We've all heard of the saying "charity begins at home". To some extent that is true but every now & again an issue arises & I put my hands in my pocket & part with some cash. Most of us aint loaded so there's only so much we can do.
Mind you...for about 6/7 years now I've been donating monthly to a charity called Plan UK. Some of you may of heard of it or may even have helped them out. To cut a long story short, you sponsor a child in a third world country...any country on their sponsor list. I chose Thailand obviously because of my Thai connections. You donate anything from £18 per month upwards & it's totally down to you what you donate. You get regular reports, photo's & letters/cards off the child & those that deal with her "in the field" so you actually get some what of a hands on approach. It makes it more personal. You are able to correspond & also visit the child & his/her family if you so wish or you can just sit back & keep your distance.
If anyone wishes to find out more info &/or help then please check the web site out. No pressure...just thought there maybe some liked minded folk out there that may want to help a little bit more. Thanks.

www.plan-uk.org

I think I am not the only one who is supporting not only children but parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts and it costs me more than £18 per month
BigRed

I do something similar via

http://www.anglo-thai.org/

Every year I get my childrens school report and a photo too.

I have two little girls and a little boy. Sponsors can visit the kids and their families too though I myself have never been.

Richard

I worked for ActionAid, which started Child Sponsorship, for 11 years, in the Sponsorship department. I think Plan are bigger now but I think they're pretty much all the same.

Sponsoring a child is very rewarding for the people that do it but the money is a bit restricted for the charity. If you really want to help try giving to a community project or just a general monthly donation, it's more useful, just not so easily marketed.

quote:

Originally posted by Pete and Nidnoi:
If you really want to help try giving to a community project or just a general monthly donation, it's more useful, just not so easily marketed.

Isn't that what you are effectively doing anyway? I thought that all sponsorship monies related to children from a particular community were pooled together to help the that community.
Rich

It depends on which charity you choose. Actionaid pool the money for a particular area but I think Plan have something called direct benefits which means at least some of the money goes to the family (may well be wrong on this but that was how it was a while ago). The thing is that the money, by law, has to be spent on what they said so if there is a sudden need elsewhere, or they have enough money for a particular area, there is nothing they can do.

The main point is that the more flexible the funds the more useful they are. You just don't get as good a feeling as the sponsor if you don't have that relationship with the child.