Saturday Service- Sponsoring Responsibly
Posted by admin | Filed under Africa, Personal, Research, Social, Thinking
Every Saturday I do something for someone or some living thing. I find that on Saturday mornings, its a great reason to get out of bed and take a walk looking for my ‘mark’. Its not always an intense thing – like, 3 saturdays ago, I fed some birds. The Saturday after that I dropped off a bunch of bread and jam at the Bowery Mission (who doesn’t like toast and jam?). And a few Saturdays before that I started a year long commitment and have sponsored a child through children.org. This sponsoring business however, needs to be completely re-examined in the digital age, and I plan on looking at all the major children’s charities over the next few months and see which one actually brought the most direct benefit to the children.
Websites like Charity Navigator can give you some idea, but I don’t think anything but your own experience and research can really give you the satisfaction of knowing you are not being fleeced and you are indeed HELPING someone.
So far I’ve received a letter from my (adorable) sponsor child in Ecuador (Guillermo) handwritten in spanish telling me he likes to play soccer and he likes to read. But I wonder if getting him a mobile phone might be a better use of money…and why couldn’t I just do that without the charity?
I love the emerging set of ‘do good’ sites that allow you to see the direct impact of your donation such as Jolkona. Websites like these actually serve to create a lasting connection versus a paper trail. I’ll get back to you with a more blown out point of view as I track this subject over the year.
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