After the event in April, I met with the president of The Fregenet Foundation . Tafesse told me all about his wonderful school, and asked me if I knew any adoptive parents who might want to help him keep the school going strong. He really does have an incredible foundation, and he could use a family or two to become his school's cheerleaders. In an incredible, full-circle, crazy, kind of coincidence, Tafesse's dreams of a school came after the death of his only child- Leeza. Leeza was Dana Roskey's (of the Tesfa Foundation) fiancee. The grief following this young woman's death has spurred ripples of goodness and hope for thousands of Ethiopians.
Tafesse has run his school for many years and had some very wise words of advice. He told me that individual sponsorships had proved disastrous in his school. Those who were sponsored received visitors, sometimes new uniforms, letters, etc, and those that weren't did not. It was upsetting to students and parents alike. His school is a little different than ours will be (Fregenet is in Addis Ababa), but I can't help but think that we should consider being a unified group of sponsors. Yes, it is fantastic to get assigned a specific child and to see that picture and to make that connection, but really that is a gift for the sponsor not the sponsored. If all of you who pledged to take on a student agree, I think we should form a group and not count on having our own personal student.
Sponsorship for the Kololo school is $21 a month, or $252 a year.
Thoughts? Concerns? Who is in our group? Who wants to help a city school?
Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?
Posts
What if instead of direct sponsorship of an individual child, you offered sponsorship by age level? For example, a person could sponsor a Grade 1 child and then receive photos of, updates on, and letters from the entire Grade 1 class. Then, if the sponsors visit the school, they can visit the grades they sponsor without singling out individual children while leaving others behind. Just a thought! I volunteered in Ethiopia for a year and I remember how tricky it can be to identify with children without excluding other children.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a great idea to bulk us all together. It's hard to say who of the supporters will take the sponsorship one step further with visits/ gifts and who won't. I never honestly understood the single sponsorship idea, bc in practicality doesn't the organization group the $ together anyhow?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Rebekah. :) I'm all for a group effort.
ReplyDeleteI'm with bulk sponsorship 100%. By that I mean we will be part of that tribe. Bueller.
ReplyDeleteWe visited this school in Addis Ababa and it is extraordinary.
ReplyDeleteI agree totally with the group idea. We're working with Rebekah as you know anyhow so that will work.
Here's another thing I've learned by watching the sponsorship-of-a-specific-child approach. It takes a tremendous amount of somebody's staff time to get information/letters/pictures back and forth. If that step is neglected, sponsors don't feel wonderfully connected and you've lost the thing that makes a sponsorship appealing in the first place. But program general costs (undesignated funds) are incredibly hard to raise (says someone who's done it for what feels like years and years for Ethiopia Reads) and thus it becomes a hard cycle in another way--the organization needs PEOPLE to be the glue of the sponsorships but the salaries and expenses and overhead for those people? Very hard to raise.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if I will be able to sponsor (as I'm sponsoring a lot of things this year and may be maxxed out--though I hope to in the future.) So consider my opinions as totally secondary or tertiary to all the others.
ReplyDeleteI would second hibagel's suggestion of sponsoring a class. It's easier to raise money with a specific connection, but it's a pain in the neck and a lot of work to sponsor an individual child. At the camp where I volunteered, we asked sponsors to sponsor a cabin, and it works well. It's not too hard to put together one letter from the whole class that gets sent out to 20-30 sponsors via email. Then if people choose to visit or send gifts, they are targeting a whole group, not the whole school, and not just one child.
count me in. group sponsorship sounds great.
ReplyDeleteI'm all for a group sponsorship. Would there be a way to have general updates/photos about the school?
ReplyDeleteGroup, group : )
ReplyDeleteMakes total sense.
heart,
sabrina (in jolly ole England)
Interestingly, I kind of assumed that the money I have donated for a sponsored child was spread around and that the charity was kind of sending me a photo of one kid to make me feel connected, not that the money just went to him. I'm in for a group sponsorship.
ReplyDeleteWhat wise and generous people you all are! I agree that the group is the way to go (and I would love to join your group).
ReplyDeleteI'm in however you need me to be. I am also with Bek's group so whatever she says goes.
ReplyDeleteCount me in too. I like the classroom idea and think it might give some of that warm, fuzzy connective glue for future sponsors to jump in. And it shouldn't be as costly to support as individual child sponsorships. But if it did get too costly to support from an admin standpoint then group would be good too. It's all for the kids either way!
ReplyDeleteI love the group! We're a group! It will band us together and I like that a lot.
ReplyDeleteWe are in for group sponsorship!
ReplyDeleteB
This is such a GREAT idea. I also do'nt thinkI could afford an entire child at the moment - but I could be part of a group!
ReplyDelete