I?m sure there are many fine organizations helping the impoverished children of the world but the only one I?m familiar with is Children International (www.children.org). I got started with them about 18 years ago when it was called Holy Land Christian Mission International. At that time it was $10 a month to sponsor a child, so I started with two children. I didn?t ask for any particular country or gender (you can if you want) and the first little girl was from Honduras, I think, and they gave me a little boy in the Philippines. Well, the kids come and go from the program; I?ve learned that over the years. I like to think that it?s because their family has experienced an increase in income and no longer need the assistance, but, really, I guess I?ll never know.
On average, the kids from the Philippines seem to stay in the program 3 to 4 years, and then Children International (CI) will send me a new picture and, OK, well, here?s another little guy to get to know. I have a phrase book for Tagalog so I can write them ?Hello, how?s it going? and small talk like that in their own language, but I don?t see myself devoting a lot of time to becoming fluent in Tagalog. And I don?t see myself visiting the Philippines either, not unless I hit the lottery.
So the little girl from Honduras stayed around maybe two years and then one day I got a picture in the mail of my new sponsored child?a very cute, though unsmiling, little girl from Santiago in the Dominican Republic, a place I knew nothing about except that it was in or around the Gulf of Mexico. Well, unlike the other kids who came and went, she stayed in the program?thirteen years and counting. I can?t believe she?ll be eighteen in January.
Meanwhile, the airlines got deregulated and the fare wars began and a trip to the DR began to look more and more possible. Separately, I began teaching myself spanish in order to stretch my brain a little bit (it hadn?t been seriously challenged since college calculus) and also to flirt with the mexican gals who cleaned the building where I was working, sometimes long after dark. Those stories are parts of other posts so I won?t repeat them again. I?ll stick to telling you about CI.
OK, so these days it costs $15 a month to sponsor a child and after my first trip to the DR to meet my sponsored child and her family I took on 3 more kids from the Santiago area. Now $15 may not seem like a lot, but at the very least it enables these kids to go to school, and even though they?re not the best schools, at the very least they?re being taught to read and write and the basics of math, history and the like. For that alone, it?s worth it. The kids also get medical care and information to hopefully keep them well enough to keep going to school. They get fed.
I used to get two photographs a year but it seems like lately they?ve cut that back to one per year. And the letters that the kids write seem to always follow a certain formula. Even if you write them a letter and ask them some specific questions, they seem to send you back what amounts to a form letter. I mean it?s hand-written but it follows the pattern of almost every letter you have gotten before. Keep in mind that the organization is trying to help as many kids as possible and so if they have to herd them all into a room on letter-writing day and they all more-or-less copy the letter off the blackboard, well that?s just how it has to be.
I write my kids in spanish but you don?t have to. I send them birthday cards and Christmas cards that I get at one of the many mexican stores that are opening all over st louis. I think that?s a nice touch, but again, you don?t have to. If you send a special contribution of $100 or more for the child?s birthday or Christmas, CI will take pictures of everything they bought with your money and also some extra pictures of the child. I prefer these to the annual staged pictures in which the kids always seem to look so sad. Are they coached to look sad? I don?t know. I know they make the girls take their earrings out for the annual pictures, but not for the ?extra? pictures. If you send less than $100, they?ll send you a special ?thank you? letter and nothing more. You have to break the hundred-dollar plateau to get pictures and the list of stuff that was bought.
Anything bigger than a letter has to be sent at your own expense. I used UPS but there are other reputable shipping firms. You send the box to the organization office and they deliver it. I sent a big box of books and CDs mostly, a headset and extra batteries, stuff like that. It weighed 20-25 pounds and cost me about $125 to ship, I think. The kids really really like to get letters and pictures from you. You can send gifts, but really it?s best to send money to the CI people and let them decide what the family needs. They really know best. Well, I could tell you more but maybe I?ll stop here and open it up for questions, or you can PM me if you want.
I?m just trying to give you some idea of what the financial commitment will be and what you?re getting for it. And I guess it amounts to an endorsement, in a way. I?m very uncomfortable telling people what I spend on what. As a rule I don?t do it. I was raised to believe that that is nobody else?s business, but if you?re considering sponsorship, I think you need to know some of this stuff. Until the night before I left for my first trip to the DR, nobody, not even my family knew I had sponsored children. I sent an email to my coworkers at about 8:00PM telling them where I was going and why and then I headed for the airport. I felt I owed them at least that.
The average ?life span? of a sponsor is four and a half years, that?s according to CI?s own statistics. My own personal advice would be to stay in it for the long haul if at all possible. You can?t change the world, but you can send a kid to school. Start there if that?s how your heart is leading you. Not everybody can afford sponsorship. Believe me, friends, I?ve been there and done that. Believe me. It so happens that at this point in my life I can. Next year I may be on the unemployment line. Nobody really knows for sure, do they? While I can, I?m going to keep this up.
