A HEALTHCARE assistant has met five disadvantaged children she sponsors in Indonesia.

Shelley Moore has spent three months working in a children’s home in East Java and while she was there, she decided to meet her sponsored children through child development charity Compassion UK.

The 25-year-old said: “I sponsor seven children in total with Compassion and it’s hard to put into words how it feels to meet in person someone you’ve only known through photographs and letters; it’s incredibly emotional.

"While visiting my sponsored children I also had the privilege of meeting other family members too and had the chance to encourage their parents and guardians which was amazing.”

They include 11-year-old Cristin, who Shelley has sponsored for more than six years.

The emotional meeting included a visit to her family home where the whole village enjoyed lunch together, including Cristin’s great-grandad who had travelled 12 hours by boat just to meet Shelley.

The charity say in Indonesia, nearly 13.8 million children live below the national poverty line and over one-third of children suffer from moderate to severe growth stunting, an often irreversible condition caused by chronic malnutrition during early childhood. Indonesia is also one of the world’s most susceptible nations to natural disasters, volcanic eruptions, flooding, landslides and tsunamis are a constant threat to the region. Though Primary school education is compulsory, many Indonesians living in poverty are unable to afford the basic six years of education and there is often a severe lack of qualified teaching staff and classroom resources.

Shelley’s sponsorship of £25 a month enables Cristin to be part of her local Compassion project where she receives nutritious meals, emotional support, medical attention and the chance to get a good quality education.

Shelley said: “My biggest hope for all my sponsored children is that they grow up to be healthy and well-rounded adults. I hope that as they grow older, they encourage the younger children around them in the way they have been encouraged.

“It’s easy to think that we are too far away to make a real difference to children living in poverty. Sponsoring a child serves as a constant reminder that the world is bigger than just you. It opens up your eyes to see the world in a whole different way. It’s the best, most challenging thing I’ve ever done.”