The Power of Letters

“I like to think that each and every letter has “wings” attached and flies into one another’s hearts. It is a vital program and you are to be praised for putting enormous effort into this part of your WFW program. Truly I commend you.”

Sharon, MD.

 

                                                           

                                                                     

A message to Women for Women International from a Sponsor – Ljubica Petruc

 

Hello,

Thank you so much for this (and other updates) email. As I read your email my eyes became teary because I feel so blessed to be living in the USA, have a good job (and will continue to be employed inspite our bad economy), and for choosing to give small part of my salary to a total stranger across the world. It made me so happy to hear that Helene Musafiri will be graduating and hopefully will have a better life thanks to our help. I wish her nothing but the BEST in life!

I am looking forward to assisting another sister.

Sincerely,

Ljubica Petruc RN (Registered Nurse)

 

Letter from a Sponsor – Nancy Oyloe

Hi,
One of the first women I sponsored was from Kosovo.  Because we didn’t have translation services after that year, our contact was minimal but this woman had amazing persistence and a will to stay connected.  Sometimes I would get a letter, none of which I could understand. But, I still felt the connection and it reassured me that she was ok.  Sometimes I got an email that just had a flower or happy face icon.  There are no words for how touched I was with her efforts to reach out. But then an amazing thing happened and she somehow became connected with another Albanian who was doing a doctoral research project in England and agreed to intercept and translate our letters.  

It has been an amazing journey to really be able to communicate; to find out that my sister has married, risen from poverty and had a baby!  She now sends me pictures of her sweet baby!!  This year she sent me a Christmas present.  It was the most touching gift ever. She sent a pair of socks her mother had knit for her baby daughter, along with an identical pair which her mother knitted for me!  I hung the baby socks on my Christmas tree and will do so each year as I hold them dear in my heart.

Nancy Oyloe

A letter from Kosovo

To: Hickle, Connie

From: Nxhije Xh. Hykolli, Kishnareke II

Dear sister Connie,

Hello!  How are you?  I hope that my letter finds you well and in good spirit.  I am doing fine and my family is fine too.

I live in a big family.  We are ten members.  I have three brothers and four sisters.  I am the sixth child.  I have finished primary school “7 Marsi” with excellent grades and I have also finished engineering high school “Fehmi Lladrovci” in Drenas, also with excellent grades.

As every other young girl, I have my dreams and wishes, but my greatest wish is to go to college.   hope that the year 2008 will be the year when my dreams will come true.  This year was the most important year for our nation because we declared our independence and sovereignty.  Our independence was recognized by many other states.

I am enjoying the training with the “Women for Women” program very much.  I have learned many new and interesting things.  We have discussed about the women in Kosovo and about their lives.  We talked about how difficult is for them to support their families because of the fact that they don’t h ave any higher education and in some cases they don’t have any education at all.  In Kosovo 70% of the population is of young age and life here is very hard because of the economical conditions that Kosovo is in.

Dear sister I want you to know that I respect and admire your noble personality so much.  You have given me hope for a better future after I finish the training.  If I get to enroll in college I will learn hard in order to successfully finish my studies.  After I finish my studies I want to become an activist and fight for those women whose rights are denied.  I want to become just like you, give someone hopes for a better future and the courage to fight in order to realize their dreams.

Dear sister, I hope that someday I will meet you in person and thank you for everything.  Thank you for your generosity and kindness.  I appreciate it very much.

I sincerely wish all the best to you and I hope that you will write me back soon.  I will be looking forward to it.

Best regards,

Naxhije Xh. Hykolli

Images of a sister in Nigeria

 Ruth and her daughters and cooking at home over a coal pit

Excerpts from a letter from the DRC

My dear friend,

“Receive my warm greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!  I am a 36 year old widowed mother of seven children and also care for 3 relatives.  I rent a small house of a single room and a living room.  As an income generation, I sell cassava flour, charcoal and used shoes.  I also put some designs on bed sheets (kind of embroidery).  My housing conditions are very poor: the rented house is about to collpase with leaking roof and doors that can easily be moved even without any effort.

I am greateful for having such a loving and wonderful friend who is ready to know and share my life experience including good and hard times.  Thank you for your devotion to me and to other women all over the world.  I never thought or dreamt of having a friend but God is good.  Through your support, I will receive different job skills and will broaden my knowledge.  Thank you a lot for the sponsorship fund I am receiving.  I will be praying God to bless you and give you a long life.

Yours,

Josephine, DRC”

Anthonia is weeding her rice field – Nigeria

 

 

Picture from Nigerian participant to her sponsor

 

 

 

 

Letter from Iraqi participant: “I wish I could gathered & collect all flowers smiles & send it to you with birds.”

We are currently testing the letter exchange program in Iraq with a small group of participants.  We have not fully launched the program yet, but we will let you know as soon as we do. 

Letter from participant in Iraq

Letter translation

Letter from an Iraqi sister: “… and we will be friends from today.”

 

Letter to a sponsor from her Iraqi sister and translation