Lin

Does anyone have any information about programs that 'sponsor' a particular child? Thanks.

PredatorBiologist

Lin: I am very involved with building the Rwanda Girls School www.rwandagirlsschool.org

We are still raising money for school building so no particular girls yet but once the school launches there will be specific girls in need of sponsors.

Marija

You can sponsor a highschool education for a particular Maasai child through:
http://www.maasaifoundation.org. This organization is affliated with Campi ya Kanzi.

kerikeri

i apologize if this is inappropriate, but after volunteering in africa last summer, i was innundated with requests for "sponsorship" from various people working at the ngo.

i still have the street address of one family. if you are interested, i can provide it to you. these are regular people, the father works as a driver for a non profit where the workers literally haven't been paid in months.

i am not sure if that's what you mean by sponsorship, or if you are looking for a rural program. these people are urban and live in uganda.

they have two small babies. i think by 'sponsorship" they mean someone to send them money for school fees, which is probably like $30 us a year- but i honestly have no idea.

you can write to him if you'd like and see. just let me know how to reach you if you want and i will give you his contact address.

kerikeri

ann_nyc

I sponsor a child in Uganda through World vision. The program in Africa is called 'hope child'. Take a look at WWW.worldvision.org. they are working in many countries in Africa.

Calo

I sponsor a child in northern Tanzania through Plan International:
http://www.plan-international.org/

The organization works to alleviate poverty and help children in developing countries to realise their full potential.

Rosenose

Take a look at BEADSforeducation.org. This is a small grassroots organization founded a by a woman in New Jersey. [The home page at the moment is full of information about a walk-a-thon in Kenya. Just click on "sponsorship."] For several years, my daughter and I have sponsored the education of a girl who is my daughter's age. We have been in Kenya twice visiting her and her family, and last summer took our sponsored friend traveling with us for several days. I can put you in touch with the founder of the BEADS organization if you are interested. Whatever you decide to do, I encourage you to do something. I pay less than $400 per year, and that pays a full year of secondary school fees for our friend. Without the sponsorship, she would not be in school. In Kenya, only primary school is free (and that is a great and new thing).

Thembi

Sponsorship of a particular child or just one family may cause some difficulties in communities. this may not be a popular opinion by-and-large. I commend every effort to assist in a wholistic way - such as school projects as mentioned initially by PredatorBioligist above.

There are alternative views to individual child sponsorship. It could be quite contraversial and I am not here to cause disruption. I am a traveller, and hope my thoughtfulness about where we go, and perhaps more importantly which organistations we support while we are at home - makes a difference in the world.

An organisation in which I am an ordinary member - is APHEDA http://www.apheda.org.au/ and their Make Life Fair Everywhere campaign. I reiterate that I am affiliated to APHEDA as an ordinary member.

The approach here is non-religious, skills focused and assists families, workers, communitites in a range of ways - health, education, occupational health and safety, micro-credit etc. It makes sense to me to provide for organisations that focus on the whole picture - but there are other views too.

Some people believe that aid itself is part of the problem. Maybe it is our responsibility to become as educated as possible before making a choice.

I am not affilated with any of the following organisations or views, but present them here as an alternative. These links were found using the following search terms in a search engine
"alternative to child sponsorship"
"community development schools africa"
"water zambia"

http://live.newint.org/issue111/keynote.htm
http://live.newint.org/issue194/simply.htm

Examples where donations assist whole of community development
http://www.wateraid.org.uk
http://www.africaeducationaltrust.org/africa.html

Again I reiterate I am affilaited with APHEDA but not with any of the other links on this page - just wished to show the range of options available.
Good luck in your decision Lin on how to best make your contribution.

MyDogKyle

You can sponsor a child through the Tanzanian Children's Fund:
http://www.tanzanianchildrensfund.org/

They have a great website with lots of information, and you can also visit the Rift Valley Children's Village if you go to the Karatu area.

ShayTay

I've been to the Rift Valley Children's Village and am now starting a sponsorship of a child there. I also sponsor a child in Ethiopia through World Vision (and previously Kenya.) There is another organization in Kenya you might also check out, Special Ministries. (www.kenyahope.org.) I'm sponsoring several children and an office worker with them. Each organization takes pains to assist the entire community, not just a few individuals. My WV Kenya sponsorship ended because the Pokot community they had been working with reached self sufficiency. I actually visited their Nairobi offices and discussed that with them. Special Ministries has set up a series of Hope Centers throughout Kenya. I've also spent several days with their Nairobi office staff and am impressed with their people and their work.

jjude

www.righttoplay.com is an international organization that works with children in the refugee camps in Afrika. You can visit their website to get a feel for the work they do. I have heard personal stories of athletes that have supported this NGO and its all good.

