Third World Child Sponsorship

[janh]

Hi, Rosy, thought we'd better stop hijacking the Archers thread!

We sponsor a boy in Ghana through World Vision - they also use the money to fund local projects rather than the individual so everybody benefits there too.

We orginally sponsored a girl in Bangladesh, about 12 years ago, but her family disappeared from the area after 6 or 7 years so we were then allocated Francis, who is slightly older than my ds2.

He does fantastic drawings on our Christmas card each year and I always mean to write back and tell him how great they are, send photos etc but I end up mislaying the card and in any case I can't find the sponsor's pack that has the labels in for sending letters - so I never do it! But now you have inspired me to ring them up and ask for some more and I will write to him today.

I know what you mean about feeling uncomfortable, but by all accounts the sponsored families don't feel like that - World Vision send out a magazine every couple of months and they often feature sponsors actually going to visit their child's family. It is done with the best of intentions, after all, and what is a small amount for us means far more to them. WV sent us a packet of carrot seeds this month, for us to return (space to write a message on it) with a donation, and they will send the seeds to a farming project in Africa, I forget which country, where drought has hit hard - these carrots are particularly drought-resistant. (Guess what though - I haven't returned it yet!!!)

If anyone wants to sponsor a child in China, visit www.goodrock.org.uk. Thousands of children are abandoned in China every day because of the one-child policy they have there. These children, mainly girls and disabled boys, are put into orphanages where they have no hope of a better future. By sponsoring them you would be paying for their education, medical fees, training, nourishment, etc. I'm sure there are lots of child sponsorship agencies out there, just thought I would mention mine.

Rhubarb, that sounds a really good idea, never heard of Good Rock though, do you sponsor the children there or work for them? Just interested before I get REALLY interested and start handing over money!

I work for the charity over here on a voluntary basis. I organise fundraising events and try to get more publicity. The organiser started the charity after adopting her own daughter from China. She was appauled by the state of the orphanage she was kept in and so when she returned to England she tried to raise money to pay for equipment such as toys, bedding, food, bottles, medicine, etc. All the basics that you would take for granted. The charity started from there.

There are 50 children currently on the books waiting to be sponsored. The organiser, Jacqui, goes out to China about 4 times a year and she visits each of the sponsored children, does updates on them and takes pictures for their sponsors back home. The money that you send pays for their education, food, clothes, training skills, and medical bills. The children are either in orphanages or are fostered out to local families. That is our biggest project, is getting the children out of the orphanages and into proper homes so that they can experience family life. Most of the couples who foster them are grandparents whose own children have left home. Young couples don't foster or adopt as they are tied to only having the one child, and naturally they want one of their own.

It'd be great if you could help Ems. Visit the website or email me at [email protected] if you want more information. I will gladly put you in touch with Jacqui.

Thanks for starting this thread Janh. We sponsor a 9yo girl in Mozambique through Action Aid. When I wrote to find out about sponsorship, they sent they sent us an information pack about the girl, with her photo, saying that this was the only pack they had, so to return it if we weren't going to go ahead. Also, her age is estimated. I know it's a cliche, but it really makes you realise the amount of things we take for granted in the west. The child doesn't receive any of the money itself, it is spent in a community on healthcare, schools, long-term farming projects etc. so the child is in effect a representative for its community. We get regular updates from the child & from Action Aid. We pay £15 a month, which is quite a bit less than a pint a week each! When the sponsorship of this girl ends I'd like to sponsor a girl the same age as my daughter to encourage her to take an interest in the world outside.

Just wanted to revive this thread to ask if anyone else has experiences (good or bad) of sponsoring children from abroad, as this is something I'm keen to do, and I've discovered that my company will do a "matching" of any donations I make.
I'm keen to sponsor 2 children about the same age as my own, so they can 'grow up' together and we can talk to our two about the different lifestyles etc.

I also sponsor a child through World Vision. Personally I think it is a great way to give to charity. Its lovely to receive feedback from your child and about his/her community. Its also nice to have the chance to communicate in a personal way with the child eg: you can send it a wee gift on its birthday.

The possible down sides of child sponsorship are that the charity is likely to contact you (as World Vision does) and request money at other times for other things eg: if there has been a natural disaster. I cant ignore their requests and I guess it does add up. However as someone else said, it makes you think about how lucky you are.

Finally (!) World Vision have a wonderful scheme (imo) called a gift catalogue whereby you can purchase a 'gift' for someone such as 10 chickens for a family in Chile or warm jumpers for a child in Bosnia. You pay them the cost and they send you a card and a postcard with the description of the gift for you to give to your recipient. I have done this lots of times now for my family and they think its great. SAves wasting money on rubbish that people will never use.

I would recommend World Vision. Look at their website.

another vote for world vision. I gave a friend who asked for no wedding gifts a herd of goats for a poor family.

I until recently sponsored two children through an organisation called Compassion - they were brilliant... www.compassion.co.uk

I found it very rewarding and will be renewing my sponsorship soon.

I felt that in some cases the sponsorship was a bit of a con, in that none of my sponsorship money was guaranteed (or even likely) to go to the child in question. I decided to give to Save The Chidren instead. I would be interested in genuine sponsorship - where you could actually make a difference to a child - but can't find any organisation that does this.

