Proyectos

I just had an interesting, I guess depressing, talk with Flor (Angel's daughter). I was venting a bit about some of my current frustrations with how things are going here and feeling like I just hadn't figured out how one would ever make a difference in the world for the better, given that there seem to be so many barriers. She usually just listens when I vent and reassures me that there is some good coming from the work I'm doing. But this time she shared her experience with "Los Proyectos". Los proyectos refers to various organizations that independently offer some form of support to the people here. One of the big ones is a program like Christian Children's Fund, advertised on TV (but it's a different organization). It is a $30/mo sponsorship of children between 5 and 15. It provides some school supplies, some medications if needed, shoes, school clothes, a present at Christmas and birthday. It is run by a very "by the book", strict Father here. After seeing how several organizations here seem to work, I was starting to feel that might be the best one to support.

Anyway, Flor told me that she and her siblings were always "apadrinado", or supported through this organization. Their families got $12/mo and that did help them considerably with school fees and other basic needs. But, when it came time to take the yearly picture that gets sent to their sponsor, they were told not to wear nice clothes (if they arrived with earrings, they had to take them out). They were then asked to stand in front of a decrepit house that wasn't theirs and were asked to hold things they hadn't been given, like baskets of fruit or a toy. She also said that her sponsor changed quite a lot growing up (I guess because people tire of sponsoring a child after a year or so) and she would often suddenly go unsponsored. When that happened, she did continue to receive some basic support but not at the level she had previously had (no more Christmas and birthday presents, etc). Perhaps that's understandable as the funding source stopped but I think the organization should have a reserve to keep that from happening. I imagine it's hard on a kid in a town where almost all kids are sponsored, to be one who doesn't get the Chrismas or birthday present. She said it was also embarrassing because they would print and post a public list of unsponsored kids and she didn't like seeing her name there for everyone to see as if sponsors didn't like her.

The kids were asked to write notes to their sponsor parents. She recalls an incident when her cousin, a translator of the notes, got mad at her for lying in her note that she had no shoes and had to sleep on the floor. She says she never wrote this and wonders if someone else inserted it in her note. She also recalls that just before her sponsorship ended, she got a card from her sponsor mom asking about her studies. She went to the organization to respond (sponsored kids aren't given sponsor contact info to write directly) but was told she'd been terminated because of her age so they didn't let her write a final letter to her mom.

I used to sponsor a child in Bangladesh, Neil, through CCF. I think back on his notes and photos and wonder about them now.

My first response was to this talk with Flor was to write off sponsorship programs like this as a way of supporting impoverished people. But then Flor wrapped up by saying, but I did always love exchanging letters with my sponsor mom and that emotional and financial support was really important to us especially while our dad was drinking.

Still looking for where someone can make an impact.