Does anyone sponsor a child?
 

Now that I have a steady income I can finally seriously think about something that I have thought about all my life- sponsoring a child. I am pretty set on sponsoring from the Dominican Republic as I went there two years ago with a service learning group to teach English to orphans. I feel like I left part of my heart there and would love to help a child from there.

I think i am going to go with Compassion. I like that I can choose the age and gender of my child and where I want to sponsor from (what country). Many other organizations I have looked that- all of those things are not an option. I'm not sure why that is important to me but I want to sponsor a girl who is around 7 or 8. I suppose it doens't matter if that matters to me or not- sponsoring is sponsoring. My only drawback with this group is they are evangelical which isn't a big deal to me, but I am not- I'm catholic. From reading on their site religion is a huge part of their outreach and I worry that i am not relgious "enough"- but i they say anyone can sponsor so i'm sure that will not be an issue :) Anyways-

I was wondering if anyone on here sponsors and could share your experience- what group you go through and where you child is from.

Thanks!

We used to sponser a child from S.O.S. I believe it was called. You couldn't choose age or gender, but you could choose the country.

Yes! My Carlos is from San Salvador. :) I have been supporting him for 4 years through World Vision, he is now 10. I love it! I sent him a Tshirt from Texas and always send him extra packages with goodies. I am able to call and request info on the family to see what their needs are. They said their dream is to build a home and that costs 4,000.00. That is so humbling. I wish I had 10,000 to send them!! I hope to go meet them one day.

oh how wonderful! Thanks for the info. I'm also looking at World Vision.

I highly recommend World Vision. My Mom is on her second sponsored child now. Her last one she supported until he was grown and left the program. :) I really enjoy sending letters and getting pics and updates back. They always send photos of Carlos and his family and everything they were able to purchase with Money I send. I always send 100.00 for his birtday and 200.00 for Christmas--100.00 for him and 100.00 for family. I like it because I am not pressured, I just do what I can do and it helps them so much. We all think America is in trouble, I am reminded everytime I write to him that we, as a country, are very blessed!

Are you able to send him small gifts? You mentioned a tshirt? Also does he write you back?

Yes, I can send whatever. However, it has to fit in one of those padded envelopes. So, clothes fold very easily. I also sent colored pencils and pads, stickers etc. Yes, he writes me several times a year. Always thanks me for what I send and gives me pics of all his stuff he bought. :)

I sent him a "Somebody in Texas loves me" shirt. So cute! Oh, and I chose him. I went through the computer and I instantly fell in love with his sweet face and smile.

Thanks so much for all the info! I had to write to Compassion about a tax receipt as they are an american company and I live in Canada- they have a canadian division but i've fallen in love with a sweet girl on their american site. Should things not work out- World Vision has a great canadian site- thanks so much!

thats great! Cant wait to hear about her! :)

Thanks for posting this thread, I'm going to check out World Vision and see what they are about....:D
I'd love to be able to sponsor a child, not having children of our own this would be awesome....Check into a few local programs, but wasn't to please them...This sounds more what I'm looking for:)

World Vision IS great. Very reputable. Please share if you end up sponsoring!