Child Sponsorship

• Category Overview
  
  Before our children enroll in school, they get vaccinated against diseases like diphtheria, measles, and tetanus. In developing countries, 72 million children do not even have the opportunity to attend school. According to UNICEF, State of the World’s Children 2008, more than six million children die each year from preventable illnesses like diarrhea and malaria before the age of 5. That’s about 30 schools a day being totally wiped out!
  
  The statistics are overwhelming and poverty is not black and white. It is not simply a lack of money needed for physical survival, but it is a lack of hope rooted in spiritual destitution. We who are rich in Christ have been given the privilege and duty of caring for orphans. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). Unlike a single donation, child sponsorship offers continual blessings as a sponsor invests in providing for a needy child through the years. The sponsor also gets to experience the joy of developing a relationship with a child and ministering on an ongoing basis through prayer and letter writing!
  
  A child sponsor funds a child in a developing country until the child graduates the sponsorship program. Child sponsorship organizations are responsible for managing the use of donations and directing communication between sponsors and their sponsored children. The emphasis of each child sponsorship program varies as well as the financial commitment. Some programs implement a one-to-one child-sponsor relationship and apply contributions directly to the needs of the specific child. This may include education, school supplies, health care, supplemental nutrition, safe recreation opportunities, life skill classes, and ministries through the local church. Other sponsorship programs focus on funding the development of the child’s community rather than directly to the individual child. Examples include emergency relief, water projects, and building schools and health clinics. Serving as a child sponsor entails a monthly commitment of $30-$40. Giving as little as $1 a day, you can share with your child about the infinitely greater price Christ paid on the cross for all of us who are needy of a Savior!
  
• Requirements/Qualifications
  
  Anyone who can afford and commit to the monthly contribution can sponsor a child. There are no age limits to qualify as a sponsor. Singles, couples, small groups, and families can all serve in this capacity.
  
• Process
  
  Child sponsorship is simple and quick to set up. The primary approach is to go to a sponsorship program’s Web site to select a child or have a child assigned to you. You may also contact the sponsorship organization to request a child biography packet to be sent by mail. Setting up a recurring credit card or automatic checking withdrawal is the most common method of payment. You may also choose to send in cash or check on a monthly basis. Once the appropriate forms are submitted and the first monthly payment is received, you are officially the child’s sponsor. You will receive confirmation of the first payment in addition to more information on the program and guidelines for letter writing. Depending on the method of payment, monthly or quarterly statements are sent to sponsors. Donations are tax-deductible since these organizations are usually tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations. This initiation process can take anywhere from a day to weeks to complete.
  
• Commitment Level Involved
  
  Child sponsorship programs offer you the opportunity to stay with a child for a number of years, usually through the school year in which the child reaches the age of 18-21. You are encouraged to stay with a child for at least a year, but you may discontinue your sponsorship at any time by contacting the organization. Besides the financial commitment, sponsors are encouraged to pray for their child and write letters as often as they’d like to their child. You may sponsor multiple children at the same time.
  
• Challenges, Barriers, and Misconceptions
  
  A difficulty people encounter in becoming a child sponsor is choosing an organization to serve through. Which agencies are trustworthy? Where does the money go? Are these actual children in need? Many programs claim to be Christian but is the true gospel being shared? After researching numerous agencies, two trustworthy programs that focus on the gospel and have demonstrated financial integrity are Covenant Mercies and Compassion International. Both agencies link one child to one sponsor so that a relationship can develop. These agencies not only use sponsorship funds to provide for the child’s physical needs, but both work through the local church to share the gospel and shepherd the children in biblical truths. Children write to their sponsors one to three times a year. You will also track your child’s development through receiving an annual photo of your child and updates on their progress in school, health, and living conditions. There is even the option to visit your child.
  
  Another misconception people have with child sponsorship is that it is simply giving money. Because setting up a recurring credit card or automatic checking withdrawal is so convenient, sponsorship can become impersonal like taxes being taken out of monthly paychecks. People may neglect praying and letter writing which are important aspects of this ministry. Sponsors are investing in a child’s life and should attempt to develop a relationship through letter writing. Considering that many sponsors are not Christians, we as believers should recognize the privilege and responsibility of such an open opportunity to share about Christ! Because Covenant Mercies and Compassion International are church-based ministries, you are free to share your testimony, the gospel, and what you are learning in the Word in your letters. As a sponsor you are in a position to model Christ’s love. You can encourage your child by expressing an interest in specific topics your child has written about or sharing how you are praying for him or her. Exchanging letters also helps to improve your child’s basic literacy and communication skills.
  