Thanks for reading,
Mike
ps I posted this because some people asked me to in my Trip Report thread. As I said, I'm kind of uncomfortable with some of the details. I'm a OK guy, I guess, for doing all this, but I think Greg Allman said it best in his song Wasted Words:
"I ain't no saint,
sure as hell ain't no savior.
Every other Christmas I will
practice good behavior" toodles
On average, the kids from the Philippines seem to stay in the program 3 to 4 years, and then Children International (CI) will send me a new picture and, OK, well, here?s another little guy to get to know. I have a phrase book for Tagalog so I can write them ?Hello, how?s it going? and small talk like that in their own language, but I don?t see myself devoting a lot of time to becoming fluent in Tagalog. And I don?t see myself visiting the Philippines either, not unless I hit the lottery.
So the little girl from Honduras stayed around maybe two years and then one day I got a picture in the mail of my new sponsored child?a very cute, though unsmiling, little girl from Santiago in the Dominican Republic, a place I knew nothing about except that it was in or around the Gulf of Mexico. Well, unlike the other kids who came and went, she stayed in the program?thirteen years and counting. I can?t believe she?ll be eighteen in January.
Meanwhile, the airlines got deregulated and the fare wars began and a trip to the DR began to look more and more possible. Separately, I began teaching myself spanish in order to stretch my brain a little bit (it hadn?t been seriously challenged since college calculus) and also to flirt with the mexican gals who cleaned the building where I was working, sometimes long after dark. Those stories are parts of other posts so I won?t repeat them again. I?ll stick to telling you about CI.
OK, so these days it costs $15 a month to sponsor a child and after my first trip to the DR to meet my sponsored child and her family I took on 3 more kids from the Santiago area. Now $15 may not seem like a lot, but at the very least it enables these kids to go to school, and even though they?re not the best schools, at the very least they?re being taught to read and write and the basics of math, history and the like. For that alone, it?s worth it. The kids also get medical care and information to hopefully keep them well enough to keep going to school. They get fed.
I used to get two photographs a year but it seems like lately they?ve cut that back to one per year. And the letters that the kids write seem to always follow a certain formula. Even if you write them a letter and ask them some specific questions, they seem to send you back what amounts to a form letter. I mean it?s hand-written but it follows the pattern of almost every letter you have gotten before. Keep in mind that the organization is trying to help as many kids as possible and so if they have to herd them all into a room on letter-writing day and they all more-or-less copy the letter off the blackboard, well that?s just how it has to be.
I write my kids in spanish but you don?t have to. I send them birthday cards and Christmas cards that I get at one of the many mexican stores that are opening all over st louis. I think that?s a nice touch, but again, you don?t have to. If you send a special contribution of $100 or more for the child?s birthday or Christmas, CI will take pictures of everything they bought with your money and also some extra pictures of the child. I prefer these to the annual staged pictures in which the kids always seem to look so sad. Are they coached to look sad? I don?t know. I know they make the girls take their earrings out for the annual pictures, but not for the ?extra? pictures. If you send less than $100, they?ll send you a special ?thank you? letter and nothing more. You have to break the hundred-dollar plateau to get pictures and the list of stuff that was bought.
Anything bigger than a letter has to be sent at your own expense. I used UPS but there are other reputable shipping firms. You send the box to the organization office and they deliver it. I sent a big box of books and CDs mostly, a headset and extra batteries, stuff like that. It weighed 20-25 pounds and cost me about $125 to ship, I think. The kids really really like to get letters and pictures from you. You can send gifts, but really it?s best to send money to the CI people and let them decide what the family needs. They really know best. Well, I could tell you more but maybe I?ll stop here and open it up for questions, or you can PM me if you want.
I?m just trying to give you some idea of what the financial commitment will be and what you?re getting for it. And I guess it amounts to an endorsement, in a way. I?m very uncomfortable telling people what I spend on what. As a rule I don?t do it. I was raised to believe that that is nobody else?s business, but if you?re considering sponsorship, I think you need to know some of this stuff. Until the night before I left for my first trip to the DR, nobody, not even my family knew I had sponsored children. I sent an email to my coworkers at about 8:00PM telling them where I was going and why and then I headed for the airport. I felt I owed them at least that.
The average ?life span? of a sponsor is four and a half years, that?s according to CI?s own statistics. My own personal advice would be to stay in it for the long haul if at all possible. You can?t change the world, but you can send a kid to school. Start there if that?s how your heart is leading you. Not everybody can afford sponsorship. Believe me, friends, I?ve been there and done that. Believe me. It so happens that at this point in my life I can. Next year I may be on the unemployment line. Nobody really knows for sure, do they? While I can, I?m going to keep this up.
Thanks for reading,
Mike
ps I posted this because some people asked me to in my Trip Report thread. As I said, I'm kind of uncomfortable with some of the details. I'm a OK guy, I guess, for doing all this, but I think Greg Allman said it best in his song Wasted Words:
"I ain't no saint,
sure as hell ain't no savior.
Every other Christmas I will
practice good behavior" toodles
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