Get out
of here . . .
. . . and go.
You want to change the problems
in the world. You didn’t create
them but today’s students are
going to be the ones to solve them.
What is an appropriate response
to hunger, shortage of clean water,
lack of adequate health care, and
to reaching the lost – either here
at home or somewhere else in our
global village?
If you are ready to take the
adventure God has laid out for
you we invite you to learn more.
You will discover opportunities.
Today you only imagine yourself
doing these things; Prairie will
prepare you for whatever God is
going to lead you into tomorrow.
Learn more. Call us at
1.800.661.2425 or visit us online at
www.prairie.edu.
prayers for the sponsored child. When
Ben had stitches last year, they prayed for
Gleiber in Colombia to stay healthy.
The relational cornerstone
This relationship building is the cornerstone on which hangs the success
– especially financial success – of child
sponsorship. While most organizations
state up front that funds are pooled for
the community’s benefit, ultimately benefiting the individual child, they know
that trying to raise funds for a project
doesn’t elicit the same kind of response
as a child’s face.
As significant as the relationship
can be for the donor, it is positively life-altering for the sponsored child.
“Knowing someone else cares about
you is one part of the development process,” says Michael Messenger, World
Vision Canada’s head of public affairs.
World Vision is arguably the world
leader with three million children sponsored, 360,000 of them by Canadians.
On a recent trip to Indonesia he met
children eager to show off gifts of pictures, stickers and letters received from
their sponsors.
But the real transformation comes to
children through the help the sponsorship dollars afford their communities.
It’s a long-term development approach
that “builds increased sustainability
and self-reliance,” Messenger says.
It’s also why David Marsh first decided, at 18, to become a sponsor. “I was
thinking a lot about international poverty
and concluded that child sponsorship was
one of the most effective ways of dealing
with it,” Marsh recalls. “You can do something very directly for people without having to address a lot of the structural problems like poor governance or corruption.
And the strong emphasis on sustainable
development of the local economy allows
for a lot of residual benefits.”
Different approaches: same goal
Though most agencies work toward this
sustainable development end, each goes
about it in a slightly different way. In the
nine countries where it has sponsor programs, Christian Children’s Fund (CCF)
doesn’t “set up shop” itself, says Abigail
Guevara, CCF’s public relations spokesperson, but involves “trusted local partners” already doing development work.
The Salvation Army relies on applications from its field missions, mostly
homes for orphans or children whose
parents can’t afford to look after them,
explains sponsorship director, Major
Sylvia Burt.
World Vision employs locals to work
under its umbrella. Compassion International, based in London, Ont., partners
with local churches, supplying funds,
curricula and programs to over a million children in 25 countries. Compassion leaves its name off materials so the
churches can “do what God has called
them to do,” marketing spokesperson
Aaron Armstrong explains.
Delivering the programs, though, is
time consuming and labour intensive.
Revenue Canada allows charities to
spend no more than 20 per cent of revenue on administration, and most agencies involved in child sponsorship are
close to that maximum.
Plus, child sponsorship can be an
“administrative nightmare,” says Jayme
van Geest, Careforce International
(based in Burlington, Ont.) director of
development. “In locations where the
turnover of children is high, donors can
sometimes wait months to be assigned
a new child,” she says.
Recently, Careforce abandoned individual sponsorships in favour of direct
funding of community projects. Donors
still give $40 a month to projects like
Village of Hope orphanage in Africa
that delivers education, food and health
care to children in need. In return, they
receive pictures of all the children.
Most organizations regard child
sponsorship as a key fundraising tool –
not to enrich themselves but to ensure
delivery of sustainable community economic development.
