So, I made a pretty big decision yesterday. I decided to sponsor a child. Since everyone I've told has replied with 'To do what?' (what did they think - sit in a bath of beans?), I'll elaborate a little on what sponsoring a Child actually is. According to PlanUsa.org and various other websites, the general idea of this re-direction of wealth (relatively speaking) is to provide clean water, clothes and a good education to poverty-stricken communities all around the world, with each sponsored child a representative of a family within the community. The idea is you send around £12 a month and receive progress reports, occasional letters and pictures of your sponsored family/child, and send things in return. In truth, the correspondence thing attracted me almost as much as the want to help.
I haven't received my information pack from PlanUsa yet but should next week hopefully, however thanks to their informative confirmation E-Mail, I can tell you that the child I chose to sponsor is a 3 year old (yeah, I didn't think the correspondence thing through fully there, did I?) girl named Jade Castillo Serrano. I forget where she was from but the information pack I'll receive will fill in the blanks. I did of course have Jacob and Sophie-Mae in mind when making my decision.
£12 a month is nothing. Think about it, and I bet you could think of one thing you spend more than £12 on a month that you don't need, want nor ever get much use out of, I know I certainly do (he says, with a glance over at his vast, barely-touched DVD collection)!
Brum, however, felt that this was a LOT of money per month. And so he'll probably be in for a surprise when I tell him that, today, I decided to sponsor a second child for £18 a month. I can't give you much information on the second Child because the website, World Vision, isn't exactly as helpful in it's Confirmation E-Mails so I'll have to wait for my information pack for that, too, but it's pretty cool none-the-less.
If only it ended there.
The front page of the World Vision website is set up in such a manner that you can dive right in, sponsor a child and miss a lot of the details about the organization, which is exactly what I did. Then, a day later - today - I decided to browse the FAQ to see what I could expect in the post and when.
And then I spotted an ugly word amongst the masses of sentences that leaped out at me; 'Jesus'.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed it was attached to an even uglier question; 'How does my Sponsored Child learn about Jesus?'.
Oh shit. This was bad.
I spent a good hour mulling over the situation, trying to work out what was an acceptable course of action in my head. There was no way I could justify denying a family/community improved living conditions just because I happened to disagree with the religion of the organization that provided it. It was like when I couldn't bring myself to click the 'View another child' button on any of the initial searches I had done, for feeling like I would be depriving them of an ever-so-slightly improved life off of a stupid, judgmental decision. I had after all already given my bank details and signed up - if I pulled out now, it would be a hundred times worse than simply hitting the 'Next' button.
But there was another problem - the organization didn't just teach Christianity... but part of their funding included the building of churches, the organization of church groups and Christian activities for the locals.
This really annoyed me. I signed up to help provide clean water, new clothes and better education, not to fund the perpetuation of a fucking lie.
I could see no justifiable reason for the presence of religion here. But what could I do? It was still not a justifiable option to cancel my Sponsorship. In the end I decided to write an E-Mail to the company. I originally intended it to be an innocent request for information as to what extent their religious funding would go, but I found it impossible to keep my feelings to myself. I pointed out the fact that their page was misleading, the reason I had signed up wasn't to help fund the teaching of a religion, and also threw in a little something about teaching religion to children and trusting communities that were dependent upon them for their very well-being was morally reprehensible.
It was good to get it off my chest, I feel a pressure valve has been released slightly, but I know this will continue to bother me. I guess I'll just continue my sponsorship for now - after all, it's World Vision I'm pissed off at, not the unfortunate families.
I'm looking forward to their reply out of morbib curiosity - it will either be "We're sorry that this was not made more clear but thankyou for taking part", or "Burn in hell you Atheist scum". I know which one I'm expecting..
I haven't received my information pack from PlanUsa yet but should next week hopefully, however thanks to their informative confirmation E-Mail, I can tell you that the child I chose to sponsor is a 3 year old (yeah, I didn't think the correspondence thing through fully there, did I?) girl named Jade Castillo Serrano. I forget where she was from but the information pack I'll receive will fill in the blanks. I did of course have Jacob and Sophie-Mae in mind when making my decision.
£12 a month is nothing. Think about it, and I bet you could think of one thing you spend more than £12 on a month that you don't need, want nor ever get much use out of, I know I certainly do (he says, with a glance over at his vast, barely-touched DVD collection)!
Brum, however, felt that this was a LOT of money per month. And so he'll probably be in for a surprise when I tell him that, today, I decided to sponsor a second child for £18 a month. I can't give you much information on the second Child because the website, World Vision, isn't exactly as helpful in it's Confirmation E-Mails so I'll have to wait for my information pack for that, too, but it's pretty cool none-the-less.
If only it ended there.
The front page of the World Vision website is set up in such a manner that you can dive right in, sponsor a child and miss a lot of the details about the organization, which is exactly what I did. Then, a day later - today - I decided to browse the FAQ to see what I could expect in the post and when.
And then I spotted an ugly word amongst the masses of sentences that leaped out at me; 'Jesus'.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed it was attached to an even uglier question; 'How does my Sponsored Child learn about Jesus?'.
Oh shit. This was bad.
I spent a good hour mulling over the situation, trying to work out what was an acceptable course of action in my head. There was no way I could justify denying a family/community improved living conditions just because I happened to disagree with the religion of the organization that provided it. It was like when I couldn't bring myself to click the 'View another child' button on any of the initial searches I had done, for feeling like I would be depriving them of an ever-so-slightly improved life off of a stupid, judgmental decision. I had after all already given my bank details and signed up - if I pulled out now, it would be a hundred times worse than simply hitting the 'Next' button.
But there was another problem - the organization didn't just teach Christianity... but part of their funding included the building of churches, the organization of church groups and Christian activities for the locals.
This really annoyed me. I signed up to help provide clean water, new clothes and better education, not to fund the perpetuation of a fucking lie.
I could see no justifiable reason for the presence of religion here. But what could I do? It was still not a justifiable option to cancel my Sponsorship. In the end I decided to write an E-Mail to the company. I originally intended it to be an innocent request for information as to what extent their religious funding would go, but I found it impossible to keep my feelings to myself. I pointed out the fact that their page was misleading, the reason I had signed up wasn't to help fund the teaching of a religion, and also threw in a little something about teaching religion to children and trusting communities that were dependent upon them for their very well-being was morally reprehensible.
It was good to get it off my chest, I feel a pressure valve has been released slightly, but I know this will continue to bother me. I guess I'll just continue my sponsorship for now - after all, it's World Vision I'm pissed off at, not the unfortunate families.
I'm looking forward to their reply out of morbib curiosity - it will either be "We're sorry that this was not made more clear but thankyou for taking part", or "Burn in hell you Atheist scum". I know which one I'm expecting..
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