have identified projects such as the Pangani Children’s Center in Kenya; community rebuilding aſter the tsunami in Indonesia; and in Zim- babwe, training that farmers can use on their own farms and then teach to others, farmer-to-farmer. So there’s a multiplying effect. Tose same farm- ers also share some of their harvest with the community feeding center for orphans and vulnerable children.
Does accompaniment help chil- dren in ways that child sponsor- ship hasn’t? Is there a cost to the personal connection of photos and letters a sponsored child sends and sometimes receives? Riſt: We believe a child should see
neighbors helping each other, sup- ported by Christian believers from around the world, rather than for much of their childhood being the recipient of support from a stranger in another land. …We are concerned about the kind of relationship and self-image instilled by a child in a distant land whose only hope … is from “outside” his or her community, nation and culture. Child sponsorship, no matter how
it’s managed, must direct a good por- tion of the giſt to the cost of manag- ing the relationship between the child and sponsor. We believe [ELCA World Hunger] donors want as much as possible of their giſt [to go toward] the relief and development that benefits children and families of a community directly. Cumming: We also need to ask
To help
Contact your synod or the World Hunger office (800-638-3522) to get on the program’s mailing list. Start to build relationships within your companion synod program. Speak out about hunger issues in your congregation. And send your gifts to ELCA World Hunger, P.O. Box 71764, Chicago, IL 60694- 1764, or give by credit card at 800-638-3522 or
www.elca.org/giving.
Author bio: Hunter is a section editor of The Lutheran.
ourselves questions about our aid: Are we directing their develop- ment? Or are we equipping people to develop themselves within their own context? What method of giving offers us a more authentic way of entering into the communion that God is bringing about in this world? I believe that coming together
and investing in the ministries and relationships of our own church offers more authenticity. Relationships aren’t easy. Tey
require effort and long-term com- mitment. If people sponsor a particu- lar child, they need to be committed for the duration. But in reality they can just stop sending a check. Tere needs to be something
more substantive out of respect that both parties are created in the image of God. … We are called in relation- ships with our partners to open ourselves up enough to be intimate. Teir joys are our joys and their sor- rows are our sorrows and vice versa.
So there are potential problems for sponsored children in communities. Cumming: Yes. Child sponsor-
ship can drive a wedge between [family members], [make] parents feel inadequate and create a class of elites. … Researchers have found high levels of jealousy even between sponsored children, between those who received letters or giſts and those who didn’t. Some children felt unloved or that they were being helped by someone who really didn’t want to be in relationship with them.
Such programs can be more
geared toward the emotional needs of the sponsors than the emotional needs of the child. Te underlying message to a child
can be that your parents or fam- ily can’t support you and keep you safe, but we can, we will. Children become a tool for us—a project for adults. Child sponsorship allows us to feel good, donating to this project. But this project has a name and emotional needs. … How are we going to be a church that truly welcomes youth as valuable leaders if we still believe they’re just projects for adults? How do we see children as real and full people, with their own needs?
What do you suggest? Riſt: If someone wants to get to
know the importance of meeting [the] needs of a child in poverty, there are places in almost every U.S. community where that is possible. To build out an authentic,
accountable communication struc- ture to provide such a relationship around the world is expensive. ELCA World Hunger provides true stories (
www.elca.org/hunger) that repre- sent the work our giſts make possible. While this may make it more distant for some, it also means that we together share the responsibility of helping children around the world. One child’s life doesn’t depend on
one donor, but many children are helped by many giſts. And every dol- lar given can go much further.
February 2014 25
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