By Clare BruceThursday 22 Mar 2018Hope BreakfastStation NewsReading Time: 2 minutes
Listen: Sam and Duncan speak meet Compassion sponsor child Baby Anne and her father, Lester. Above: 15-year-old Anne (front) with her parents and siblings.
One of Sam and Duncan’s most memorable encounters on their ‘Top Secret Mission’ in the Philippines, was meeting a 15-year-old girl named Baby Anne.
Although she’s a teenager and her real name is Anne, the name Baby Anne has ‘stuck’ since she was a little girl.
Baby Anne sustained brain injury in the womb, after a failed abortion. So she has significant learning difficulties. Her mum and dad live on the poverty line, just surviving from day to day. As a result of her complex mix of challenges, the future wasn’t looking bright for Baby Anne.
But then a Compassion sponsor stepped in, providing her family with the means to take care of her medical needs, and covering the fees for a Montessori School to cater for her special needs.
- How a Little Girl Called Michelle Found a Place in Sam Robinson’s Heart
- Hope Listeners to Change 200 Kids’ Lives by ‘Sponsoring a Village’
Sam and Duncan spoke to Baby Anne’s father Lester. He gets up at 4am every morning, to do enough work to provide breakfast for the family by 6am. It’s a hand-to-mouth existence. So he is deeply grateful for the support of Compassion.
“I’m very glad my daughter is signed up doing the Compassion program because I cannot afford the tuition fee of the school,” he said. “She’s changed a lot because in the few years I’ve brought her to the school. She can write her name now and count numbers. I’m very thankful for that.”
When Baby Anne first came into the Compassion program she had the mental age of a toddler. She was non-verbal, very clingy, and badly behaved, being very hostile to other children because of her social and emotional challenges.
Today, her mental age has increased, she has language and numerical skills, and is much happier and more confident, with a bright future.
Her father is grateful. It’s an outcome he could never have achieved on his own.
“I’m very glad and thankful to Compassion and also to God,” he said.