I just got a very depressing letter from Children International. I sponsor a girl in the Philippines named Melanie. I started when she was four and she's 15 now. Every year, I get a personal letter and a picture of her. I've watched her grow up. I get opportunities to make donations several times a year for occasions such as her birthday, Christmas, Easter, etc. I also send donations for vaccinations, anti-parasite treatment, dental exams, water treatment and anything else whenever I'm asked. I always send about $100 or more, although I could send as little as $10. She gets to choose things like school supplies, a dress, a pair of shoes, etc. Sometimes her family gets cooking pots or a rice storage bin. Regardless of how much money I sent, she'd still get only a dress or a pair of shoes or school supplies. The money is spread out among many children. Anyway, I just got an "annual update" on Melanie. It must be the first year they're doing this, because I've never received one before. She lives with her mother and two sisters in a home with a kitchen and one multi-use room. It has bamboo walls, a palm leaf roof and dirt floors. There is one bed. They cook on an open fire. The water source is a community faucet. Electricity is available, but not affordable. Their family income is $29 a month. I've spent more than that on lunch. I could drain my savings (such as they are) sell all my belongings and send all my money to Children International and it would not improve their lives one bit. If I were to break the rules and somehow find a way to send money directly to them, it would be their death sentence. Bandits would kill the entire family for anything that made them stand out. It's all I can do. But I wish I could do more.
2 comments:
And yet, your contributions *do* help the community as a whole, which does help your child and her family. And it helps them without getting them killed. Do you know what their income and conditions would be if they weren't part of a project like this? Your sweet girl could very well be prostituting herself by now, unable to attend school, and without even that simple shelter she calls home.
My son's 27 children aren't rich either. But they're so much better off in the orphanage than they would be on the streets.
Keep the faith. It *does* make a difference.
:-)
I'm sure she's perfectly happy. Kids always are. When I was a kid, I lived for a few years in a house that had no running water. I had to haul it in buckets from the windmill down the road -- pushing cows aside to fill the pails. No TV. And I wouldn't trade that childhood for anything. But still...
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