Child sponsorship -Plan ?

[janinlondon]

Our DD has asked if she can help a child in another country, and I have been looking for a charity that allows us to sponsor a specific child. I found Plan UK, but wanted to know if anyone has any experience of them? Are they okay? Don't want anything dodgy where the money goes mainly on PR. And we don't want one with religious caveats. Can anyone advise? Any experience?

you can not only help a child,but a whole family..have a look on unusual gifts on the last minute website...yes really!
you can buy a family a chicken
equipment an advice to build a latrine
even a childs school place
a goat even..
loads of things...
we buy them for those sort of people that are hard to buy for,and would probebly do stuff like this if they had the time to look!!
(know a few workaholics with no kids!)
well done to your lovely caring dd!!

Pan international (same thing i think) and actionaid are both good

the money in fact goes to the community projects rather than the individual but you receive info about the individual child photos drawings and a an aid workers report for the family and the community

you can also send certain gifts (more so with plan who also allow visits but actionaid doesn't )

Plan International

I have been sponsoring children with World Vision for 20 years and have always been happy with them. They ascribe you a certain child and you get occasonal pics etc of them but the money really goes to help the whole village coz that's the best way of helping. I think you can go on and support the child through university if applicable but mine have always finished at high school age and they have offered me another. I know someone who visited their child and was impressed at the work going on and another friend worked with them in Cambodia for a year and was impressed. Although there is a religious base it seems to me the majority of the work is basic needs working towards communities becoming self-supporting - which did happen in the case of one of my children. Good on your DD.

I sponsor a child through World Vision and have found the experience very worthwhile so far. There is a choice of which part of the world, sex and age of child you wish to sponsor and you get regular updates of the child's progress, letters from the child and you can write to them.

It is receiving the letters that makes it all so satisfying. To have that one-to-one contact, to hear about their family in their own words and to recive photos and drawings is just magical. it really is like having another child in the family.

You say that don't want a charity with religious caveats? Why not? I think most charities have a religious element to them. World Vision is a Christian organisation but it certainly isn't extreme in any way, just totally caring. Their website is here if you want to find out more.

Goodl luck!

we do through SOS children (well we've just started and have a picture of the most beautiful 9 year old girl from Sierra Leone in our kitchen now)

I was impressed with them

SOS children

it was this bit that convinced me that this was the right route for child sponsorship .. for us

"Child sponsorship admin costs
No deductions are made from the sponsors' payments for administration. We are very grateful for work done by office volunteers in our Cambridge office, which helps keep our costs low. Our administrative costs will be met by unrestricted donations and from tax we recover through Gift Aid. All sponsorship payments therefore go 100% to the charity's work for and around the sponsored child."

Thank you for the amazingly quick responses! Will do some research and talk to DD about it.

Hi janinlondon

Just saw your post about sponsoring a child. I'm from Sri Lanka and have visited a SOS CHILDREN village in Sri Lanka and was so impressed with the work they do. I'm now thinking about sponsoring a child through SOS Children

I do it thro Plan, DH uses ActionAid.
Both seem fine AFAIK though of course I don't really know very much at all about what it means to them at the other end.

Actually come of think of it, I am pretty impressed with how easy Plan makes it to send letters etc to the child.

If anyone is still looking for an organisation to sponser a child through I'd like to highlight

www.suubiclinic.co.uk/child-sponsorship.asp

Its only a small organisation but does a great job. Costs £15 a month and all that money goes to the child. I don't think they have a facility where you can pick a child from a selection of photos on the internet but I'm sure if you email them they will be able to give details.

Someone I know works there and its very well run.

That's what I love about SOS Children as well - all of the sponsorship money goes towards the child you sponsor. Not a penny is taken for administration...

Would be nice if all charities worked that way.

Here's a better link if you want to sponsor through SOS Children

I've sponsored 2 children thru Plan and have always had excellent experience.

In fact I visited my first child and his family which was an amazing experience.

The child was from Sierra Leone tho and Plan had to pull out during the worst of the fighting a few months after I visited. My child was in a small town very near the rebel forces and I always wonder about him and hope he is okay.

I now sponsor another child thru plan but am to say I haven't had as much contact as I should. No excuse really but life is very busy.....

It is a great way to help communities as well as individual children. When I visited Plan Sierra Leone only the Director was from O/S, all the other people employed were Leonians.

I was on holiday in Sri Lanka at the time of the Tsunami and there was a huge rush of charities to help the victims. But a lot of charities had to pull out because of the war in the north/ East of Sri Lanka.

SOS Children are still there because they're established locally, employing local people(even though it's an international charity). I think they're are also building 2 or 3 villages for children who were orphaned by the Tsunami.

we sponsor one through worldvision also. Works fine and seems to benefit whole village not just individual child. Not religious either but no problem with WV - they're christian but not at all "in your face" anyway, it seems lots of the sponsored children's families are Christian so not inappropriate,imo.