i think everyone is working toward the same goals, so good for you for helping in whatever way you choose.

kerikeri

I sponsor many children through many organizations large and small. Before you make your final decision take a look at:

www.galileeschool.org

This is the website for Galilee Primary School, Waddington Secondary School and the Holly House group of children's homes in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. These schools are supported by Kenya Kids In Need a US nonprofit based in California.

I have been to Kenya 5x since Oct. 03 and have seen first hand the positive impact our support is having.

Check us out. I think you'll like what you see!

Holly
Take the pledge for Kenya's Kids!
http://www.pledgebank.com/BooksforKenya

Just a little aside: I think World Vision does good work but.....
When I was going to South AFrica on my own to be an HIV/AIDS physician, someone from World Vision called me to"sponsor" my work. At the end of a very nice conversation they asked if I "accepted Jesus Christ as my savior" I am Jewish so the answer was no. That ended the conversation. I think this is very short sighted and hypocritical. So if a Dinka in Darfur is animist and not Christian, do they let them die??

I'm glad to hear you came to the conclusion that you'll work through one of the many good recognized organizations. PredatorBio, the school sounds wonderful, so keep us posted.

I think thembi's point is well-taken that it may not be the best way to just get a name on your own and send money to one family. I can see waves of ramifications. And, at the other end of the scale, a small consideration is that it won't be a tax deduction.

This is not directly a child organization, but most of these people who have applied for small business loans are supporting children. www.kiva.org

I was thrilled to find out today that my African loanee has made another repayment to Kiva. Not because the money will come back to me. It is not repaid until it is paid in full and at that point I will turn it around and loan it to someone else. But it meant he was alive and his business was doing well (he is in Kenya).

What is fun about this is that it's not a long term committment, you can just go on and make one loan (the minimum is $25) and track it. You get to choose your country, then your person, learn about their business. Someone at the other end has pre-screened the applicants. Most are asking for amounts around $300-500 and the track record for repayment is high.

I understand what you're saying Lin, about the pleasure of knowing you helped a particular person. Kiva does that. I'm not saying do this instead of the other ones in this thread at all, only adding one more.

A message to all:

Every second guest I meet gives money towards people. As good as this is there are just so many people doing it. I would like to say to everyone to rather give the money to animals/wildlife. If every single one of you gave to wildlife instead the rest of the world would still be giving to people. The human population is growing but the bush is declining very rapidly and needs more help in my opinion.
Just a thought!

Jackssid2, maybe add some links to good African animal causes here?

clematis,

Did you get a chance to look at the wild dog collar project thread? It was up a couple weeks ago!

Hari, I haven't been reading the board for months until just recently. I ran a search and found it - thank you!

But the point of my post was for the poster who wanted to promote wildlife causes - he/she should come back and post some links of their favorite causes.

Hari, it's your fault I'm still awake.

I followed the links and got to this page:

http://www.predatorconservation.com/...og_project.htm

If you love wild dog, read these riveting accounts of how hard they are working to save them from poachers and traps. It is inspiring.

I sent my donation and in the PayPal page to the left it said something about send instructions to the merchant. Clicking that opens a box where you can then designate that you want your donation to go to the Painted Dog Project.

These are wonderful, brave people working very hard to save the Wild Dog.

kimwhits,
I can't say anything about the particular conversation you experienced, but it is an explicit part of the mission statement of the organization to supply aid regardless of the religion of the recipient.
It is unfortunate that an over-eager staff member offended you by their question, but I'm sure that it was not meant as a litmus test for aid.
I think that their track record around the word proves that they do not "let people die" if they hold another religion -- they have saved literally millions of lives of people coming from all different belief systems.

Clematis,

Yes, the wild dog project was the one i was referring to! and i agree with you, the predatorconservation trust are putting in - a great lot of effort to save the dogs in Zimbabwe.....

Rgds
Hari

This organization, NaDEET
www.nadeet.org
does not sponsor long term sponsorship of individual students, it does have sponsorship for individual students for its educational programs http://www.nadeet.org/donations.html

Its mission is to run educational programs on sustainable living for Namibian students. Local schools provide transportation to NaDEET (usually by rented bus from 100s of miles away) and then NaDEET provides food, lodging, and programs for a week in a desert environment for the group.

If you visit their site you will get a good idea of the project. I have done volunteer astronomy programs for them each time I have visited the area and the children, many from very poor families or orphans, are wondeful to work with, excited to learn, and very appreciative of the opportunity they have been given. NaDEET is funded by donations and the overhead is very, very low. If you are ever in the area at one of the near-by lodges (Wolwedans, Sossusvlei Mountain Lodge, etc.), try to arrange a visit.

I have always had problems with sponsorship of children or the needy in Africa when it came to donating to big organisations. My reasoning behind this has been one of believing that much of what I was donating would be going to bureaucracy and administration. Please don’t think I am saying that it is always what happens, it is just that I feel it happens much to often.

