Via
Useless random fact: French people are terrible with charity. We almost never give a thing to our alma mater, our charity donations are $50 at Christmas and giving $3 at mass on Sunday is considered generous, so much that when the Euro came along, the church begged people who used to donate a 10 francs coin (1.5 euro, about $2) to give 2 euros ($2.60) instead of a 1 euro coin ($1.30) because the donations had decreased.
Seeing many US bloggers tithe, or pledge a portion of their income to charity (or all their blogging income like Free Money Finance or Gajizmo) has inspired me and I have decided to pledge 10% of my blog income to charity. I have always had a strong interest in education, particularly for girls, who tend to have less chances than boys in developing countries.
Helping a girl have access to education will hopefully help raise an independent woman, who will in turn raise independent little girls, and manage her home well. Having learned about hygiene, she will keep her kids from getting sick. Having attended math classes, she will take good care of the family finances. Being able to earn an income, she won’t have to bear an abusive husband.
What I love about sponsoring a child is that you see directly where your money is going. There are a few NGOs around who do things but you are never too sure your money will be used for a project, and said project will be optimized in costs.
Part of the sponsorship is meant as an allowance for the family, so they don’t take their child out of school to work in the fields. It basically covers the child’s food and education costs so it costs nothing to the family to have a kid in school.
My neighbor is a lovely Spanish lady who has been involved with the village’s school for a long time, and is currently sponsoring a few kids, either via foreign sponsors who send her money, or directly. I went to seek her advice.
How?
Before I talked to my neighbor, I had in mind two scholarships, one based on academic merit, one for the most deserving girl who wants to pursue further education, and one for the most motivated one who would like to learn a trade in a year or two (a cooking course, hair cutting or sewing class, etc). The first one will probably never have the opportunity to pursue her dream otherwise, and the second one will have a skill that can be put to good use in the village, bringing her an income and some financial independence from her future husband, as well as some economic dynamism to the village.
The kids here get to the end of middle school when they are 14-16 years old, and are not off to work already. Then they have to go to another village, 20 miles away, to go to high school. You can either send them to a public school 20 miles away, and pay for their books, uniform and bus fare, or for a similar price, send them to a great boarding school 100 miles away, where they will study more and graduate with a high chance of finding a job.
It is a bit tough because you have to convince the girls’ families to let their daughters go away Monday to Friday, and if they agree, the girl may drop out before she finishes high school, if she becomes pregnant or gets married, which is not uncommon at 18.
The only string attached is they keep their grades up. I don’t pretend they write a thank you letter or make a drawing, but the do have to keep doing well at school.
How much?
At the moment, my neighbor has a few kids in middle school that she sponsors at $15 a month, so they can pay their bus fare to get to a closer village 6 miles away and get computer classes once a week.
A few students are in boarding school and that costs around $2,000 for a year, or $170 per month. That includes a lot of things they have to purchase on the first year, like their mattress (I thought that was weird!), uniform, books, and even weirder, a light bulb to light their room, that will set me back $0.50 haha. Boarding school is three years and my neighbor is trying to get a pledge from other sponsors to be able to send the best kid there every school year, which would be a great incentive for them to work hard all year.
If you pay their bus fare to go to public school nearby, just the daily bus fare costs $70 a month, plus school supplies and books, and a small stipend for their living expenses, you would spend about the same and the education would not be that good.
(Yes, the bus fare is ridiculous at $3 round trip when many people make less than 10 a day, and the drivers wouldn’t do a student discount unless all students show up every single day together, which is virtually impossible, and even then the discount was $0.25 return. The bus is a private service, not heavily subsidized like Western public transports.)
To learn a trade, you have to go to the next town too, so that is $70 a month plus stipend, about $130 per month.
My 10% of blog income would be around $300, so that fits perfectly a $170 boarding school kid and a $130 trade kid.
If I have more than $300 a month to pour into that project, I will save it. For every $200 saved, I will sponsor one middle school girl for a year. You can’t sponsor for a month and leave them hanging.