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Just as an aside, but on a similar vein, does anyone know about the charity which brings Chernobyl kids to the UK for a few weeks?
I knew a girl on the Wirral who had 2 girls stay with her for 5/6 weeks recently. Apparently the radiation is still dreadful over there and the "clean up" of the reactor has failed so it's still leaking. Basically getting these children away from the area for a month can prolong their lives for 2 years. Any ideas how I could get involved?

I also sponsor a child through Action Aid - a young girl in Haiti. I receive a picture she's drawn a few times a year and a newsletter on her community. The amount I pay increases with inflation each year, but is still below £20 a month.

Thanks ks - will have a proper snoop with dh.

Bobsmum, funnily enough our Chernobyl Child went home this morning! Our organisation is called Friends of Chernoby's Children (FOCC) - website here

I don't know how the other organisation works, but with ours they come over for 4 weeks every year, in a group of 20, from ages 7 - 12. They actually come from a town called Mogilev, in Belarus, which is some distance north of Chernobyl and was right in the path of the radioactivity (the children in Chernobyl itself are too sick to come) - the ground is still contaminated and it is a very dirty industrialised area, the 4 weeks in a clean place with wholesome food is reckoned to buy them years more life when they grow up.

Our children have lessons every morning - 2 interpreters come with them - and activities the rest of the day, except for Wednesdays when they have a day trip, this year to Camelot, Leeds Armouries and a local Mountain Rescue Centre. They also see dentists and opticians and are given a pair of Clarks shoes and a pair of trainers. Local families donate outgrown clothes and they go home with a year's supply of vitamins, as well as the various things supplied by the host families.

It is good fun - mostly! Hope you can find a group near you.

ks, thanks for putting that link up, I have just been looking at it and they do far more than just the child visits to the UK, including sponsoring an actual family, that should appeal to aloha too!

More sites - I didn't realise there were so many - lots of useful and interesting information on all of them.

Chernobyl Children's Lifeline

my local group

Chernobyl Children Guernsey

Sorry -

this

is Chernobyl Children's Lifeline. The other one was ks's Project.

I have to say, what really, really put me off action Aid was when I read an article in the Guardian about HIV and AIDS in Africa and how it affected people. I was designed to raise funds for Action Aid. One of the women was in desperate straits. She had a baby who she was determined wouldn't get HIV from her, so she'd taken antivirals and wasn't breastfeeding. However, because of her HIV status she couldn't get work and she was starving, and couldn't even afford formula for her baby - just gruel. I was so moved by this so tried to contact the organisation to buy formula for her and give her money to live on. But they said they had no idea who she was and this wasn't possible. I felt that it was immmoral to use someone's photograph and story to raise funds for your organisation and then not even help them, learn their name or keep in touch. I also thought it was racist. If they'd used a white person I bet they'd know their name. I'm not saying they don't do some good work, I just didn't like the contact I had with them. However, I did find an organisation that lets you sponsor a child in the areas of Vietnam still suffering from the terrible after-effects of the US's murderous attacks with Agent Orange- which the US has never compensated for or helped in any clear-up. I must get on and contact them or one of these other organisations.

aloha, you can sponsor a family in Belarus for between £10 and £15 a month - they actually get the money, and the average wage is only $40 a month.

Not exactly third world but still deserving...though I wonder how the families are chosen, and what the neighbours who don't get the money think about it (I can see why giving sponsorship money to a community, rather than individuals, is fairer).

I've been involved recently with raising money in Indonesia for children to have operations. There is a desperate need for cleft lip/palate repairs as it's a common birth defect here. Also meningocele repair, where part of the brain protrudes through a hole in the front of the skull. The latest op is scheduled to cost Rp20 million, or about 1,500gbp. On a wage of 1.50gbp a day, ther is no way families can afford the ops themselves, yet they are incredibly life-enhancing. And the children are so cute, too, very sweet! Charities here also fund clean water projects, TB schemes, feeding & health education programmes and pay school fees for some children. The work is all above board and properly carried out etc. I hope to still be able to contribute when we get back to the UK - if anyone else wants to donate, I can provide more info!! (sorry, I know that's cheeky of me, but hey - if you don't ask, you don't get! )

Aloha - I know for a fact that the money I sent for sponsorship of the two girls I sponsored got there - all the money... I looked long and hard at it as I was concerned that some would be siphoned off for other things. About £15 a month from memory.

I actually started sponsoring this children whilst in Australia and was able to transfer my sponsorship to the UK and continue sponsoring the same children.

Not quite sponsorship, but TLC rescues abandoned babies in South Africa (many of them with HIV) and gives them a home, love, drugs etc. and tries to find adoptive families for them. I've met Thea Jarvis and my mum and stepfather adopted a TLC baby (now a happy, bonny 6yo living in the UK with them) so I can vouch for this organisation. Whilst I don't think you can sponsor a child you can certainly buy a birthday present for a TLC child or contribute something which has a direct effect on the children living there. Although the site looks very religious, don't be put off if you're not (I'm not at all), they really are doing wonderful work IMO.