So I’ve been sponsoring a child for over a decade now. She was just a little girl when all this started and now she’s a young teen. Because of the language barrier and a great distance, I wrote her very infrequently, perhaps just handful of times per year. I also got a few updates from her family every year as well. I understood from the beginning that my donation wasn’t going straight to my sponsor child. My money is pooled with other donations and spent in the region in which my sponsor child lives. It can go to projects like better schools or better sanitation. I know that money helped many children, not just my sponsor child.
In the last two years or so, the letters I got from the family started to be written by my sponsor child’s cousin. From what I could tell, my sponsor child was no longer living in the same region as before and was now living with some different parts of her family. I really had no idea how far she had moved or if this was a temporary thing. I was just pleased to read any updates I could get.
I checked my mail this afternoon and I got another update package from the charity. I have been assigned a new sponsor child. I was told my previous one had moved out of the region in which the charity provides assistance, so logistically they no longer qualified as a sponsor child. I have no idea if they moved again or if this was the same place they’ve been in for the last few years. In any case, I wish her well.
The charity prefers that donors keep an arms length of separation between them and the sponsor children. I totally understand that. Like I mentioned, my money isn’t going straight to my sponsor child’s pocket, so my connection with them falls on the superficial side. Also, I didn’t adopt this child. The more accurate way to describe this is that I donate to a charity that helps kids and they pair me up with a pen pal.
So I have a new pen pal now and I hope I can continue to help more kids with my humble donations.