Update August 3rd, 2013: $404 are in the fund as per July’s income
Who?
Since the village’s beauty pageant, I noticed one of the contestants, who wanted to go to law school. She looked too serious to be in a beauty pageant, and comes from a modest family, so could be a good fit.
My neighbor also told me about a young boy who wants to study to become a nurse, and his class would start in September, but I will try to see if there is a girl who is as deserving first.
What do you think? Have you ever sponsored a child? How did it go?
This post was featured on the Planting Our Pennies, Streets Ahead Living, Carnival of Personal Finance, How to Blog Carnival, Eyes on the Dollar, thank you!
I think its wonderful opportunity you are going to give to a child. Hopefully they understand how lucky they are. It does suck that the kids would have to go so far and for so long away from home. A lot of things can happen with a child being so far. Hopefully the good outweighs the bad. We have never directly sponsored a child but tend to give for charities that claim to help kids. Nowadays you never know what they are doing with the money. We would like to try it again but if possible build a relationship with the child to make sure we know how they are doing and if they need any more assistance.
I share your concerns about the kids going to boarding school, and my neighbor has checked the school out, it is a Jesuit school with stellar reputation, a few kids from the village are already studying there and very happy. If you would like I can ask her about other kids who could benefit from a sponsorship, she told me a couple from Austria had sent a kid last year a big backpack with school supplies and she made a video to send the couple of the kid opening the backpack, I will check how else they give sponsors some feedback. I used to give to a similar charity in France that helped little girls in Cambodia and they would send the sponsors a report of the grades and some pictures a few times a year.
I have sponsored a child in the past and it’s been a great experience! I’m so happy that you are doing this!
Thanks! I am excited about it too. If those little girls can become independent women it will be a great project.
I’m not at a place in my life that I can contribute that much monthly but it’s great to hear you can do this! I hope to be able to do the same soon. There was a good PBS documentary recently called Half the Sky which talked about all the different forms of oppression that women face in the developing world. (It was a book first.) At a work retreat, I saw the portion that was about how difficult education access is for women in rural Vietnam and it shows you how anyone’s complaints about high school are nothing compared to what these girls had to go through. I highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it.
Thank you for the recommendation Tara, I will look it up. Here the main problem is pursuing education after middle school because there is no high school in the village. As I mentioned there are a few people sponsoring at $15 per month the kids from primary school. I know a few charities do it too for similar $15-$25 monthly costs. I can give you names if you are interested.
Pauline, that’s just awesome that you are doing this! We have sponsored children for years, and it’s been such a wonderful experience. It’s the one expense we refuse to cut because, no matter how “poor” we are, there are SO many children who truly do have it real bad, and we want to share with them. Just knowing that we are helping children to have food to eat, clean water to drink, and a good education so that they don’t have to continue to live in terrible poverty, it really helps us to remember just how lucky we are, and to make a difference in the world at the same time. It also helps the kids to get things in perspective as far as material items. They don’t think so much about an IPAD when they know that our sponsored children are lucky just to be able to eat every day.
That is very generous of you Laurie. Here they have clean water thanks to a public well and being near a clear lake, and they eat mostly rice and beans but no one is starving. So education is the next step.
Love this post. I have sponsored children in the past. I need to start doing this again!
Let me know if you’d like to do it in Guatemala 🙂
I have never sponsored a child, mainly because I haven’t been exposed to a way to do so. I do give to charity and I always investigate the charity before I do. I refuse to give to companies that spend a high percentage of their donations on administration costs.
Anyway, sponsoring a child sounds wonderful because it would directly benefit the child!
Do you know charity:water ? You may like it because 100% of private donations go to their projects. The administrative fees are paid by company sponsorship.
What an awesome venture! It’s great to be able to give something back and it sounds like you’re providing something really valuable to people right in your neighborhood. I love the focus on kids as well, as they often haven’t had the opportunity to make decisions for themselves, so giving them a chance to make positive ones is really special. I’m looking forward to hearing more about this as it goes along.
