There are a variety of child sponsorship agencies to choose from and each has their program set up differently. I have first-hand experience with Compassion International, in the role of a sponsor, so I'll share what I know. (For more info, go to their website at http://www.compassion.com/.)
1) HOW DO I CHOOSE A CHILD TO SPONSOR?: One of the things I love about Compassion is that you can go to their website and select a specific child -- you aren't relying on the organization to select someone for you, (although you can if that is your preference.) The website has photos of hundreds of children waiting to be sponsored. Click on a photo to learn a child's name, age, interests, education level, family status, and the country in which they live.
You can simply browse the photos or you can do a search targeting a specific piece of criteria. Perhaps you would like to sponsor a child born on your birthdate -- you can search by birthday. Perhaps you have a heart for children with special needs -- you can search for a child who is mentally or physically challenged. Maybe you just want to sponsor that child who has been waiting the longest -- there is a search function for that, as well. There is a child here for every person.
2) HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?: It costs $32 a month to sponsor a child through Compassion. This money is pooled to pay for the entire Compassion program which serves over 1 million children in 24 countries.
In addition to the $32, you can send up to $25 a year for a child's birthday. The entire $25 goes directly to the child. The workers at the child's project will confer with the family and purchase gifts that the child needs. My child has gotten things like shoes, clothing, a dictionary, colored pencils, etc.
You can also send a family gift of $25-$300 once a year. Again, the entire amount is given to the family -- the project workers and the family confer and purchase items that the family needs. You will get a detailed list of what the family purchased along with the price of each item. My child's family has used our gifts for things like insecticide, school fees, rent, food, clothing and savings.
Once a year you may send a monetary Christmas gift in whatever amount you choose. This gift is pooled with all sponsor Christmas gifts and divided equally to ensure that each Compassion child receives something.
3) CAN I WRITE TO MY CHILD?: YES!! This is the fun part. You can write letters, send photos, send postcards, send stickers -- anything light and flat that you think your child will enjoy. He or she will write letters in return, sharing with you his/her life and accomplishments. My child, (who wants to be an artist), always includes pictures he has drawn. We have even gotten photos from special events such as his kindergarten graduation and birthday. Compassion will send you periodic updates on how your child is progressing in the program.
I believe that this communication is THE KEY to giving your child encouragement and making him or her feel special. Very often, the letters you write become the prized possessions in that child's home. And there is no excuse not to write -- Compassion even has an e-mail form, so you can e-mail your child!
4) CAN I VISIT MY CHILD?: Yes! Compassion offers trips each year to a variety of countries, providing you with an opportunity to meet your child. You may also plan a trip and travel on your own. You simply contact Compassion far enough in advance that they can coordinate a visit.
Those are the basics. It's a pretty simple process from the sponsor's end. Check out the Compassion website. Fifteen minutes from now you, too, may be a sponsor!
Saturday, February 23, 2008
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8 comments:
Don't you think it's wrong to choose the child you sponsor based on your wants/needs, rather than the most needy children?
Donating to charity is not about your needs, or making you feel better. Giving is about selflessly helping those who aren't as lucky as we are. It's about helping the worlds most marginalized people break free from the cycles of repression and poverty.
Too often child sponsorship is used as a way for the sponsor to feel good about themselves. You get a nice picture to display and you can show all your friends how selfless you are.
It's not right for a sponsor (who may or may not have any idea about international development) to decide who gets help based on the child sharing the same birthday as you or simply because they are the cutest kid on the website.
You don't get to choose what your own genetic child is like so why should you choose what your sponsor child is like? It's a choice based on what YOU want.
On top of this, child sponsorship can also create isolation from other community members. While the rest of the children in the village suffer, your sponsor child runs around in new shoes and new clothes with new text books.
I'm not writting this comment to attack child sponsors, I think any person who donates to charity should be commended,its a great act of compassion. All I want to do is educate (based on my years of experience working in international development)current and potential donors about the best way you can help the most needy people in the world.
If you really want to make a difference, donate monthly to a general fund rather than child specific. Your money will be directed where it is needed most in the world, and what's more, general donations cost less to administer than donations directed to a specific child. This means, more of your donation reaches those who need it most.
Anonymous, don't worry, I don't feel attacked and I welcome your comments!
I hope you find your way back here and share some of the general fund organizations you have found to be the best. I think that’s great information. I’d also love to hear about your work in the field of international aid!
To respond to your comment:
There are a myriad of aid organizations -- all with different approaches and different focuses. There are general fund organizations such as Oxfam that take a community-based approach. There are child sponsorship agencies such as Compassion International that focus on individual child development. There are organizations that focus on single issues such as healthcare -- Doctors Without Borders. Some groups focus specifically on literacy, women's issues, children's issues, AIDS, starting small businesses, stopping genital mutilation, human rights, clean water, and on, and on, and on. I'm not going to say that one approach or one issue is wrong. I think they all play a role in helping developing nations.