Lin

Hurray, I knew I'd find good info on this board. Thank you for all your responses which I intend to investigate individually. I probably won't, however, look at any sites that aren't personally recommended. I could also have done a search on the web but would prefer to deal with an organization that someone has had experience with. Again I appreciate all your replies, (none of which were inappropriate, kerikeri!)

I totally agree with you Thembi and I do support several causes comparable to those you mention. I think the idea of individual sponsorship is different in that it allows the rewards associated with meeting the child that one is helping, and perhaps communicating with him or her for many years. I suppose it is a bit selfish, but I'd like to try something a little different than having my money go into a huge generic pot. I'm aware that the 'pots' are important. I'm only speaking for myself and I simply have a desire to try to help an African person that I can see, touch, and hear, and perhaps help more than once along their life path. I choose Africa because of what she means to me, thanks to my opportunities to travel there. Bless all of you for reaching out.

Lin

kerikeri, Can you please clarify a few things?

Sorry that I'm clueless. What is the ngo? When you were inundated with requests, are you saying that the Ugandan people were asking you for help, or that people back home were asking how they could help?

Did the family you mention give you their address personally? Do you know them? Do you have any other details?

Thanks.

Rosenose

This I do know, Lin: whichever of the many worthy programs is a "fit" for you, your involvement will make a huge difference in at least one person's life.

Just one more comment -- about the idea of giving someone aid as a problem. I can only speak of the program that I know, BEADS for Education; but I would hope that most of these programs are similar. BEADS requires that the family of each sponsored girl pay at least 5% of the tuition--not easy in Masai tribal culture, especially for a family with many kids. Once a sponsored girl has finished secondary school, she works "for" BEADS as an intern teaching in one of the country's public primary schools and its community for a year before continuing her education. The public primary schools in Kenya (those that I have seen) need all the help and resources that they can get. The three interns I met and spent a day with last summer are translating really basic English readers into Maa, so that the students at their school can learn to read in Maa first. The student we sponsor--who traveled with us for several days this summer--got the same "ear-full" from me that my own daughter gets: "You have this opportunity for an education. Work hard, study hard, and do the best that you can. This is what I expect of you and I hope you expect of yourself." I do not view that as being charity in the hand-out sense at all. Sorry for the long post....

Lin

Rose,
I've been researching these links tonight. BEADS absolutely seems to have their act together. I like what you say about students having to contribute to their own cause and to give back once they have graduated.

Here is what else I think. I understand that my $30 per month might be seen by some as a 'handout' problematic to the recipient's personal development. However, I believe that even when supplied with schooling, food and a uniform, these kids have many other obstacles to overcome in their lives and will not have the 'silver spoon' mentality that my own kids probably have...the thought of what some of them have been through -losing parents to AIDs or violence, living in extreme poverty, and God knows what else - helps to convince me that my 'handout' is not going to make things worse.

Thanks for caring and sharing!

ann_nyc

Just a few more notes about www.worldvision.org. They not only offer sponsorship for individual children, then work with entire communities, since there is very little you can effectively do for one child if the entire community is devastated.
While they have a great reputation for crisis relief, they also look into the long term sustainability of the community, and offer support such as different varieties of agricultural crops (that might handle weather or disease better); healthcare, education, clean water, etc.
In Africa, they have a big emphasis on helping communities that have been devastated by AIDS. But ongoing they also stress Malaria prevention, and access to clean water, and child vaccines.

So the child sponsorship covers specific child needs such as uniforms for school, but it works hand in hand with the world vision programs that serve the entire community.

The ultimate goal is to make the community self-sufficient, so there is a lot of emphasis on infrastructure (clean water; schools) and on education (including not only school for children but also health & hygene education, and agricultural training). They also provide microloans. These are used, for example, to lend a woman enough money to purchase a sewing machine which she can then use to support herself and her family.

Rosenose

Lin -- I agree with just about everything that has been said by all the people who have taken their time to respond to you. Infrastructure change, HIV awareness/prevention training are all a part what will effect change.