• Next Step
  
  Contact Jamie Le (jamie.loren.le@gmail.com) for assistance in becoming a child sponsor. She is in direct contact with representatives from Covenant Mercies and Compassion International to quickly find answer to further questions.

Covenant Mercies

http://www.covenantmercies.org/pages/index.php?pID=282

Covenant Mercies was established in 2002 through Covenant Fellowship Church which is a part of Sovereign Grace Ministries. Currently 1,000 children from Eastern Uganda, Western Uganda, Zambia, and Ethiopia are registered in the orphan sponsorship program. About 200 registered children are still in need of sponsors before waiting children in these regions can register for the program. Children write letters to their sponsors at least once a year. Covenant Mercies also sends an annual profile of the child detailing living conditions, health, and education. General updates are sent throughout the year.

Covenant Mercies partners with and equips indigenous local churches to care for orphans in their communities. These churches were selected because the pastors are connected to Sovereign Grace Ministries and agree on essential doctrines. This ensures that the ministry is gospel-centered with sound teaching. Covenant Mercies not only provides the children with daily sustenance, but strives to integrate the children into the life of the local church to receive biblical instruction and a Christian upbringing. Project workers that carry out the ministry are faithful church members. They visit the children in their homes at least twice a month and invite the children and extended families to church. Occasional Saturdays include Bible lessons and life skills for the children. Because of the vulnerability of young girls to older men in Uganda, the local church’s women’s ministry has started a program to counsel girls ages 12 and up.

A distinctive of Covenant Mercies is ministering solely to fatherless children, whether a child’s father dies or abandons his family. Even if a mother is still in the child’s life, she is likely a widow who does not have a job to provide for her children. The church facilitates care for these children through means of their extended families if possible. Where no extended family is available, orphans’ homes are constructed where the children can be raised in a normal family environment. There are currently five orphan homes in Uganda, each of which house eight children. Because there are 600 children in the orphan sponsorship program in Uganda, a secondary Christian school is being constructed for these children.

Ninety-eight percent of the contributions are applied directly to the needs of a sponsored child. Only $0.50 of $30.00 is transferred to Uganda each month to cover expenses related to visiting the children and to pay small salaries to the individuals doing the bulk of the visitation. Overhead and administrative costs are primarily covered by donors and fundraising events, not child sponsors. Sponsorship funding contributes to:

1) Nutrition: multi-vitamins and supplemental food
2) Medical: prescriptions and medical expenses at local health clinics, HIV testing and treatment
3) Education: school uniforms, books, secondary and vocational school fees

Compassion International

http://www.compassion.com/sponsor_a_child/default.htm

Compassion International began in 1952 through providing Korean War orphans with food, shelter, education, health care, and Christian training. Compassion International currently helps more than one million children in 24 developing countries:

• Africa: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda
• Central America and the Caribbean: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua
•  South America: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
• Asia: Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand

A variety of children are eligible for the sponsorship program: low family income and assets, chronic illness, malnutrition, inability to attend school or progress in school, physically or mentally impaired, orphaned, abandoned, or exploited.

Children write at least three times a year to their sponsor. Sponsors are provided with letter writing material and are encouraged to write to their children as often as they’d like. Compassion’s field staff translates letters and delivers it to the child. Letters or photographs inappropriate in another culture, inconsistent with biblically based lifestyles, or threatening to the safety of the child will not be forwarded. This includes materials that advocate another religious worldview or persons dressed in immodest clothing. Annual updates and newsletters are sent to sponsors about the child’s country and Compassion’s program there. Sponsors may visit their child on a Compassion Sponsor Tour.

Compassion establishes project sites at local churches that agree to partner in four developmental goals for the children: commitment to the lordship of Christ, good health practices, motivation and skills to be economically self-supporting, and healthy interactions with others. Each child is given a Bible and taught lessons from Scripture in addition to lessons in other developmental classes throughout the week. Children’s attendance at project sites varies between several times a day and one to three times a week depending on the region.

According to the 2007-2008 fiscal year audit report by KPMG LLP, 83.1% of funds went directly to program expenses and 16.9% went to administration and fundraising. Sponsorship funding contributes to daily needs and activities/classes held at project sites:

1. Bible studies
2. Education: school fees, uniforms, books, tutoring, literacy programs
3. Vocational classes: shoe repair, small engine repair, agriculture, sewing, craft making
4. Health: hygiene classes, vaccines, health checkups, supplementary food and nutrition, HIV/AIDS/STD prevention and awareness
5. Life skills: food preservation and storing, teeth brushing, mosquito net use, first aid
6. Physical activity: sports and exercise in a safe environment to develop gross and fine motor movement skills