Sponsoring A Child In Africa

Ever since I can remember, I have seen countless commercials on television asking for people to pick up the phone and sponsor a child living in poverty. Having also grown accustomed to hearing the horror stories of countless organizations misusing the funds, I would quickly change the channel and go on about my day. It was not that I had no heart or that I didn't feel that these kids really existed. It was more of a fear of being taken advantage of and the money not really getting to the kids like it really should. That is until a couple of weeks ago. In my list of blogs that I read is one called Rocks In My Dryer. I'm not quite sure how I originally began following this blog a few months ago, but for some reason I added it to my Bloglines notifier and would make a point to stop in every now and again to read her latests posts. Well, a couple of weeks ago she started writing about a trip she was about to embark on to Uganda. Seeing as how Africa is a country I have longed to visit, I decided to tune in during the days that followed. What I quickly came to learn is that she was going there with a group of bloggers to meet a child that each of them sponsor through a program called Compassion International. As the days went on, I grew more and more curious about the organization. They actually do help the kids? You get to correspond with the one child that you sponsor and they write you back? Well, long story short - a few days into the groups' trip, I logged on to Compassion with my two sons and we chose a young man named Denis in Kenya (see photo) to sponsor. With the promise of a packet and more detailed information about Denis and his family arriving in our mailbox within 10 days, we nearly stalked our mailman in the days that followed. Yesterday our packet arrived and my kids can't wait to get our first, of what will be many letters off to Denis. For a mere $32 a month, you too can sponsor a child. Gosh, I sound like such a commercial right now! Having seen through the Compassion Blogger trip firsthand that these kids really are helped by the money and the organization in general, how could I not? Be sure to pop on over to the RIMD blog and check out the posts about her trip. There were also some great video clips shot of some of the sponsors meeting their sponsored kids.