One of the children we sponsor lost his mother when he was very young. His father is gone. He was recently living with his grandmother, who passed away and now he is on his own. He is 9 years old. Compassion was there to find this child foster parents. Compassion will continue to be there for this child to make sure he has a home, stays in school, is fed and clothed, receives medical care, has a team of mentors to support him emotionally, etc. If Compassion wasn’t there, who would be there for this child? The benefits from a general fund will trickle down to him eventually – but in the meantime this is a very vulnerable child with specific immediate needs and I believe there is a role for Compassion to play in his life. If Compassion disappeared tomorrow – if all child sponsors yanked their funding of the program -- what would become of this child and children like him?
It is a matter of fact that Compassion doesn’t and can’t help all children. But no one organization can. Compassion registered its 1,000,000th child last year and combined with other sponsorship agencies, millions of children have been served through these programs.
I should also mention that Compassion, while it does administer a child sponsorship program, has general fund programs that address malaria, infant & prenatal care, global hunger, etc. There are a list of funds that can be donated to if someone chooses not to sponsor a child but would rather donate to a particular cause.
In the end it's up to the donor to decide where they feel their money is best utilized. As to the issue of selfishness -- I do think the person who donates has to be interested or passionate enough in an organization & cause to continue donating. So there may be a selfish component as to why a person picks one organization over the other. What truly motivates others is not for me to know or judge.
As for us, we started donating by sponsoring a child in Ethiopia with Compassion. From there, we became very interested in Ethiopia in general and found an organization called Ethiopia Reads that does library-planting and encourages literacy in that country. We donate there. From there we began to study countries in the region and came across an orphanage in an adjoining country where we now donate to a nurse who works in the orphanage so she can continue her services. She not only provides medical services to the orphanage, but to the community, as well.
These are the organizations we've chosen to become involved in, in Africa. Others may choose differently.
Anyway, I hope you come back and share!!! I will be out of town Tuesday through Friday, but will be back on Friday night.
Hi Lisa,
I'm glad you responded and didn't take my response as an attack. Child sponsorship is a very good way to attract donors. It's tangible and gives the donor a direct connection. It's like investing in property rather than shares...meaning that you can see what your money has bought/done (although it's not always the best investment).
However in the case of your sponsor child who has no parents, then yes, child sponsorship was a great "investment".
If child sponsorship brings-in the money (which it does) then I guess it's better than having no money. However I still believe that the child sponsorship organisation should choose the child, not the donor. This way the most needy children will recieve sponsorship rather than the cutest.
With regards to what organisations are the best, I agree with you in that there are so many that do very different things. However, there are also many that do the same and some are better than others.
A really good book for giving is The Good Giving Guide. I'm not sure what country you are from but it's an Australian book, so it might not be relevant if you're not Australian. http://www.goodgiving.com.au/Site/Welcome.html. The book give all the admin costs of various charities.
If you really want to get serious about it then you can go through annual reports which are available online. Although child sponsorship admin costs are not always transparent. For example the cost of translation of letters and other correspondance between you and the child are hidden in program costs, not admin/fundraising costs. I have heard that World Vision have extremely high admin/fundraising costs but hide it in their program expenses. Whether this is true I don't know, but child sponsorship admin costs are higher than what is published.
And while on the topic of World Vision, they are fiercely religious (Especially WV America). I'm personally not religious but I have worked for religious organisations and I have no problem with this- as long as they are not forcing muslims or others to become Christian. What I do have a problem with is that WV are not transparent about it. Many people choose a particular charity because it has no religious affiliations.
Now back to the subject. It costs an organisation more to transfer donations to specific things, whether it be to one child, one village or one country. A general donation keeps admin costs low.
As for my professional experience I have worked in marketing/fundraising for high profile charities (which is why I know about admin/fundraising costs). I have also worked on the programs side of indernational development in Guatemala and Nepal and I am currently living in Vietnam (however I am back in a communications role - not programs).
In Nepal I witnessed first hand how child sponsorship programs were isolating children. In this instance most kids were sponsored with a few very poor children who were isolated from the sponsored children (it can also work in reverse if there are fewer sponsored children). Some children couldn't go to school because their parents could not afford it.
By doing community development work, like Oxfam, you are working with entire communities to increase their capacity in income generating skills and creating sustainable livelihoods. Most community development work also works to promote gender equality.
Community development means that all the children in the community can go to school because they can all afford it. Child sponsorship can sometimes create reliance. What happens to a child when he/she is 18 and no longer recieves sponsorship? Or like you said, what happens to a child if a donor stops their sponsorship. By spending money on community development, beneficiaries do not require continuous funding because they have the capacity to support themselves.
