General Chat

thank you GG, Rox, Karen and Chica - such inspiring stories (particularly the 120 year old grannie lol). Also thanks for mentioning the cleft palate thing, I will look into that too.

sorry I didn't reply earlier but I do really appreciate all your responses.

Maz. XXXXXX

Chica in the Sun

The Cleft Palate one looks really good - this is the one i'm going to do next.

Sponsored a girl in Bolivia from being a baby and it was very rewarding.

Also a granny in India, she was very old when I sponsored her and that was years and years ago and she must be truly dead now but I still continued getting the SAME letter I always got saying "granny continues to walk to market with her eggs every week". She must be about 120 now! I´ve cancelled both of them now as the chld is grown up.

I have recently seen an ad about children with cleft plates. The deformity can be horrendous and children with this are often shunned and placed outside of the village to fend for themselves. They say that ALL the contributions go direct to train local circuit doctors to do this surgery, and nothing goes in administration as they receive sponsorship. So I think I might do that, also the monthly amount is quite low, about three or four pounds I think which I could manage, where last time I was paying £15 for the child and £12 for the granny. I can´t do that anymore. But I have so many blessings that I feel I must give something back.

We do. We have sponsored a boy in Ethiopia through World Vision for a few years now. He'll be 10 yrs old this July.

We receive letters from him, telling us about himself, his school lessons, his interests etc. He tells us what the Project is doing for his village etc, for example they all planted a tree recently, and last year they got a new Well.
He writes to thank us for the gifts we send ( I can't help myself sending stuff!!) and it's great to know he gets them....that was something which concerned me at first. I worried in case the things I sent would end up elsewhere and not with him.
We also get his school report, and an annual photo. Plus World Vision's regular magazine telling us what they do in all their areas.

We pay 18 pounds per month.
We were able to choose the country and the sex of child we wanted to sponsor, but it was also explained that they might not be able to give us a child of our choice.

I had wanted to sponsor a chid for a long time, just never got around to it I guess.
What finally did it for me was whilst reading Michael Buerk's book, the Road Taken. I sobbed my way through it, especially the part referring to his visit to Ethiopia in the 80's to report on the famine. Everyone must remember his report and film footage which is what actually spurred Bob Geldof to start the whole Band Aid thing.
P.S. Sorry to go on, but can you believe that the BBC initially didn't warrant Buerk's report important enough to put on prime time News?? They showed it mid afteroon, but after a huge response from the public in the form of blocked telephne lines to the BBC, the following day they showed it on every News broadcast.!! Unbelievable. Thank God for people like Bob Geldof Midge Ure etc etc.

I'll get off me soap box now.


K x

I sponser through World vision,I have done for 15 years,I find it very worth while.
I get regular letters,phots and school progress reports from world vision.
xx

We sponsor a little boy Oratile, through world vision, we have sponsored this child for 9 years - he is now 14, we get regular letters and we receive a photo once a year also a christmas card and a little report from world vision that tells us how Oratile has developed over the year.
We didn't get any choice of boy/girl or which country we were just given a child.
It is so nice as Oratile has got older to receive his letters and my children also look forward to reading them. We all write a letter to Oratile and pop them in the same envelope. At christmas you can send them a small gift (this is done through word vision) in the past its been bubbles, baloons, balls, crayons etc. you can choose a small gift from a list and is usually just a couple of pounds. Although World Vision is more expensive than others that are now around we have never had any problems.

Thank you Michelle and Kay, that is really great to hear :-)

I am definitely going to do it, just wanted to really make sure that no-one had any bad experiences with a particular company and that it really was as rewarding as it promises to be :-)

Maz. XX

I sponsor a Africian Child through World Vision. I am sure I was allowed to pick which country the child was to come from, I have been and visited the village of a boy I used to sponsor in East Africa some years ago and got to see first hand the school, well etc that the WV community sponsorship was building for the area.

You will get annual reports and photos on the child as well as letters from the child themselves if they are of an age that they can write.

Michelle

Yes,,

I have done 5 now,, we have Lillian &Samia shes 9 ,he is 12 both in Uganda at the moment letters are such a thrill plus photos, ,World Vision,

Loverly when a letter drops though the door,,plus they become like extended family,

The first child ever 10years ago.. went on to good education ,traveled ,is now married with 3 children of her own and works aid charity,

Go for it you wont be dissapointed,,

thanks Mandy, another site to check!

We sponsor education for a young boy in Kenya. It is through a church-based charity:

http://www.educationforlife.net

thank you Sue, that's great information too :-)

Glad everyone has found it so rewarding.

Maz. XX

If I remember rightly we had a choice of Africa or India with the charity we chose.
My husband's grandfather worked in India and his mother was born there so we chose India.
We didn't mind how old the child was or whether it was a boy of girl.

It was sweet......the little lad used to write us letters (which someone sent us along with a translation). He used to call us all Aunty and we sometimes got little drawings.I think he was about 16 when we were told he'd finished the scheme and we were asked if we could take on a different child. I think we must have sponsored him for about 8 years.

Sue

thanks Sheila - hadn't heard of that company - that's exactly the sort of information I wanted :-)
Maz. XX

Yes I do - with Plan - I sponsor a boy in Uganda. They are a good organisation, I get letters from him and information about the work of the charity. I was able to choose boy/girl and the area (i.e. Africa, Asia, you can't specify a country) or you can let the charity choose a child for you. I've found it very rewarding, as 'my' child started out not able to read or write but now goes to school and writes very well!

thank you Sue

I did wonder, do you get to choose the country and/or child, or are you just allocated together?

Maz. XX

We sponsored the education of an Indian boy some years ago. I can't remember which group we did it through but we had messages from the lad until he left school.
We had to stop when my husband retired early through ill health and we needed to spend more supporting our own kids, but it was a very good feeling to think we made a difference to him and perhaps his extended family.

Well worth doing.

Sue

thanks for that Lynn ? :-)) I look in quite a bit but don't add much :-))

thanks Caz

Hi Maz, my Ex hubbie did, it was a lovely experience, i would like to do it again,


Caz x

Sorry Maz, i have no experience of this, but just wanted to say hi, and how good it is to see you on here

hope all is well in your world

xxLynnxx