Advise needed re sponsoring a child

I share the reservations about religious charities, however worthy their work. A gift should be a gift and given freely with no strings. I do of course recognise the good work that they do.

It is for this reason that I will not fill Christmas shoeboxes as they often have a bible or tract added to them before being sent out to the recipient.

I sponsor a child with Plan international. It's more about the community than the individual but they do some good work particularly about rights for girls (and women)

plan-international.org/girls/

If you had an option to send all 100% of your donation to those in need or only a certain portion of it what would you chose? Have you ever asked the orphanage you sponsor how much money they actually get?

I have been in direct contact with the orphanage - I know exactly what they children need and like and I send it to them. We get all the great stories on how much the children enjoy the presents from the orphanage founder. It works great for all of us. We have been asked to be God Parents for all the kids, just to give comfort to them that there is someone that looks out for them. We've also received some presents from them - just because they wanted to give us something.

For a long while I wanted to do something charitable for others, but sending money to an organization and not knowing what is happening to it didn't really cut it for me. Direct sponsorship ticks all the boxes for me and I would recommend that to you too!

Same here mishap we were involved in the Shoebox scheme at my children's primary school where I was a governor. The children were enthusiastic, but I felt a little uncomfortable when I googled the charity. Fundamentalist Christians who sent a bible with every shoebox. Same charity by the way are provider of Academy schools in certain areas, rather Creationist in their philosophy. Sorry, was a little off subject.

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Hope Public Charitable trust is a Non-Profit organization located at
Ambattur, Chennai, India. Our organization strives to “Promote the living
conditions of challenged community by providing Special Education, Vocational
training and Rehabilitation services”. Hope aims in removing stigma, creating
awareness and empowering mentally challenged community. It also strives for the
empowerment of marginalized women through various skill training programs. Our
logo symbolizes “Hope” which means “Providing Self-confidence along with service
to face life’s challenges to lead a meaningful life in the society”

I sponsor a little girl through Friends of Slum Children in India The annual money goes towards education, dental and health needs, vitamins, and food and school clothes, it's only £80 a year which is the price if a couple of nights out
My daughters friend goes out every year to volunteer with them so I know it is all above board and all the money goes to the child
My little girl has a dad who works but earns pennies in the slum

Can't get through to your Facebook page Isponsordirectly. Says it's been removed or only available for a closed group.

we have a sponsored many child through several orphanage. thanks for sharing a great information.

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I sponsor 2 children with Plan but I also support Mary's Meals who do a fantasic job of feeding children in school which gets them an education too...over 90% of all money they recieve goes direct to the children in need

We sponsored a little girl in India via Action Aid for a few years back in the 80s. Then we had a letter from Action Aid explaining that they had decided to stop running the scheme in her area of Mumbai because it was causing difficulties in the community. I haven't kept the letter but as I remember it the families benefitting from the scheme kept demanding more and this was leading to problems both between neighbours and with adjoining areas. It put us off really, and it was sad to think that "our" little girl would lose her support, so instead of starting up another sponsorship we switched to a UK homeless charity.