Child Sponsorship Article

Gotta love Facebook and the connected-ness you can have with people and the insight that can be had into other's lives, thoughts, beliefs, etc.

I came across a post from a person that works for World Relief that I met when I was at their conference in Baltimore. It's and interested article that she posted on Child Sponsorship models of doing ministries. The ones such as World Vision is known so well for. I thought I would share it with you. I am becoming more and more aware of healthy community development and what it means to bring people and communities into a sustainable way of living. So, I really connect with the points of this article, but am also supportive of the organizations that are doing their part in trying to make the World a better place.

Have a read and think about it....

Why Child Sponsership isn't the best form of development

This is from New Internationalist magazine.

Why you should not sponser a child

You might want to help a poor child in the Third World. But sponsoring them is not the best way. Here is an NI summary of the disadvantages of child sponsorship. Not all of these criticisms apply to every agency. But all sponsorship programmes have at least some of these defects.

Family Rifts
Focusing on individuals often means that aid agencies arbitrarily single out children or families for preferential treatment. The chosen few may receive extra food, education, clothes, medical treatment and gifts which others do not. Brothers, sisters or other families become jealous. And parents can feel humiliated because outsiders are providing things which they cannot - or frustrated that only one of their children receives help.

Political Pawns
The way in which a child or family is chosen for sponsorship may reflect the political orientation of the aid agency involved rather than the needs of the child. In order for a child to qualify its parents may have to cease certain forms of political or religious activity - or the child may be pressured to take up activities like reading the Bible. This conditional giving violates the rights of the child to choose its own beliefs.

Maintaining Dependance
The sponsored child is constantly reminded that they are the 'poor relation'. They must always be prepared to show gratitude to the 'rich cousins' on whose charity they depend. The best aid projects foster initiative and enterprise in those they help. Sponsorship programmes always run the risk of fostering dependence.

Cultural Confusion
The exchange between child and sponsor can be culturally insensitive to the child's way of life. Children may know nothing about Christmas, say, but find themselves encouraged to send Christmas cards. Imagine you were a Christian and a wealthy Arab sponsored your child and sent them presents and pictures of their sumptuous lifestyle along with a copy of the Koran to read.

Perpetuating Ignorance
Sponsorship schemes claim to offer cultural interchange between donor and child. But this is generally very limited. Letters from child to sponsor are usually censored to remove requests for money, complaints from disillusioned families and all mention of politics. Professional letter-writers and translators are sometimes used to handle the correspondence - or staff may dictate letters to children according to a sample provided in a manual. The donor finds out little about the child or its culture.

Dissapointed Liberation
Programmes which give education to individual children can isolate them from family and friends. They are educated to uselessness, unable to obtain well-paid white-collar work in their own towns or village and unwilling to do low paid 'menial' labour. As adults they either remain at home dissatisfied, or take their skills further afield, away from the community that needs them.

Frustrated Desires
Child sponsorship programmes can create unfulfillable desires and expectations. A child who learns of a sponsor's large house and reads about their skiing holidays or big cars can become dissatisfied with his or her own community and want to be taken away to that affluent world.

Wasteful Spending
Child sponsorship programmes are enormously expensive to administer. The letters, photos and reports prepared for sponsors are costly and time-consuming. It is sad that so much must be spent for the benefit of the donor rather than the child.

Fostering Racism
Child sponsorship advertisements distort our image of the Third World and perpetuate many negative stereotypes. Children are depicted in deprivation and degradation, as passive victims whose parents are unable to cope. All we see usually is one poor helpless child or family; we are never offered explanations of the causes of their poverty.

50/50

Well, I mentioned I would get back to you about the job interview..

It's always hard to judge how interviews go for some reason I feel. Especially the ones where you feel like you're qualified and you connect with the people interviewing but you also know that there are a few things you may not align with. Alright enough, on with the interview.

It was a good interview in which I was able to tell them about myself, my passions, and why I'm interested in the position. I was also able to learn way more about the organization and how it has operated to date, which I needed in order to really have an opinion.

Neighborlink is a great organization in which I'd like to be a part of and provide whatever I can bring to the table. Where God is directed me is definitely down the line of a service oriented organization that cares about others more than itself.

Where it gets cloudy for me right now is in the nature of the job. I would be a one man show required to basically run a company/organization all by myself. From marketing, pr, organizational, networking, project coach, coordinator, etc. Everything. As I've been doing professional coaching, I've realized that I have strengths and have weaknesses and lead a successful/happy work life, spending the majority of your time in your strengths is key.

So, trying to figure out how the teeter totter will sway to the strengths/weaknesses and also, whether or not they even think I'm a good fit.

Should know soon...

At the fork in the road.....

Interview

Looks like it's about time to "re-enter" the work world. I have an interview on Monday that if all goes well would place as an executive director of a local non-profit organization that exists to connect people with needs to those that can serve those needs.

I'm excited about the opportunity and am looking forward to it.

I'll keep you posted.

What Do You Do?

So what do you do when your child is diagnosed with cancer and needs constant medical attention and even a transplant?

