For information

To find out more about Futures for Children or how to sponsor a child, call or write at:

Futures for Children

805 Tijeras Street, N.W.

Albuquerque, N.M. 87102

(800) 545-6843 or (505 ) 247-4700

People everywhere will do remarkable things when asked to work together for their children's future.

Turning words into actions was Dr. Richard P. Saunders' goal in 1961, when he started Futures for Children.

Starting with a $100 gift, his nonprofit organization works with American Indian and Latin America communities. From encouraging thousands of children to finish school to making improvements in Indian communities, such as creating local libraries or teaching canning skills, the organization works with 10 tribes in New Mexico and Arizona.

Children's Express visited Future's U.S. headquarters in Albuquerque, N.M., last summer.

The program for kids provides adult sponsors for school-age children to encourage school attendance. Sponsors contribute $30 a month, which goes directly to the child, and are asked to correspond regularly.

We traveled to three reservations - Ramah Navajo, Zuni and Santa Domingo Pueblo - to talk with kids involved in the program.

Fifteen-year-old Reinette Chimoni is Junior Miss Zuni and a spokesperson for her tribe. She regularly writes to her sponsor, who lives in Malibu, Calif.

"The program is very helpful to my little brother and I," she says, "because my mom is the only one who works, and she's the only person who buys us stuff. Sometimes she doesn't have a lot of money because she feeds the three of us. . . . Life would be hard for me because my mom is the only working parent that my little brother and I have. . . . (My sponsors are) a loving family, they care about me. We call each other and have a good relationship.

"The money that our sponsor sends us really helps us a lot for buying clothes and stuff that we need in school. The program is a good program that works with children who would like to get more in life."

Program staff say sponsors for these kids have helped reduce the drop-out rate for participating children to 2 percent for the more than 2,700 Indian kids sponsored last year. In 1990 New Mexico's national ranking was 49th, with 57.3 percent of the population's children graduating.

Unlike many programs which begin work with teens, Futures' pen-pal relationships begin with elementary-aged kids.

Seventeen-year-old Valerie Hiracho lives on the Ramah Navajo Reservation in western New Mexico. In first through fourth grades, she didn't do very well in school. Then she got a sponsor.

"I am looking forward to going back to school. . . . If there was one thing I could change, I would go back to grade school and do better."

For Sheila Bailon, 12, from the Santo Domingo Pueblo Reservation, her sponsor from Santa Fe, N.M., is mainly a friend.

"I only saw (my sponsors) once because I've just been sponsored for about nine months," she says, "and they took me to Santa Fe because they were looking for a home. It was my birthday, so they bought me some books and they bought me a Game Boy."

Letters from these Indian children can become more than just reporting on their daily school experiences. Thirteen-year-old Feather Lewis, for example, also finds sharing her culture important to developing a relationship.

"I have two sponsors. They're from Long Beach, California. . . . I like to send them photos of different things. I like to get copies of them made and send (photos). They like to do the same and we send pictures back and forth.

"They've come down here. It's a long drive to come down here. We took them to a ceremonial. It's a big arena and everybody goes there to see different Indian dances from all parts of the world," says Feather.

For some kids sponsors have become more than friends and have invested further in a teen's education. When 17-year-old Jeffery Edaakie from Zuni got accepted to New Mexico State University last summer, his sponsor gave him $150 to cover expenses for orientation.

Without the program "life would probably be hard in some cases," Jeffery admits. "It would probably be pretty hard to succeed without the program."

"I would describe (Futures) as being a program for opportunities. . . . I think it's a program in which offers opportunities to us."

"I value education. I think that's the key to the whole future," he continues.

Ten-year-old Kevin Ray Garcia, a member of the Santa Domingo Pueblo tribe, agrees.

"(School is important) 'cause when you grow up, you won't get a job if you don't have an education," he says.

When Stanley Coriz, 9, also a Santa Domingo Pueblo, hears the word education, he says he automatically thinks of knowledge and skills.

Reinette attributes her educational achievements to the program.

"The best thing that happened to me was when I got accepted into the National Honor Society this year.

"I value my education a lot because I would first like to get a high school diploma and then go on to college, learn some more. In order for me to get a job, I would like to succeed in my education. . . . I think I need a lot of education," she admits.

EDITED BY: Eric M. Augenstein, 15