Anyway, if you're from Australia I can let you know of some good organisations with low admin costs (child sponsorship organisations included)
Hope this makes sense and helps.
Rob
I’m back! I was visiting my roommate from graduate school who is now an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. She’s done some great work in Africa. I asked her what organizations she likes and she mentioned that a personal favorite is Heifer International. Another great organization and a great suggestion.
Rob, thanks for coming back! I am not Australian, but I did check out the link to the Good Giving Guide – what an excellent resource. And the website has some great links. Thanks for recommending that. You never know who will read this and benefit.
In the U.S., we have a website that is similar called Charity Navigator. http://www.charitynavigator.org/. It evaluates 5300 of America’s largest charities. It’s one of the places I went when I started doing research on different organizations.
You are someone I SO wish I could sit down with and discuss world affairs & aid issues. It's hard to do it over a blog!
You are certainly right that child sponsorship creates a powerful connection between donors and the organization. We are experiencing a deep recession in the U.S. and despite that only 1% of donors have dropped their sponsorship over last years’ figures, at Compassion. In this economy I think that’s amazing. I don’t know if other aid organizations are fairing nearly so well, as individuals and corporations have less money to give.
I think sponsorship gives you a very human connection to another country and another family. Your sponsored kids and their families become like your own family and you’d no sooner drop them than you would drop your own relatives. For right or for wrong, I think it’s human nature to make connections with others. I know people should want to give simply because it’s the right thing to do – but I think that sense of personal commitment and responsibility to another human being is a powerful thing and it keeps people at the table – which is where we want people to be.
I also wanted to touch on the idea of isolating children because that is a very legitimate concern. I read an article years ago about a program in India where children were selected from poor communities to be sponsored and sent away from their homes to attend boarding schools. These children were eventually returned to their families and communities, highly-educated -- where they had no follow-up, no job opportunities, no connection to their family or community. They ended up frustrated, depressed, isolated, etc.
I think Compassion has really addressed this issue in a great way. Obviously they don’t take children out of their families or communities for one thing! But another thing I love about Compassion is that everyone who works for Compassion in a community is from that community. Everyone who works in-country is from that country. From the accountants to the translators to the people who work in the child centers – these people are from that child’s community. Not only does it keep the child’s connections within their community and provides them mentors within the community – but it provides employment for members of the community. A common complaint I’ve heard about aid associations is that they come in with their employees who are paid super-high wages to do things that someone within the community could have done. Compassion does just the opposite – they employee local people to work with local kids.
Something else I love is that Compassion has developed two follow-up programs to their child sponsor program. 1) THE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. Children who graduate from high school and want to pursue higher education can apply to be in Compassion’s LDP program. They receive college tuition and fees, and a structured mentoring and support program, for the duration of their higher ed schooling. This program is producing doctors, lawyers, social workers, teachers, etc., with a connection to the community and a desire to improve their local communities. 2) Compassion has also started an ALUMNI NETWORK. This is a brand-new program within Compassion. It is providing a structure for children who were sponsored to stay connected into adulthood. Again, this is a very new program and I am excited to see what direction it takes and what kind of opportunities it provides. I would like to see social events, educational programming, opportunities to give back to the community and to children, etc.
I think the current president of Compassion, Wess Stafford, has really given thought to improving on the concept of child sponsorship and has done some amazing things.
But back, quickly, to the idea of isolating children within their community. I have to say, there are some countries where I think a certain amount of isolation is actually a good thing due to societal issues. I’m thinking particularly of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras where they are experiencing problems with ultra-violent street gangs who target children for membership. As you’ve worked there, I’m preaching to the choir when I tell you that the average member of a youth gang in Guatemala is a 12-15 year old child living in poverty. I think Compassion programs provide an EXCELLENT alternative to being out on the streets after school, unsupervised, where a child may be targeted for violence or gang membership. I would be comfortable with seeing a child isolated from that kind of an environment, into adulthood, at which point their level of vulnerability drops significantly.
But anway, Rob, my comments are obnoxiously long! :) I’m sure you have better things to do in Vietnam than read my comments! LOL
But do feel free to post back. I do think that there is a role for general funds AND child sponsorship – I think there are unique strengths to both types of programs – and I know you may not agree -- but I do hear what you’re saying and I don’t want you to think I’m blathering on and not getting what you’re saying! I’m hearing you! I think the biggest concern you're voicing is that some children within a community benefit and others not at all. And I do hear that. Of course, my answer would be that I would like more people to sponsor children so more can benefit. :) I love the idea of whole-community programs -- I DO -- but I always go back to the idea that there are individual children who will greatly benefit from long-term holistic child development (to use Compassion's terms) and I want that to be widely available and I want as many children to benefit from that as possible.
I hope all is well with you in Vietnam! I would be so interested to hear what the focus of your organization’s work is in that country. And don’t hesitate to promote your organization or any other aid organization you love in this blog! I want to hear about it.
