If you 'sponsor a child', what happens to the kid next door?

But think about it. For one dollar you can feed five kids for five days over in Africa somewhere, whereas one dollar here might get you a hamburger—on dollar days. The kid next door probably doesn’t even like hamburgers. Wait? What am I talking about? It’s unAmerican to not like hamburgers.

But there is Kale. You can get a lot of Kale for a dollar. Although, one has to wonder if the kid next door has even seen Kale before.

It’s all economics, @MissPoovey. And you can’t argue with economics. Mostly because no one understands it.

If your idea of charity is to never give unless you have enough spare resources to save the entire world, then you never will give. I am not saying that everyone that sees that ad should decide to sponsor a child. What I am saying is that you should not let the good you can’t do stop you from doing the good you can do.

The sponsor a child program does not give only to the child you sponsor, but rather the money goes to better the entire village. Talk to one of the administrators and they can explain it to you.

Giving to them is good, no question about that! But with tv time I wonder how much they’re bringing in per month and how much are their expenses? It seems like now that they have people sending money-probably a lot of automatic cc debits- it would be a great savings to discontinue the airtime and buy more food. A whole lot more. Because even they admit children are dying everyday regardless of how much they bring in.

I sponsored a little girl in Uganda thru Christian Children’s Fund for 5 years, from the time she was 9 until she was 14. I chose a little girl because I know that in countries where poverty is so pervasive, that girl children have even less opportunities than do the boy children. In countries like here in the USA, children have far more chance of surviving & getting an education & building a life for themselves, than do the children in places like Uganda. Despite the current economic situation here in the USA, we are rich beyond compare to people who live in most of the African countries. The little girl I sponsored lived in a tiny village, in a hut with a dirt floor, no electricity, no plumbing – but my sponsorship of her, allowed her to go to school, it paid for her text books, it helped pay for her clothes, it helped with food for her & her family. During the years that I sponsored her, I wrote to her every week. I made the effort to look up things about Africa that were special, so I could help her have pride in where she lived. I did not write about things that she would have no concept of (like tv shows & going to the mall), instead I wrote about things she could comprehend. I had pygmy goats, she & her family had goats, I had a garden, she & her family had a garden….. I am an artist, so I would include little drawings in my letters to her, she liked to draw & she would draw things for me. During the years that I sponsored her, she gradually learned enough English so she could read my letters herself (mostly) & she learned enough English to write back to me herself (mostly). Her command of English was not great, but considering that I had not a clue about speaking or reading her language – I think it was remarkable. She wanted to become a nurse, because AIDS is so rampant in Africa & so many people are sick, & she wanted to be able to help them. Unfortunately, it was not to be. When she was 14, her little village was attacked & a lot of the adults were murdered & almost all of the children were carried off. It just about broke my heart, because I knew the kinds of things that would happen to those children, especially to young girls of the age she was (think of the movie “Tears of the Sun”). At that time I was still trying to find some way to hold on to my ‘faith’ – but after she disappeared, I did not know whether to pray that she was still alive, or if I should pray that she was not (considering the pain & degradation she would be suffering). Losing her finished any lingering hope that I had for believing in Christianity – a ‘god’ who allows things like this to happen, is not a just & loving ‘god’. If a ‘god’ has/had the ability to stop something like this from happening, but did nothing – then this ‘god’ is no better than the men who took her. If a ‘god’ was powerless to stop this from happening – then this ‘god’ is not a ‘god’ at all. But I did the best that I could to try to help her. I could not save the world, but I could help one child & for $30.oo per month, it was well worth it. Maybe they should not advertise, but if they did not, how would they reach out to those of us who want to help? There has to be some sort of organization to receive the money & actually get it to the child & the child’s family. They definitely did what they said that they would do. I still have the letters & the photos of her & her family. It is a tragedy that she did not manage to complete school, become a nurse, & have a good life – but at least I know that I made a difference during that 5 years of her life.