Diana Hom
Child Sponsorship Coordinator
I first heard about Empowering Lives through one of my best friends, Kierra Higgins. She had been on staff with ELI as the Short-Term Missions Coordinator and was living in Kenya during the summers. Another friend and I had the dream to visit Kierra while she was in Kenya to support and encourage her and to see what God was doing in the ministry. The trip was amazing as we built relationships with many wonderful people and met Jesus in the process. I came away from the experience forever changed and with a passion to see the church grow in its mission to care for and love the poor and oppressed. In January of 2008 Kierra encouraged me to apply for the Child Sponsorship Coordinator position at ELI. I was ecstatic when I learned I was hired and became part of the ELI family!As Sponsorship Coordinator, I manage new and current sponsorships of almost one thousand students and orphans throughout the three countries in which we have established orphanages and schools. This can seem like a daunting task, but I love it because I love organizing, improving systems, and finding the most effective ways to accomplish a goal. I work with ELI staff in Kenya to update children’s profiles, manage which children are sponsored and which children still need sponsors, coordinate correspondence between sponsors and children, and work towards improving communication between the organization and its partners. My goal is to continually improve the sponsorship program by implementing systems that will keep track of children and sponsors and developing new ways of bridging the gap between people in the US and Africa.