to be thinking of "sponsoring" a child?

[ButterPie]

I have two DDs, 2.9 yo and 7 weeks old. We are pretty poor, but not starving to death iyswim (DP on minimum wage and me a sahm). I have been thinking of signing up to sponsor a child somewhere, in the hope that as the kids grow up the child we sponsor will make it a bit easier for them to understand other people being worse off than us, global issues and the like, by putting an individual face on it. Obviously I want to donate to an international charity anyway, but think this way might be the best.

Is this a good idea or daft? What would be a good charity to go for? Would I be able to ask for a child of roughly the same age as my kids - obviously I would want the money to go where it is most needed, but if we got updates about a child of around their age, it might make more sense to them.

We are a pretty typical Guardian reading lefty household anyway, so the kids will grow up knowing about various issues and I do what I can for local causes too, I was just wondering if you lot think sponsoring a child is a good way to a) donate to charity and b) teach my own kids about the world.

I use Plan International and I think it is a great thing to do,especially if you can involve your own children.
DD 94) and I are about to go and spend some time in an orphanage in Thailand-I have brought her up to understand how fortunate she is but I think our visit will really help her understand.
Do it I say.

I think it's a great idea and we actually do it ourselves for much the same reasons. In fact, I pretty much could have written your post 6 months ago!!!

We sponsor through an American organisation called missions for mercy, but I'm sure if you research there are British ones doing the same thing.

We chose Tamerit (the child we sponsor) because he was only a couple of years older than our ds and with level of education etc... Will probably be learning to read and write at the same time. For now he draws us lovely pictures which his teacher writes a note on to tell us what it is, and we draw pictures with a few simple sentences too.
It costs us $30 a month, which is about £19 at the moment.

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Of course it's a good idea. I give to this charity which educates Vietnamese children.

It is an excellent idea. I sponsor a little Indonesian girl through Plan International, and everything I have seen of this (non-religios) charity is very good indeed. Although DD is now too small to understand it, I think it is important to give her an insight into the lives of others as she grows up. And I have learned a good deal from my sponsored child's letters too.

It's a brilliant idea - i sponsored a girl in Bangladesh for 7 years and hope to sponsor again sometime. I also sponsored through Plan and I would recommend them, they work very hard to encourage sponsors to keep in touch with the child they're sponsoring - you can also visit them, if circumstances allow. I was lucky that the girl I sponsored was in Dhaka, so a good postal service - letter from her were written out, and then translated, by a community Plan worker in her behalf, I also received photos and drawings from her. In return i sent letters and small gifts (they give you plenty of advice about that sort of thing as there are restrictions on what you can send.) Plan also send regular newsletters and information from your child's community.

Yes it is, imo, a good way to give to charity, the money goes into a community 'pot' to help improve the sponsored childs whole community - sanitation, education etc. As an example, the girl i sponsored was able, thanks to Plan's involvement in her area, to stay in school until she was 16 - many girls in Bangladesh received little or no schooling beyond about 12.

And yes if you like you can request a child of a certain age, and in a certain country.

Heartily recommend!

I have done it for years through Plan and think it an excellent idea.

We sponser a child through SOS Children's Villages I think their work is amazing.

From their website:

SOS Children's Villages is an international non-governmental social development organisation that has been active in the field of children's rights and committed to children's needs and concerns since 1949.

In 132 countries and territories our activities focus on children without parental care and children of families in difficult circumstances.

SOS Children's Villages focuses on family-based, long-term care of children who can no longer grow up with their biological families.

At our SOS Children's Villages and SOS Youth Facilities they experience reliable relationships and love once again, meaning that they can recover from what they have experienced, which has often been traumatic.

They grow up in a stable family environment, and are supported individually until they become independent young adults.

yes it is a lovely thing to do.

i don't know much about the mechanics of it, whether it is a 'real' thing ie you get an actual person (how does that work, have you bought them?) or is it a complete fabrication (one case study with some crayon marks on a letter sent to 200 donors).

at best it is a brilliant way of getting regular amounts of money from donors which can be spent however the charity thinks is best.

i really don't like the idea of choosing children based on age etc. who gets to decide which children? what about everyone else?

Fishie - no you certainly don't 'own' a child by sponsoringng them, anymore than you 'own' your neighbours kid if your sponsor them doing a charity run iyswim.

I think being able to choose by age can be helpful because you can decide how long you will commit for (Tamirit is 6 - so we will sponsor for 10 years until he is 16 or we could have chosen someone older and had less long term commitment).

It also helps as someone suggested to choose someone similar to your dcs age. These are real children an they learn a lot from your letters as you do from theirs. It's easier to remain relevant to them if you have similar aged children yourself.

The charity we sponsor with also allows you to visit the child you sponsor after you have been sponsoring for a while, so choosing a country you would be willing to travel to can also be a good thing.

gracie isn't the organisation you sponsor an evangelical christian group?

so they are putting children through a pretty rigorous selection procedure.

at the end of the day it matters not whether these charities are christian based or not - ANY extra child in a developing country that gets clean water, education, or immunisations is A Good Thing, no?

I think some charities will only help Christian children though, and use the donations to fund things that some people don't agree with, such as "education" projects that tell people in AIDS ridden countries not to use condoms and so on, so unfortunately this has made a lot of people (me included) very wary of Christian charities. It is probably a shame, as I am sure most are lovely charities, but I don't want my money used for such things.

We sponsor a little girl in Ghana and her community through Action Aid. We enjoy receiving her letters, pictures and updates from the workers in the community. My eldest son (4) does sort of understand and sometimes mentions Millie out of nowhere.

I sponsor a child through Plan and it is a lovely thing to do.
You get a named child and get photos of him and her, although the money doesn't go directly to that child. It goes to projects in the village where that child lives eg building a school or drilling a well. You ensure that your child will get an education/clean water, but the whole community benefits.

The charity encourages you to build a relationship with the child by writing letters and sending photos of your family and where you live. There are rules about not discussing politics and religion in the letters, but overall it is a lovely way to learn more about another culture. They'll even organise for you to visit them if you want!

Personally, I chose Plan because they are non-religious (I'd heard of other charities who use the schools and medical facilities to preach to the communities and try to convert them, which I'm against) and also because they are very transparent with their overheads and costs.

I sponsor a family in Luxor, Egypt (a mum and her 3 DC's) through this charity
Little Stars.

It's a small charity, so it feels very personal. I've sent gifts out to the children and hear from them/about them every couple of months.

We're visiting Luxor on holiday next week and have arranged to go and meet the family, and also visit the clinic and other projects the charity is involved in.

I looked in to this a few years back, but was surprised to find out that you don't get to sponsor a specific child (because charities do not want to favour individual children over others), but your money just goes in a big pot with other people sponsoring children and is then spread around various projects.

So whilst it sounds nice and your money does go to a good cause, you won't actually be sponsoring a child. I think its all a big con by charities.

You sponsor a specific DC through PLAN and build up a nice relationship through letters and photos. Money will go to the general good, but that benefits your sponsored DC anyway.