Aspire to Inspire

As a single parent living in New York, Nick found sponsoring a child helped teach his daughter Colette the importance of giving back:

“My name is Nicholas and I’m 29 years old. My lovely seven-year-old daughter Colette and I sponsor Diala, a little girl from Indonesia.

Last fall I ran into somebody with a Save the Children shirt on in a mall in California and I remember thinking, I should stop and see what this is all about. I had thought about sponsoring before but never took the plunge. After talking to the Save the Children employee, I decided to use the opportunity to teach my daughter about the world.

When I found out that we were sponsoring Diala, I was excited because she was from a whole new place. I didn’t know much about Indonesia myself, so Colette and I spent time learning about Diala’s country together. I really wanted her to understand that on the complete opposite side of the earth, there's a little girl who is just about the same age as her, who is doing the same things as her, like going to school and learning in her classroom.

I sponsor because I want to show the world that anybody can help, even if it’s just helping somebody across the street. It doesn’t take that much to help, and if I start now and I teach my daughter while she’s young, she's going to understand that it’s really easy to help make the world better.

I live by the motto 'Aspire to Inspire,' and I want to teach my daughter that. If you walk down the road and you smile at somebody, that person is going to take that smile and smile at somebody else – it's contagious. I don’t want to ever stop sponsoring. I wish there was a day where children wouldn’t need sponsors, but until then, Colette and I will be here.”