Charity with the personal touch?

from the Times Online

Child sponsorship schemes stand accused of wasting contributors' money, writes Mark Bridge

With a billion children living in poverty worldwide, child sponsorship schemes are a compelling way to give to charity. From about 50p a day, donors can track the progress of an individual who is benefiting from their money. Most receive photographs of the child, reports on development projects in his or her community and personal letters once or twice a year. Sponsors can even visit their sponsored child and witness aid work first-hand.

Despite the name of these schemes, most channel the sponsors' cash towards projects to benefit whole communities rather than a single child. In these cases, the link between sponsor and sponsored is illustrative - and, critics say, “dishonest”. So what is child sponsorship, and why do some charities reject the model?

The example of ActionAid, the international anti-poverty agency, shows just how successful a fundraiser sponsorship can be. Three quarters of the charity's 175,000 regular supporters in the UK are, or have been, sponsors. Richard Turner, of ActionAid, says: “Some say it's a gimmick, but our supporters love it - it's a great way for them to understand our work. And for return on investment, it can't be bettered.”

Supporters pay from £15 a month to sponsor a child. Of that, 70p per pound goes to projects within that child's community, such as raising standards of health or enabling farmers to improve yields, 20p goes to wider projects and 10p covers administrative and other costs. Sponsorship usually continues until the child marries, leaves school or reaches the age of 16, but sponsors can opt to leave the programme at any time.

For their part, sponsors receive an annual report on progress in the community and two messages from, or about, the child, sometimes with drawings. They can write back, Mr Richards says, although most do not. One sponsor who does write - three or four times a year - is Chris Evans. The 53-year-old business consultant, of Wakefield, has been sponsoring Mokoi Rianto, a 12-year-old Masai boy from Narok, Kenya, since 2003. “I asked to sponsor in Africa because it has fascinated me since school and is where help is needed,” she says. “They sent me his picture on approval and I couldn't say no.”

Mrs Evans gives £21.95 a month, £6.95 more than the minimum. Last year she travelled to meet Mokoi and his family, combining the visit with a sponsored trek with ActionAid in the Masai Mara, for which she raised £4,200. She spent four days of the 18-day trip in Narok, seeing Mokoi's home and school, as well as local ActionAid projects, including a “vast” irrigation scheme and new bridges across a river.

“It was eye-opening and in some ways quite upsetting,” she says. “Mokoi lives in a mud hut with his parents and ten brothers and sisters. But the work being done is marvellous. He doesn't speak much English - just a few phrases - but it was obvious how grateful he and the rest of the community are. The Government does not pay for schooling after the age of 11, so ActionAid's help is essential.”

Inspired by the “life-changing“ visit, Mrs Evans is raising £10,000 to build new classrooms for Mokoi's school in a special project co-ordinated by ActionAid. She says that the fundraising events she has organised have raised awareness of sponsorship among her friends. At least two have been inspired to sponsor with ActionAid themselves, in Afghanistan.

Mrs Evans chose to sponsor with ActionAid after hearing a radio advertisement. Other mainstream options with a similar element of contact between sponsor and child are Worldvision and Plan UK. The former charges from £18 a month and puts 85p per pound “toward securing a better future for children living in poverty”. Plan UK, meanwhile, charges from £12 a month. Of this, 80p per pound is spent on projects worldwide.

The overheads of such schemes concern Christian Aid, which, like the Red Cross, does not offer child sponsorship, despite inquiries from the public. Paul Valentin, the charity's international director, explains that Christian Aid objects to the concept because money spent on the mechanics of sponsorship - such as taking photographs and translating letters - meets the needs of the sponsor rather than the child. He adds: “Because money goes to communities rather than one child - which is, in itself, a good thing - there is a fundamental dishonesty to the idea of ‘sponsorship' that is alien to everything we stand for.”

Mr Valentin is also concerned that certain children are “privileged” because they receive letters while their friends and neighbours do not. He adds that the sending of presents to individuals - permitted with Worldvision and Plan UK, but not with ActionAid - is especially “objectionable”. He says: “Donors have no idea what they are doing to the dynamics of a family or community when one child is singled out for special attention.”

He believes that charities can communicate the human impact of their work in ways other than sponsorship, such as by publishing illustrative case studies in campaign material.

ActionAid rejects any suggestion that sponsorship is dishonest or misleading and points out that charities that do not offer sponsorship spend money on supporter mailouts. Mr Turner adds: “People like to think that they are helping that one person, but know how the money is spent.”

Even Mr Valentine concedes: “Some people may need that link to make a donation.

Charities that begin at homes

For a more individual approach to child sponsorship, you could consider Dr Graham's Homes, founded in 1900 to care for neglected Anglo-Indian children in Bengal. For £650 a year, supporters cover the entire cost of educating, clothing and housing one named child.

The “homes” consist of a boarding school and community of 1,200 at Kalimpong, in the foothills of the Himalayas, with a mix of supported and fee-paying pupils. Even today, many of the children are of mixed Indian and European descent.

Veronica Cassie, the charity's secretary, says that supporters are a close-knit group, many of whom have some kind of family link to the Raj. Sponsors receive a Christmas card, photo and annual school report each year and are encouraged to write to the child. For more information, go to drgrahamshomes.co.uk.

A more affordable sponsorship scheme that is also a bit different is operated by SOS Children, part of SOS-Kinderdorf International. Children who have lost their parents are brought up in a protective family environment in “children's villages” in 130 countries. SOS emphasises that sponsors' cash goes directly to caring for children rather than wider communities.

Supporters pay £20 a month to sponsor a child. As the real cost of care is greater than £60, however, children may have several sponsors.

Unlike most sponsorship schemes, 100 per cent of the money goes towards aid work, because overheads are paid for by recovered tax from the minority of supporters who make their contributions though the Government's Gift Aid scheme.

Despite this, the charity, which can be found online at soschildrensvillages.org.uk, points out that equivalent donations made without sponsoring individuals do go further. It adds: “Some people make regular gifts without sponsorship and are highly valued.”

Exchanging gifts

In the same way that “child sponsorship” money is often pooled for general development work, so are many charity “gifts”. When you pay to “give a goat” to Africa, your money does not necessarily pay for a flesh-and-blood animal.

Under Christian Aid's scheme, “gifts” fall into broad categories.

A £15 can of worms, billed as “organic, cheap fertiliser for crops”, means £15 for agricultural projects and livestock. A similar system operates at Oxfam Unwrapped, where £10 for “five bags of seeds” could, in fact, pay for planting an allotment or irrigating fields.

Good Gifts, at GoodGifts.org, differs in that your money is spent on the specific item you choose. Gifts include “a year's supply of tea”, at £15. This buys tea at a fair price from small growers in South India and distributes it to widows, the disabled and poor people in India.

There is more on charity gifts at www.intelligentgiving.com, which recommends schemes such as Good Gifts, which guarantee that what you buy is what you get. Another is Save the Children at savethechildren.sandbag.uk.com.

But whatever you give, read up on Gift Aid at the Revenue website, www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gift-aid. Under the scheme, charities receive an extra 28p for every pound you donate.