The idea to base it on merit is so they try their very best during the year. The school year ends in december so they will hopefully give an extra push.
What a great idea Pauline! We sponsored children when I was growing up and something we would like to look at now. I like how you can see the changes/impact there. Unfortunately children always seem to take the brunt of needs like this, so being able to give is awesome.
If you are looking into it too I can give you my neighbor’s details, I think she has about 25 kids on the program now but is always looking for new sponsors.
That’s such a great thing you are doing and I love that you are finding a way to give so directly. I hope that the students you sponsor truly know and appreciate how lucky they are to have that opportunity.
I think they are aware, money is really tight here. I hope it helps them dream big.
That sounds like an awesome idea! I think it’s great that you’re willing to sponsor a few kids with the blog income you’re making. I really need to get better at giving to charity. I have a tough time letting go of money, so giving doesn’t come natural.
I have given a lot of time over the years, put together a few projects in Africa, etc but always have been skeptic with money, as you never know for sure where it goes. In this case I do so I am happy to help.
This sounds like a great cause Pauline, look forward to hearing the updates!
Thanks Adam.
That is really nice of you Pauline, rock on! I’ve never sponsored a child (other than our daughter who we adopted :)), but I have donated 10% of my income since I was a wee lad.
What made you start, your parents or it came naturally? It is really generous of you Nick.
Definitely something my parents taught me to do.
I donate all the money from my blogs to charity too. We have been sponsoring 10 special needs kids from our personal charitable contributions, we add 1 child every year. We get progress reports, photos and personal letters from these kids (they are all in India). Whenever we struggle for money (we donate a total of 30% of our entire income, so yeah we struggle a lot too), looking at those are what keep us going.
What a great project Suba. What charity do you go through for the special needs kids?
I think that’s a wonderful thing to do. An education is one of the greatest things a person can receive, and it’s sad that so many people take it for granted. I haven’t sponsored a child before, only given money for college scholarships for students at my former high school. That would certainly be something I would consider in the future. Good for you to break that French stereotype!
College scholarships are a great project too, and you have to be a great inspiration to the kids back home.
That;s awesome Pauline that you are doing this. I’ve never sponsored a child before but look forward to learning more about how your journey goes.
thank you!
Wow, this is fantastic! I can’t believe the costs are so high for school in Guate. Student bus passes here are definitely less than $70. That’s probably a bit more than what university students have to pay in Vancouver.
So glad to hear that you are doing this and I wish you all the best in generating lots of money to do so! It is awesome that you’ve found this opportunity so close to your home.
I support a few scholarships and wish I had more money to direct to them.
Public transportation is not heavily subsidized, or at all here, so the kids have to pay about $1.50 one way to go to school six days a week. Their parents make $1 per hour…
Private school includes room and board, if you rent a room with a family (where you never know what can happen) you would pay about the same, since it is not common, there is not much competition, and again no subsidies on education either so you pay more than our public schools.
I think this is fantastic, Pauline. 🙂 Thanks for sharing ways to make a difference in the world. I love the charity you chose.
This is an absolutely awesome way of giving back, especially to girls looking for a chance, as well as role models. Thank you for doing this!
It’s too easy to fall into the trap of focusing on our own finances, squeezing every last bit of return we can out of what we have. Congratulations on deciding to buck the trend and give back – in todays technological age it is quite easy to look up the overhead costs and board salaries of various charities to determine where your money is best spent.
yes it sure is more transparent, although local projects seem very shady.
I wasn’t specifically referring to local projects – moreso was thinking of using a table such as the one found at http://www.moneysense.ca/the-2012-charity-100/ to determine what percentage of donations actually filter through to the cause. Giving $1 to a charity where only 5c is used for overheads is more efficient than giving $1 to a charity who spend 50c on overheads and marketing.
This is a very noble and generous pledge, well done. Can I ask where the children are that you are sponsoring? Did you say Cambodia?
Hi Liz, they are in Northern Guatemala.
That’s great, please do share your sponsorship stories! 🙂