What do you do when you as a father already work 15+ hours a day, seven days a week to try to pay the bills and take care of your child and the bills keep coming and are impossible to pay?

What do you do when you have multiple health insurance policies and you've exceed the million dollar limit on one and the others aren't picking up any of the remaining tab?

What do you do when you receive a bill so huge you could buy multiple homes with the money?

What do you do when you have a social worker that is doing everything they can and exhausting their resources to no avail?

What do you do when you've done everything you know how to do and it's not enough and it'll never be enough?

None of the questions don't quite seem fair, do they?

If you know any answers to the questions above, Michelle has a family you need to meet. And, if you're good at answering these questions, she has a number of families that could use your help.

Where do you even begin to start the journey???

A Better Day..

Every other week I deliver food to home bound seniors in an apartment complex as part of my volunteer efforts with Community Harvest Food Bank. I want to give you a bit of background on the type of apartments these are and the people that inhabit them.

Throughout any city there are people that get older and can no longer live on their own or maintain a house like they may have at one time. These individuals may or may not have health issues, but most do. They may or may not have any family left and if they do, they don't invite their aging family members to live with them. They do not have any income and most likely have not saved for retirement. They are living on government dollars. Since they are living on government dollars, it is dictated where they live. Up until now, the story doesn't seem that bad or that uncommon. Unless you've ever seen one of these apartment complexes, you won't understand the life these people will live out until they pass on or get placed in a nursing home.

These apartment buildings at best are very outdated. Imagine an apartment from the 70's or 80's with dim-lighted hallways with linoleum tiled floors. Imagine living there alone and in an apartment that is very small. Imagine being there alone with no organized activities, and unless you have major health issues, no regular visitors. Then they are very paranoid about visitors from all the people that attempt to prey on them. You can begin to see why people would begin losing their mind.

Now, I'm not sure if the people that live there are actually losing their mind or believe they have it all that bad, but I can probably be certain that they would have liked it to turn out better for them. And I get to be humbled every other week when I deliver a measly 20lbs of food to help them out every other week. It perplexes me how some of these people survive without someone else. There is a grocery store a short walk away, but as I spoke with one woman today, that's hard for her and takes everything she's got to get there and back. Without someone else to help out, would she go hungry? Would anyone ever know? Would anyone even care?

Tough questions that I don't have answers for.. I'm sure they've seen better days and wish for better days. I even wonder what a better day would look like in their eyes. What would a better day in your life look like? What does it look like for you to aid in helping a person obtain their better day?

There is a song by Ben Harper called a "Better Way." Check it out...

http://www.benharper.net/?section=music&page=lyrics&id=270

I believe in a better way... just not sure how to make that happen.

Something New..

Do you have the person in your life that you've known for awhile and you've shared the things that you are involved in and the things that you're passionate about?

Here is my most recent story about a such relationship...

It's someone that I've known for a few years now. We don't really even see each other often or when we do see each other, it's only for a short time. We end up talking about what we're involved in and "what's new." For me, it's been about my job, wife, or the various organizations that I've served with. I don't feel like I really go in-depth with my experiences, but realize it's not necessary. Anyway I just met up with that person and we get into our normal small talk type of banter and they begin to tell me about their Christmas. Come to find out, the person and their friends decide that this Christmas isn't going to be all about them and instead of exchanging gifts, they'll pool their resources and sponsor some families this year and provide them with gifts, money, food, etc.

The person goes on to tell me about the experience and how amazing it was for them. I'm blown away by what this person is telling me. Not that this person is not a great individual, but wouldn't have guessed that they would choose to do something like this. We continue talking about their experience and how they saw that the people they just served need so much help and their situation isn't all self-inflicted and what if they continued a relationship with them... Blows me away.

I love hearing what new things are being born in people. They share with such enlightenment and their new found passion is contagious. It's even better when the person is not a Christ-follower and they are rubbing shoulders with the poor and marginalized. To me, if they keep this spirit of asking "why" type questions, they will be lead to the Christ I know..

What new is being born in you?

Attempting to Go Green

I recently made my first conscience Eco-friendly, green, recycled, sustainable, stop global warming oriented product. I have made strides in the past couple of years to consume less, recycle more, and be more environmentally aware but am just on the tip of what could be done. I must admit that this idea of living is not easy by any means and I'm really not that good at it. It takes so much effort. You have to sort your trash, go to specialty stores, read labels, take the recycled goods to a special place in town, and in most cases pay more.. I mean, this requires a lot.

Michelle and I are finding it harder and harder to be Christ followers and not be convicted about everyday choices that effect the environment that we live in. The culture that we live in today is all about consumption and has a "have it all now" mentality. We're seriously trying to buck this trend, but most days we don't even think about it. If we believe the world deserves more than us ripping it of it's natural resources and if we believe our future generations should have what we have, help keep us all accountable to a new way of life.

So, if you're looking for a sweet pair of "green" shoes, or just looking to see what it looks like for a company to create green shoes, check out www.simpleshoes.com. Also, if you are aware of or purchased other green products that you really like, pass them on to me or your community.

Everyone needs some sweet kicks for the journey....