If you do decide to contact BEADS, please be patient. It really is a grassroots organization. You will not get a slick reply or probably even a prompt reply. If you email Debby Rooney at BEADS, feel free to put in the "re"
line "referred by Betsy Kimball." ["Rosenose" is our female cat.]

My own daughter -- very much a child of privilege -- has benefited more than I can tell you from not only our visits to Africa and relationships there, but from the work she has done locally (Sacramento) to support BEADS. I hope and trust that my daughter's relationships and concern will last throughout her life.

kerikeri

hi lin

can i also first say how nice it is to see how many people with familiar names are doing so much to help? i think you, lin, and everyone else, are really special for doing so.

i, personally, know this man. every morning he came to pick me up to take me to the office where i worked (as a condition of my work, the sending organization required this- sorry to bore everyone with this detail).

ngo stands for non governmental organization, which means it is funded privately, not as part of the government. instead of fancy cars and foreigners running things, every worker is ugandan and they have to find their own funding every year using the limited resources they have.

as anyone who has spent time in africa has likely experienced, foreigners are assumed to (and let's face it, do) have an endless supply of money, so in the course of my time, i can think of exactly one person who did not ask for money, for medicine, for school fees. that's what i mean by 'sponsorship comment."

there is a bottomless well of need, but clearly every human being who goes to africa cannot fix the systenmic problems- it's a personal choice how one would like to help.

anyway, on my final week of work, this man gave me a photo of his babies and told me their names and wrote them on the back and wanted me to keep the picture. i didn;t want to take it, because pictures are expensive and because i wanted him to have it, but i took his contact details. his exact phrase was that he wanted me to find him a "pen pal" for his children, which, i believe is a euphemism for sponsorship (since the baby can't write, and his english is not good enough to have an office, job, that's why he's a driver).

i'm still in touch via email with the office (ngo) and have asked my friend there to reconfirm his address. i am certain that he does not have internet at home, but when there is power, the office has a computer hookup.

he's a young man, i would say late 20's. he's married. he's extremely responsible (he was never late getting me)and kind and spent hours trying to teach me words in ugandan. i cannot tell you much else because frankly, my ugandan speaking skills are non existent. i would say he is the equivalent of a young family man in the us, except without english language skills he will never be anything but a service type worker (driver).

i have an account at lonelyplanet and if you do, too, i can private message you, if you tell me your "handle" there (how i wish we had pm functions here).

or if there is some other protected way for me to send you his address without my posting it publically, please suggest it and i will happily do so- i can put it in the mail if you'd like.

you can write to him if you want and just say hi and see what happens. who knows maybe he does only want a pen pal (doubtful!). if it doesn't work out there is certainly no obligation to him or to me.

thanks for wanting to help!

kerikeri

Lin

Betsy, sorry I jumped the gun and called you by your cat's name! I'll post again when I find out more and make some decisions. Thanks for your help, I'll certainly use your name as a referral. I wish I had thought of this sooner while my daughter was still home - she leaves this summer for college. We'll see, maybe I can draw her in sometime in the future.

ann_nyc: Thank you for your comments. I read the link that Thembi posted and there are certainly facets to child sponsorship that I had not previously considered. However it does seem that the reputable companies are already on top of these issues and are trying to assist the community as a whole, as well as the child. It seemed from the articles (live.newint.org) that the main concerns are that one child might benefit but not the community; that the benefiting child might experience resentment and divisiveness caused by envy; and that the activity that most benefits us, the givers, which is the communication aspect ie receiving letters from the sponsored child - is described as a big hassle for the organization and a money-drainer since they must pay staff to handle correspondence from sponsors and to oversee the replies. And I guess it's true that some sponsors try to press their religious beliefs on the child.

Thanks to this article and to Thembi, I will ask some careful questions before committing, and consider how my letters might impact the child.

Lin

kerikeri, I posted my last post at the same time as you, so just saw yours. I thought this over and decided that while there's definitely an attraction to sending money to a particular family, I would feel most comfortable at this point in doing things through an organization who will oversee the use of the money. I have no doubt that this young man is reputable and a hard worker, and I wish him and his family the best. Thank you so much for telling this story, it brings home how desperate these people are, asking help of a stranger - and yet, also how courteous, because he did not come right out with it!