Sponsor a child? Maybe not

Who can resist the sight of those pleading eyes, that cute smile? The sight of a child in need of help pulls at the heart strings. After all, a child is innocent, defenceless, they deserve our help. So when we have the opportunity to help the child in the photo, so much the better. We can see the poverty. We can see the suffering. It is real for us. We are reaching out to that child. We can make that child's life better.

This is how child sponsorship is sold. Some agencies use images to directly target our emotions. It is a technique that works. At least, it is a technique which works to raise a substantial amount of money. It is an effective marketing strategy. And no doubt they do good work using this money.

However, not all agencies raise money this way. Ever wondered why? Sometimes we have to look beyond the simple answers. What seems to be a good idea on the surface may on reflection not be such a good idea after all. Let's consider some of the issues:

Sponsorships may create divisions within families and communities when one child receives special attention like letters, gifts, medical care, visits, education etc. How do you think the other children in the family or community would feel? Would they be envious or resentful? Do the parents feel humiliated because they can't look after their child? How are the sponsored children chosen?

Picture courtesy of Milena Godec

Sponsored children may begin to feel that they need to rely on the gifts of donors for their well-being. This may not be help people to become self-reliant. The aim of all good development work is to help people to help themselves. When sponsorship finishes as the child reaches the age of eighteen, he or she may fall back into poverty.

Taking photos of children for the purposes of fundraising may be a form of exploitation. Children are often shown as helpless victims in order to stir our compassion and generosity. These campaigns waste an opportunity to educate potential donors about the causes of poverty or the strengths of communities to tackle their own problems. They do not show that poverty is caused by injustice or that it can be tackled by effective development.

Sponsorship campaigns are expensive. Every advertisement placed in our media uses up money that could be used more effectively elsewhere. Sponsorship programs are also expensive to administer. Letters to children need to be translated and delivered, often to remote locations. Photographs need to be taken and developed, progress reports on children need to be completed. This all uses up money that could have been used more effectively in other ways but is used to satisfy the donor's need for information about "their" child. This may make the donor feel good but are they doing the best they can with the money they donate?

We in the wealthy countries need to ask ourselves why we donate money. Is it to tackle injustice in our world, or just to make ourselves feel better?

TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Religion/Social Sciences

Find out about children's lives in other countries. Go to www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/kidsweb/children.htm Click on wake up world
Answer the following:
   a)    What are the children's names?
   b)    What do their names mean?
   c)    Where do they come from?
   d)    Where and how does each of them sleep? Click on wake up to find out.
   e)    What do they each think of school? Click on school to find out.
   f)     What do they do there?
   g)    Do they enjoy school?
   h)    Compare their school day with yours. What are the similarities and differences?
   i)     What do the four children do in their spare time? Click on play to find out.
   j)     What do the children have to do to help out at home? Click on help to find out.
   k)    How do they help their families?
   l)     Compare this with what you have to do to help your family?
   m)   What do the children eat? Click on food to find out.
   n)    Where do they eat their meal?
   o)    How does this compare to meal times at your place?
   p)    What do the children dream of? Click on dream to find out.
   q)    How do their dreams compare to yours?


Click on Things to do and complete the quiz. Click on Wake up, World quiz.
Click on Food pairs game and learn about the food that children eat around the world.
Click on Wordsearch and see how many words you can find.
Click on the world map and complete the activity.
Go back to www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/kidsweb/children.htm and find out about life for other children in other parts of the world e.g. Afghanistan and Ghana. You can watch video footage and listen to actual sounds.

French

Go to www.oxfam.org.uk/coolplanet/kidsweb/children.htm and click on Street kids in Mopti.Click on allez a la version francaise and read about the lives of these children in French.

English/Literacy

1. Find an advertisement in a newspaper or magazine for a charity. Answer the following about the advertisement:
   a)    How large is the advertisement? (Remember, the larger it is, the more expensive it is to place!)
   b)    Are there any pictures in the advertisement?
   c)    If yes, describe the picture: Is it colour or black & white?
   d)    Are there pictures of people in the advertisement?
   e)    Describe these people: What are they wearing? Do they look happy or sad? Can you tell if the people are from Australia or not? Is the picture of an adult or a child? Or a group of people?
   f)   What is the purpose of the advertisement?
   g)   What is it about the picture that helps to fulfil this purpose?
   h)    List all the persuasive elements of the advertisement.
   i)    What is it about the advertisement that appeals to your emotions?
   j)    Does the advertisement have any information in it about the cause of the situation?

2. Design your own advertisement for a charity or a good cause that you might support. Try to avoid using "tricks". Include information to educate potential donors about the cause of the situation. What type of picture might you include in the advertisement?

PARISH AND COMMUNITY GROUPS

Write to a charity which uses the "child sponsorship" technique and ask them:
What proportion of the money goes in advertising and administration and compare this to other organisations like Caritas Australia that don't use the technique?
Ask them about some of the issues raised above. The problems of singling out individual children, the effect on the parents, the problem of dependency etc.
Ask them what proportion of their budget is spent on educating people in Australia about the causes of poverty. Ask them also what their policy is about lobbying government to alleviate the causes of poverty and suffering.

Discuss in your group some of the issues raised above. Does the effectiveness of child sponsorship as a fund raising technique mean that the negative aspects of such a technique can be overlooked?
In other words, do the ends justify the means? Can you think of other situations where this argument has been used? The war on Iraq?
Did the removal of an evil dictator justify the killing of thousands of innocent Iraqis or the stretching of the truth about weapons of mass destruction?

How is the distortion of the truth justified in political and other advertising?