What Happens to those African children who are sponsored by Westerners thru charities?

by Broken Promises 8 Replies latest jw friends

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  Broken Promises

  I’m sure you’ve seen the ads. Skinny, impoverished, African/Indian/Chinese/Eastern European children staring at you with their big brown eyes, begging you to send that donation to the charity.

  But what happens to these kids? Especially the ones that are sponsored by Westerners paying their $1 a day or whatever they contribute?

  Do those kids actually benefit?

  And how do the charities pick which kid receives the charity, and which one doesn’t? Say there’s 50 kids in the village, and the charity only receives enough to sponsor 3 kids.

  How do they decide who is worthy to receive the sponsorship, and who gets nothing?

  Once the sponsored child grows up, then what? Does s/he get an education? Are they able to live a self-sustained life, or do they spit out more kids who will then be featured in yet more ads for charity?
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  Soldier77

  Have you ever gone to one of these websites or called these charities? You might find your answer there a lot sooner than asking it here. Or Google it.
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  JWoods

  Have you ever gone to one of these websites or called these charities? You might find your answer there a lot sooner than asking it here. Or Google it.

  I think Broken Promises may have been questioning the complete integrity of these charities - doubt you will find anything negative about them on their own websites. Web search might reveal more. I too am skeptical of most highly advertised TV charities - just knowing human nature.
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  cult classic

  Yeah, I've always been skeptical too. You never hear of the long term benefits. "Hey this kid was benefited by your charity and now they are in college in the UK or US."

  Those are good questions Broken Promises poses. It would be good to have the answers before donating to the charity
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  Soldier77

  Personally, and strickly my opinion, but when a commercial like that comes on I turn the channel. It just reaks of fraud, let's place a bunch of sickly, sad looking kids on the tv and tell a sad story and ask for money.

  I rather volunteer to do my charity work, at least you can see firsthand where your efforts are going. I wasn't trying to be a dick to BP, I'm just wary of those types of charities and the best way to get info is to go to the source and ask them directly or look up reviews/news articles on the sponsor.

  BP, good questions though.
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  Finally-Free

  The ads aren't much different from the ones I saw in the 1960s, except my TV is colour now. I sometimes wonder if it's the same kids covered with the same flies. After so many years of people pumping what probably amounts to hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars into these charities, how much has been achieved?

  I'm sure we could have bought these countries by now with what has been donated. I suspect these "charities" view the starving as a cash cow to be exploited. Permenantly eradicating starvation doesn't help the charities stay in business.

  W
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  JWoods

  When you see a charity as famous and seemingly above reproach as United Way have an internal scandal, with their chief executive ousted, you really start to wonder about the unknown ones.
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  Broken Promises

  Recently, a charity called World Vision here in Australia had a campaign calling for 10,000 sponsors. They only got about 400.

  Part of the reason is obviously the financial recession. People are careful of how they spend their money, if there is any spare money to be given away.

  And like the others have said, I think many people are getting wary of these organizations.

  When I was a teenager, we had LiveAid with Bob Geldolf. Pictures of starving Ethiopians were used to tug at our hearts and our pursestrings. Yet, is starvation a thing of the past in Ethiopia? Or anywhere else in Africa or the world? Billions have been spent on these countries, but where does the money go? And why haven’t African people learnt that if you can’t afford to have kids, then you shouldn’t have any?

  Sorry if it sounds harsh, but if we Westerners are continually being harassed for money, then we have a right to know to whom, where and how it’s being spent.
• 

  blondie

  There are various organization that rate these charities. Googling I found these:

  http://www.charitywatch.org/toprated.html

  http://charityreports.bbb.org/public/seal.aspx?ID=1629302005

  Another way is to check the annual reports of those organizations. Unlike the WTS many of them show what is spent on what.

  http://www.savethechildren.org/about/financial.html?WT.mc_id=1109_hp_au_financial