Hey Lisa,
Both of us have been leaving rather long responses, but it's good that we have a lot to say.
Touching on the comment you made about only 1% of people dropping their sponsor child. Sponsoring children is an excellent way to keep donors donating for years because donors feel a level of responsibilty..."What happens to my child if I stop sponsoring".
Obviously there is no attachment or guilt with cancelling general donations.
Charities in Australia are having massive funding probelms right now for a number of reasons.
1. Corporates are pulling funding because of the financial crisis
2. The Australian dollar has crashed against the US and most International Aid organisation do their budgets in US dollars. This means budgets have been blown.
3. Australia recently had massive bush fires that destroyed thoasands of homes and killed about 300 people. The Red Cross launched a bushfire appeal which raised an ENORMOUS amount of money, however as a result no one is donating to any other charity.
Ok so you asked for my favourate organisations. Well here goes:
Oxfam: because they have strong community development programs and happily work with other aid organisations for the greater good. Although their admin ratio is a little high, but stil ok.
Amnsesty: Not many people doing work like them and they have reasonable admin costs
Caritas (in the US is called Catholic Relief Services): I'm not religious at all but I have seen the work they do and it is very good. Better than the Red Cross. Caritas also has a mandate not to preach and to help all regarless or religion.
They also have very low admin costs.
I don't like to mention charities I don't like so I'll leave that alone.
GREAT LIST! I think Oxfam & Amnesty International are fantastic. And the older-half of my family (grandparents, great-aunts) were all donors to Catholic Relief Services. (Hello, former Catholic school girl here.) :)
I have to say, there have been some issues on which I've not agreed with Amnesty. So I can't say I'm in lockstep with them 100% of the time -- but you are so right, there is no other organization as high-profile out there doing what they do on a global level.
Rob, I'm embarrassed to say, I knew nothing about the bushfires in Australia. (Don't ask me how I sit in an industrialized nation with 24-hour news channels and am still unaware of things like this. I clearly have room for improvement.) It's great that people came out to help those impacted on such a massive scale. But you are right - between a home-country natural disaster and a poor financial climate, it's a one-two punch for charities.
I guess that's what makes people like you, in the communications end of international aid, so important! You're needed now more than ever.
I can certainly guess you're good at your job based on what I've read here.
Hey, I have a question, if you come back. What has been your favorite experience working in the field of international aid -- and what has been your worst experience? Just curious.
The best experience working in International Aid is seeing aid projects first hand. Meeting the beneficiaries and seeing the difference teh projects has made to their lives.
When I was working in Nepal I had a boy in an orphanage who was a rough kid and involved with gangs (at the age of 12). He has never had a male roll model. I spent a lot of time with him and one day he opened up to me and cried and cried. The poor kid had the whole world on his shoulders and played the tough guy to protect his younger brother.
He told me how he was going to change because of me and he is going to start going to school. That was a pretty amazing moment. It makes all the hard work worth while.
Also working in Aid has educated me on so many global issues that I didn't know exsisted, or didn't think exsisted anymore. I've learnt so much working for an Aid organisation. However sometimes you see images or hear stories you wish you hadn't seen or heard.
Worst experience. Well I know you're religious but I have to say that some of the views of the religious organisations are too conservative. Things like the use of condoms, abortion etc.
At an religious Australian organisation i worked for a guy was fired because he educated a girl on abortion. He said he would not encourage an abortion but gave her the facts and said he'd support her decision.
The girl had been raped by her brother and was being beaten by her father because she wouldn't say who the father of the child was. She had to live in the same house as her brother.
I think religion needs to be put aside in these situations.
Rob, I know you're not religious, but GOD BLESS YOU for being there for that boy in Nepal. To care for a child in that way -- that to me is what God and religion are truly about. It's heartbreaking to think of a 12 year old with so much responsibility and vulnerability. But to have someone like you there, to show him an alternative -- to plant the idea of going back to school and walking a different path -- I just think that's huge.
You would make a GREAT child sponsor! ;)
But seriously, you are clearly an amazing person with a great heart!! Whatever organization you're with is certainly lucky to have you.
As for the abortion & contraception question, I know that Obama has rescinded the global gag rule, but I don't know how much that affects non-government organizations. Probably none.
As you can guess, I personally am opposed to abortion -- it's my view that God creates each individual as a unique and never-to-be-duplicated human being -- and abortion is destroying a creation of God. Someone who is not a believer in God may feel quite differently. But I also hear where you're coming from. There are girs who are impregnated in horrible ways and babies born into horrible situations.
I do think the more options put in place to enable a woman to safely give birth with some feeling of security that her baby has a promising future, the better.
And now, my OWN baby -- my four year old -- is calling. so I have to go attend to her! :)
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