A couple of weeks ago, a very bubbly young woman came to my door to see if I'd be interested in sponsoring an underpriviliged child under the World Vision program.
Are you kidding me?! I've always wanted a little underpriviliged foster child to call my own!!!
The girl told me that most people who sign up as World Vision sponsors chose girls, because there are so many countries where girls are particularly disadvantaged, denied school due to having to work to run the household, and all that unfair gender-discriminatory stuff. I'm all for boosting girls in poor countries. HOWEVER, salesgirl said that MOST people choose girls, and I don't ever want to be like MOST people. So I started paying closer attention to the boys' pictures and profiles she was showing me. One in particular stood out, as he was older than the rest... when I asked, salesgirl told me he was indeed the oldest child on her list, at 12 years old, and she had also had him in her portfolio the longest. What could I do, but choose him?
My World Vision child is a Bolivian named Alberto. We immediately put his picture on the fridge, and waited for the kids to ask who the heck he was... no one did, at least not immediately. The next night, at dinner, one of them finally asked who was the kid on the fridge. We told them that it was Alberto, their new foster brother from Bolivia and that we were going to have a great time sending him fun and wonderful things from Canada, and what a great difference it was going to make in his life.
Then I read the fine print on the World Vision paperwork. Apparently, your money does not go directly to the child, nor does it go directly to the child's family - it goes to the World Vision centre in your child's country, where they use it for programs to serve the community. Alberto's community? I don't know - maybe it goes into a pot used for every poor place in Bolivia. I thought, well, I can still send him "stuff"! Clothes, care packages, Axe Shampoo, maple syrup... you know, just the essentials! Turns out, nope, I can't. While we are invited to write to Alberto, and send him things like cards and pictures, whatever we send has to be flat, and fit into a regular mail-sized envelope. You can't give your address or phone number, everything has to go through the World Vision offices. Letters are translated by staff before being forwarded to Alberto, which means everything is opened, and if I sent anything of value it would probably never reach him.
How disappointing is that!!
I also found this to be very discouraging! We used to do this through Plan International...same idea different charity...but were constantly frustrated by all the rules. We were told that they were in place to prevent jealousy/theft etc in the community...but it is so annoying because on their commercials it makes it seem like you can be-friend this little person and help them individually. We had a girl in egypt and decided to cancel with that particular charity when the update told us our money was funding a tv in a community centre. Ummm...I thought the money was going to build wells and sanitation etc. not provide cable to remote areas?! I like tv as much as the next person...but really?
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