Overseas child sponsorship
Saturday, 16 April, 2005
I first started with the SAO program back in 1996 or 97 when Australian Baptist World Aid came to my church (which was then Blakehurst Baptist Church). Though I don't remember the presentation itself, I remember being astounded at how little it took to keep a child alive (back then it was about $1 a day). I also remember being told that each child would have the good news told to them and I think these were the main reasons why I eventually signed up.
Over the years, however, Australian Baptist World Aid has changed its name to Baptist World Aid Australia, it's become more and more stylish in its promotional material and it is now far more concerned with social justice than with telling people about Jesus (not that that's a bad thing itself but it is certainly different to what I was told nine years ago). Included in the mail amongst all the other stuff was a little booklet entitled Your guide to SAO Child Sponsorship which has the following paragraph:
Many sponsored children come from non-Christian families. Our Christian partners often have significant input into the spiritual development of the children. In some countries local pastors take the responsibility for spiritual education of the children and their families. These aspects of the program are not the reponsibility of our partners, and are not funded by Baptist World Aid Australia. We cannot use sponsorship funds to conduct evangelism.
(Wish they would explain why. I also wish I had known this back in '96 but perhaps it wasn't the case then.)
This made me feel very sad because, above everything else I wanted for the girl I had sponsored—more than food, shelter, clothing or education— was for her to hear the good news about Jesus. And now I'm not even sure if she was ever told, if she ever understood or if she was even given the chance to respond. I'm not saying that, by the time she finished the program, she had to have become a Christian. I'm just saying that I was hoping that she'd be told that the main reason (though not the only reason) why I would ever have sponsored her in the first place was because I wanted her to know Jesus—that it was his love and his sacrifice of himself on the cross on my behalf which compelled me to be unselfish and share my first world wealth with her. Beyond one final letter, I don't think I will even be able to find out if she was ever told the gospel (based on her previous letters, I don't think she did) because, once the children leave the program, letters sent through the program cannot be passed on (she certainly does not have my address and I do not have hers; that sort of thing isn't allowed).
It also saddens me that she didn't write to me herself one last time but then I probably deserved that because I was always a lousy correspondent to her. I am glad, however, that it seems that she is going to try and pursue a college education which is pretty incredible considering her impoverished background.
Anyways, now Ben and I are looking to sponsor a child together. I don't think I will go back to Baptist World Aid Australia; I'm uneasy about the way they do things and it frightens me that an organisation, which appeared to be a missionary organisation when it first approached me, could just change like that without warning and without any input from its supporters. So we're looking elsewhere. I'd say our goals are pretty much the same: as well as providing for the child (in terms of material things and also in terms of education), we want them to have the opportunity to get to know Jesus.
So I've been browsing the web looking for organisations. So far I've found:
- World Vision Australia: They say, “The best way to change a child's life is to change the world in which they live. And, the best way to change their world is to help their community to build a self-sufficient and sustainable environment in the long-term.” And so the money doesn't go directly to the child but to projects aimed a enhancing their community (e.g. digging wells, building health clinics, etc.) I understand the rationale behind it—it's making things a little more equal so there is no division between sponsored and unsponsored children in the community and all benefit. But it's still kind of odd that you're doing these sorts of things through sponsoring a child. Why not just call it “Well-digging project” or “Supporting [insert name of village]”? That's not what we want to do. In addition, I can't believe that only around 77% of funds get sent overseas. That's just stupid.
- CCF Australia: CCF Australia is quite similar to World Vision in this respect (though they claim to send 80% of funds overseas which is a little better). I spent most of my time on the site trying to work out what “CCF” stood for. According to this page, they started out as the China's Children's Fund and then changed to Christian Children's Fund during the 50's. Now they've changed simply to CCF as:
CCF Australia is not affiliated with any religion, faith or other organisations. CCF Australia is a non-discriminatory, independent, not-for-profit organisation, assisting children, families and communities regardless of nationality, gender or religion. We respect the cultures and religions of all the people we help, encouraging spiritual growth only within the context of family and culture and do not evangelise.
- Compassion Australia: This looks rather promising:
Their statement of faith and the FAQs look reassuring too. Unfortunately they only manage to get 80% of the cost overseas.Compassion believes that children are a community's greatest resource. Through one-on-one sponsorship and in partnership with the local church, Compassion offers a child the opportunity to experience God's love, hear and respond to the Gospel, and bring about lasting change.
(One thing good about Baptist World Aid Australia is that they manage to get 85% going overseas.)
So Ben and I have gone with Compassion Australia and are going to sponsor a little girl in Thailand. (It seems to me that girls are more disadvantaged than boys in developing countries simply because they are girls so I'm going to keep on sponsoring girls.) It's a bit more expensive than Baptist World Aid Australia but I think it will be worth it and it will be nice that Ben and I get to sponsor her together.
Blinks:
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Issues organised by tale.
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Yay! Good choice. I sponsor a little girl in Peru through Compassion. Her name is Xiomara which I think is pretty cool! How awesome that you are using the money God has given you to make sure somebody else hears about Jesus
So far I have found Compassion to be true to what they say in terms of sharing God’s love with the children. With regards to only 80% of funds going out, I suppose in a country like this it must cost them a bit to run admin etc, it sucks but maybe that’s the best they can get it to at the moment - would be interesting to know how BWAA save that extra 5% though?!
My mum and dad have sponsored little children through Compassion as long as I can remember, mostly boys in south east Asia.
Hez: I think BWAA used to have a lot of volunteers who would come and do things like stuff envelopes for them. These days all their correspondence looks so glossy and comes on specially-printed stationery I kind of wonder where the money goes. And they produce a little magazine which they send out to all supporters to solicit more money.
Deb, that’s so cool that your family have been doing that! I hope that when/if we have a family, we’ll get them enthusiastic about doing it too.