i realize we threw a lot of stuff at you guys last week and because our internet was so sparse, i haven’t caught up on all of my email or comments yet. i thought i’d leave this question out and hanging for a few days to collect any questions you might have about compassion international – any questions at all. don’t hold back. ask the hard ones. i’ll answer them early next week.
Comments
10 responses to “any questions about compassion international?”
Actually, I was wondering yesterday why there are referral numbers when people link to Compassion. Is there a little extra that is donated in your name when someone signs up through your number?
A few years ago, we sponsored a child in colombia. We were told that his dad works…and maybe there was one other child in the house. our boy was asthmatic.
he looked cared for already, so I was wondering if he got sponsorship because of his health or if was truly a financial issue for the family.
we talked to some missionaries from Swaziland last night. They said that people there just throw kids out all day to fend for themselves. They stop “caring for” or stop loving them, touching them, etc. once they turn FIVE YEARS OLD.
Did you hear any stories like this???
I’ve done a little research on compassion and world vision. Do you have a preference between the two? Do you think it even matters…and if not, why shouldn’t they consider becoming one? I ask, because I was unable to find a big difference between the two other than their budget size.
How does a person become a full time missionary through Compassion? I have a friend consdering something like that.
Anne may be answering these in one lump response but I will take a crack at the first question by Neener to get some answers going.
The reference # you see is for tracking purposes only. This is the first trip of this kind we have ever done at Compassion and we are watching where all the sponsorships originate so we know as much information on the back end of this trip as possible. We also do manual tracking of the sponsorships if there is no tracking number but we know the sponsorship orginated from hte blog.
There is no money changing hands based on the the sponsorship reference #.
Good question.
Brian Seay
Compassion Intl
bseay@us.ci.org
What a cutie!
not to be cynical, but how do I know that what I am contributing to my sponsored child is actually helping and not going to administrative costs?
Steph –
Asking good questions does not define a cynic. Keep asking.
Here is an internal link about where the money goes but it also contains links to 3rd party sources who rank non-profits.
http://www.compassion.com/about/financial/default.htm
I was curious before I ever began working for Compassion and then when I was standing in the Compassion El Salvador office they asked me if I wanted to look at the ‘books’. I assumed it would be accounting speak and would make little sense to me. But what I found was the name of a child next to the name of the sponsor next to the amount that was given and where it went. When an extra gift was given to the child there was documentation as to what was purchased for the family.
Hi,
I have a question. How does Compassion go about getting kids into the program? Do they go house to house and explain the project to the parents, or do the parents come to the church for help and then they are told about it? Do they ever turn families (children) away, for whatever reason?
How soon are the children told they have been sponsored? We just sponsored our Uganda child last week and already got the packet of info. (yay) but I wondered if she knows she is sponsored now :) I hope so, because we already love her and pray for her daily. I want her to know that. (We sent her a letter already)
Sorry, that was more than one question…..
Thanks :)
Kelly S.
I too wondered how quickly the children are notified that they have a sponsor.
I wonder about the siblings of sponsored children, who are not in the Compassion project — I understand the reasoning behind 1 child per family, giving Compassion access into more homes/families that way but one thing disturbs me: the emphasis on sponsor letters is that a child in poverty feels worthless and loving letters from a sponsor can change that. What about these siblings who are living in poverty and seeing one of their siblings getting to go participate in fun activities all the time and getting letters and gifts from someone far away who loves them… and they get nothing at all. Doesn’t this make them feel even MORE worthless because they aren’t “special” like the sponsored sibling? I try now to include little gifts like extra stickers, etc., for my kids to share with their siblings, but for years, I didn’t even KNOW it was one child per family and had assumed all the other kids were getting their own letters and gifts from their sponsors and therefore concentrated all my attention on my sponsored child only. Does Compassion do anything to help with this as far as siblings are concerned??
When it comes to graduation, I’ve seen conflicting information — the school year when the child turns anywhere from 18 to 22. Are we notified in advance what our child’s graduation date will be so that we have opportunity to send them a “goodbye letter”, and is there any way to continue corresponding with the child if both you and the child wish to do so after they’ve graduated? The letter-writing guidelines say not to share your address so I always assumed no, but the video shared on one of the bloggers’ sites of Prossy had said that she and her sponsor continue to correspond by email — how does that happen if you aren’t allowed to share your info… or are you??