this means that disability does not mean inability.” Now, Tracy says, she always makes a point to ask, what can these children do? Belinda can hold and drink from a cup. Stacy can write the words “cat” and “dog.” Millicent can stand with both feet flat on the ground. With Tracy’s support, ChildFund works with children and families to get access to specialized schools, therapy, braces or wheelchairs — resources they need to access their potential.

“I guess this means disability does not mean inability.”

Stacy, Belinda and Millicent.

Tracy and her sponsored children share more than the uniqueness of their needs: They share the desire to connect with one another, the urge to participate in and contribute to their communities, the drive to discover their potential and the ability to inspire. And Tracy hopes the stories of her sponsored children might inspire someone else to help, as one story did for her years ago.

“Look what’s happening with these kids,” she says. “You could be a part of that.” She is doing her part, doing all that she is able, to make sure that the children in her life can do all that they are able, too.


*Tracy’s name has been changed at her request.

ChildFund

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ChildFund

Serving the world’s vulnerable #children since 1938. We promote societies that value and protect the rights of children. www.childfund.org

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