When I started up the “Ikamva Lethu Trust Fund” for the kids of the Kayamandi township near to Stellenbosch 6 years ago it was clearly stated in the founding documents that no monies are allowed to be spent on bureaucracy or administration. These functions had to come from voluntary sources. Thus all funds go in one direction and that is to be spent on community projects as well as education. This has proved to be hugely successful in the sense that all monies are spent on what was originally intended for it to be spent on by the donor.

Furthermore another aim of sponsorship in the trust was to not only educate those being sponsored but also to ensure that a relationship was built up between child and sponsor.

All of the above has resulted in the fact that we now have 42 children who have moved on from Afrocentric dancing classes to being wonderful ballroom dancers. From the disciplines that ballroom dancing teaches we chose kids to go from “poor” schools to “better” schools and sponsored them accordingly. 23 of these children are all at “better” schools this year. By “better” I mean that they originally were in classes of 50 learners (that’s the name for scholars in SA) and now they are in classes of 20 learners. This has resulted in such a better all round education that even I have been astounded at the results

Take the case of one of our young stars viz. 9 year old Onezwa who after our finding her a sponsor moved from her 50 learners/class to a better school with 20 learners/class last year. Two weeks after going to her new school her teacher called me to say that she felt that Onezwa was having difficulty with her vision. This resulted in us doing vision tests on Onzwa immediately and within days she was in spectacles. Obviously it was a case of kudos to her teacher but what really concerned me was how many kids like Onezwa are in need of spectacles but because they are in classes of 50 teachers are so overloaded that they miss these sort of issues. All I know is that sorting out Onezwa’s problem resulted in the fact that we changed a young persons life overnight. The most important point in this thread of discussion is that Onezwa has a sponsor (Jennifer) who presently is working in the Antarctic and no matter where Jennifer is she is always in contact with Onezwa via email, videos etc. So Jennifer was fully aware of all that happened to Onezwa during this very crucial period of her life. Up until now I have been the email go between linking Onezwa and Jennifer but this year we have appointed volunteers who have email facilities to act as mentors to all of our 23 children who we have sent to “better” schools. These mentors also act as the go between to improve the relationship between child and sponsor. As a matter of fact we don’t just ask for sponsorship we ask of sponsors to become involved in encouraging our kids directly too. In this manner Jennifer was continuously supporting Onezwa during her changeover to spectacles with emails etc. When Onezwa received her specs (she looks awfully cute in them) the first thing she asked me to do was take a picture of her to send to Jennifer In the same manner our 23 children in school all have pictures of their sponsors and even some of sponsors family pictures proudly pasted on walls in their rooms at home

Onezwa’s story is one of many that I can tell. 23 children in better schools is the most we can handle at this stage in that we are also on a learning curve in terms of what to do and what not to do with the sponsoring of children. For instance since last year we identified that the children should NOT be 100% sponsored and that the parents have to also carry a load of the costs involved to educate their children, after all the child is their responsibility. Thus this year the parents pay for all school transport costs that the children incur. When it comes to orphaned children we make an exception and pay the transport from our trust fund. More important though is that we also have the parents support and the whole household becomes involved with the sponsors. A highlight is when a great school report comes in or the child achieves something on the academic or extra mural front because when this happens everybody (Child, family, mentor and sponsor) share in these joys. Make no error there are lowlights too and these are similarly shared with everybody supporting one another. When or if the sponsor meets the child and his/her family we attain the highlight of all highlights. As most of the sponsors are visitors who travelled with me as a tourguide many of then have met the children they are sponsoring or are about to sponsor.

The crazy thing is that we don’t need sponsorship for any children this year and this mail is MOST CERTAINLY not being put on this board so as to attain sponsorship as we do quite well in this department already. What I want to try to do is pass on to all Fodrites reading this thread some good guidelines that I have picked up via the above that I feel you should look out for when sponsoring a child, be it in Africa or for that matter anywhere in the world.

1.Ensure that your monies are not going to be spent on a bureaucratic function

2.Make sure that you know the child you are sponsoring and if possible attempt to find out about his/her family and all else that is important to him/her

3.Try to meet the child that you are sponsoring

4.Maintain strong contact with the child and send photos, etc to the child so that he/she is well aware as to who you are. MOST IMPORTANT is that if you have children of your own introduce them to the child you are sponsoring and allow a relationship to develop.

5.Don’t just donate money; donate your time and care as best possible.

6.Be wary of organisations where you simply donate money to “a kid in Africa”. I am NOT saying don’t donate to these groups; all I am saying is be careful and ensure that the money goes to the child. To establish this do research into the group you are thinking of using by finding out from other sponosrs what their experiences have been within the operation. (Just like Lin is doing in this thread).

My experience is that if you land up with a successful sponsorship where a strong relationship develops between yourself and the child that you are sponsoring then you cant do much better to find anything as satisfying in the world. You have no idea what it feels like to make a difference to one young person in this world when you attain this situation so go for it!

Very proudly part of the wonderful nation of South Africa