World Vision is more than fundraising
May 26th, 2009 • Africa, Aid, Personal
I was almost run over by a white World Vision SUV today.
It came speeding at me from down a pot-holed, dirt road. My first encounter with the this side of the aid agency world.
Back home in Melbourne, we usually see aid agencies via their marketing machines. Glossy brochures, flashy websites, appeals for donations. In Tanzania, I’ve been able to get a small insight into another perspective – not aid agencies as marketers, but as social welfare agencies.
I haven’t seen any advertisements for sponsorships or donations, or seen any tele-thons, but I have heard one 12 year old boy talk about how great his Canadian sponsors were because it meant he could go to school and maybe study law one day.
I’m not sure that this means much beyond being my anecdotal experience of living outside of a ‘donor country’, and it certainly isn’t enough to change my views, for example, against traditional child sponsorship, but I found it encouraging, especially given how maligned aid agencies are and how easy it is to find fault with them.
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I think my opposition is probably based more on historical child sponsorship problems that weren’t really well thought out or implemented – for example, ones that ended up singling out the sponsored child, or where letters from sponsors often just highlighted the inequalities to the child. Perhaps I was biased by a 1982 issue of New Internationalist – http://www.newint.org/issue111/contents.htm
I think there are some limited situations where child sponsorship is really valid – it obviously gives a very direct connection from the sponsor to the ‘real world’ and for religious people provides a point of connection for prayer, etc.
However, I think that the overheads involved in child sponsorship can’t be justified. The money and work spent on getting all those letters and photos back and forth, the time the agencies have to put in dealing with sponsors visiting their child and getting the child to write letters. Not to mention what happens when a sponsor has to stop giving money after a long running relationship.
I think most child sponsor agencies have done a great job facing these issues and are working in an environment where child sponsorship is one of the most effective fundraising techniques. But for people who want to get the most value from their donated money, I think the better option is to just donate the money to the agency.
So I’m curious why are you opposed to child sponsorship? I think it’s a great idea in concept, though I became frustrated with it when we did try it about 20 yrs ago.
It was a different Christian organization, well run, but twice they had to end the programs where our (1st & 2nd) sponsored child was. They selected a 3rd child for us, but it was a tough time for us financially, and we decided to just stop at that point.
That is probably not a typical experience, but I did find it quite frustrating. We still support various ministries but haven’t tried the sponsorship route again. Nevertheless, I would still encourage others to try it.