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!!!)