Sponsoring a child with World Vision has always been my personal aspiration.
From the time I received my first paycheck, I was always thinking about when I would feel financially stable and comfortable to commit to a lifetime of child sponsorship. I finally did it as my 25th birthday present to myself. I may have accomplished it earlier if I knew it can also be a group sponsorship, where multiple persons sponsor 1 child.
To clarify, World Vision does not have a group child sponsorship program. But this is being practised by groups of people who want to sponsor collectively.
Case Study #1 – 12 sponsors for 1 child
I first learned about this practice mid of last year when I joined possibly one of the most inspiring 30-Hour Famine DIY Camps anyone can organize.
The organizing committee of this DIY Camp were already avid World Vision supporters. In fact, a handful of them were youth ambassadors for World Vision too.
After putting together a DIY Camp that inspired many campers to become child sponsors, the 12 committee members decided to continue their legacy by group sponsoring 1 child.
The cost to sponsor 1 child is RM65 monthly for Asian countries and RM80 monthly for non-Asian countries. By having a group of 12 sponsors to 1 child, each of them is committing RM65 year. That’s much easier to commit, isn’t it!?
I thought how brilliant and noble they are! Mind you, most – if not all – of them were already child sponsor individually.
Case Study #2 – A Pool of Fund to Sponsor 2 children and other projects
Shortly after learning about this group sponsorship idea, one of our most passionate young World Vision volunteers passed away from cancer. You can be sure many people in the community were as heartbroken as they were inspired by her life.
Many didn’t want to forget her volunteerism spirit and in fact, would like to keep her legacy alive. What’s her legacy? It is to volunteer until she’s 55 years old.
Her husband took the lead and recruited her friends and family to support a fund named, Do Till 55. Every year on May 5, each of us contributes RM55 to the fund. Last year, the pool funded 1 Asian child sponsorship and 1 non-Asian child sponsorship. The pool of fund was not exact thus we donated the excess to other World Vision projects.
This movement acts as our way of honoring and remembering the great life she had and the inspiration she was.
Do Till 55 was featured on Oriental Daily recently. You may read about it here:【特写】比翼单飞心仍相连 连她那份好好活. The article talks about her legacy, her final days, and life after.
I’m definitely glad to learn about group child sponsorship through that DIY Camp I attended and later be part of Do Till 55. Doing a group child sponsorship for a special cause makes the commitment even more meaningful and affordable.
Just remember that a life is still dependent on your sponsorship so no matter how affordable it is, lifetime commitment is encouraged. Also, there’s no existing system for group sponsorship so you have to devise a DIY system to stay accountable to your trusted group. For Do Till 55, we have a new bank account and Google Drive that keeps track of everything.
Learn more about World Vision’s child sponsorship program on their website and understand how RM65/month can change a child’s life, one at a time.
p/s Drop me a note if you decide to sponsor a child. It’d make me feel encouraged to continue doing what I believe in =)