Shannon’s been asking the best questions lately. Like how do we teach our kids about poverty without messing them up (my paraphrase)?
Compassion has some guidelines for their graphic designers that help them decide what pictures from field photographers to use and which not to. They want to avoid what I call “poverty porn.” You know, the images of skeleton-like kids swatting flies away from their faces. Images of the worst of the worst, potentially used to manipulate. Ironically, these images manipulate us into doing nothing for the kids in the pictures, convinced that their case is hopeless and that nothing we can do will make a difference.
Compassion’s designers are encouraged to show the hope and progress of children in the third world instead: a kid eating breakfast, another reading a book, a mother playing with her baby, a group of five year-olds singing songs under a steeple. These images remind us that our help, well, helps. There is hope. There is progress. We celebrate with photographer. And we give expectantly.
Two of our sponsored children – Yancey and Yoseph – have birthdays in May. We’re celebrating those days as a family. It takes a while to get mail to them so we started early. Today we made their birthday cards. My kids colored in the letters I drew and then posed for their pictures. It was all Becky’s idea. Then we each wrote something inside and slipped them in their envelopes.
When their birthdays finally get here we’ll have dessert and say a prayer at bedtime thanking God for giving Yancey and Yoseph another year of life.
We’re trying to show our kids a picture of hope, not despair. It’s lesson after lesson crafted to be inspiring, not devastating. Hopefully, if we celebrate the lives and progress of Yancey and Yoseph enough, our kids will believe they’re letters and prayers and loose change really do matter. And then, we hope, they’ll naturally and expectantly help people when they have kids and mortgages and $32 a month of their own.
Deidre says:
Oh, I love this idea. I love that your kids look so happy doing this. What a cool surprise for the compassion kids.
Question….we just received the info. on our new child and we’re so excited to start writing. We chose a girl in Uganda that had the same exact birthdate as our 6 year old. Do you know how long it takes for a letter to reach the children? I know I’ll get asked that question a million times from my daughter.
Thanks again for sharing Compassion with us.
Erin says:
This is really a great idea and a great answer to Shannon’s question! Your children should be involved like this and you should make your Compassion children as important as your own. If not why bother sending the money. The money does no good without the prayers!
Shaun Groves says:
We build in three months to be safe. It might take that long but…
Kelly @ Love well says:
I love this idea, Shaun. Like Shannon, I’m struggling with knowing how to make practical, balanced changes to my life in the light of world poverty. (There’s a lot more behind that story, obviously, but since this is your blog and not mine, I’ll refrain.)
I would love to hear more about your journey through this maze. In your post from a few days ago, you mentioned all the changes you made to your life after the El Salvador trip. Can you share some of the specifics? I know every person’s response will be somewhat different, but it seems like many of us out here are working through the same issues.
anne jackson says:
this is awesome shaun. what a great idea!
Vicky Beeching says:
Hey Shaun!
I have a favor to ask you – I changed my URL so if you have me on your Rotating Blog Roll, could you change your link to this address?
http://vickybeeching.typepad.com/vicky
Cheers mate! Really appreciate it!
vb
Geneva says:
I love your birthday card photos… I was late in realizing how much the letters mean to the children. At first, I considered that our sponsored child was just a monthly financial commitment. That is a horrible thing to say, but it is how I looked at it. The thing that changed my perspective was a video that I saw. I think it was here on your blog… the young lady held up the letters she had received and talked about how much the encouraging words meant to her. So Miquieas is now a 5 year old child, not a $32 monthly bill. He is as real as my own nearly 5 year old son. We are blessed to have the opportuntiy to know and care for him, to petition our Lord on his behalf, and to write him letters often.
Linda Sue says:
Thank you so much for this post – we feel our Compassion boys are our children at least through spiritual adoption. We find it is about 2 months between sending a letter to Compassion and the boys receiving it (because they always write us as soon as they hear from us). Questions about time it takes and appropriateness of certain things are answered promptly and pleasantly if you call the Compassion offices. Also great online info available. Your birthday greetings are wonderful! We send pictures of food/produce we like that is different from their food and pictures of our goats. Each family in Bangladesh now have goats purchased with a family gift from us – another “tie” that binds our hearts to them. Enough – you know way more about this than I do – we love Elius and Bipul so much even though we’ll most likely never see them in person. Not ‘til heaven at least!
Cali Amy says:
I think, sadly, that a lot of people don’t know the importance of writing to the children.
what really got me was a blog post I read by someone who went on a sponsor visit and one of the children asked if she would sponsor him. She said, “but you already have a sponsor!” He replied, “but not a good one, they never write.” ๐
I try to write my children as often as possible now!
alexsandra says:
I just signed up to sponser a boy who had waited longer than 6 months!! I’m soooo excited!!!Hakiza… Birthday:January 17, 1996, from the Nkurungiro Child Development Center.
I looked at different children thinking I would look for a birthday or some other connection. Then I just decided the longest one waiting was better and it turns out the year Hakiza was born was the year my husband passed away…so there is our “connection”…and I think it is a very special one.
Thank you for all your sharing, your stories and for this wonderful work you do to promote this very compassionate cause.
Linda Sue says:
Alexsandra – how wonderful is your heart! Don’t know if you found him from Anne Jackson’s blog -she has been posting children in Uganda waiting 6 months or more trusting in the blog readers making the connection. seems to me) in the blog world – younger bloggers who already have an audience are using their blogs to present a need – and that need being met so quickly – bless you and Hakiza! One light beats the heck out of darkness!
Janel says:
This is great! Thank you. We just started sponsoring our child in October and I was not sure about the time it would take for them to get something.
Carole Turner says:
Our daughter is 11, she gets up at 4:45am every Thursday morning to go cook and serve breakfast to homeless people. Our entire family, including our 3 yr old son, volunteer over 10 hours a week at our church’s Dream Center here in Baton Rouge doing everything from Helping at the Afterschool program, to wtching kids while their moms attend a support group, to serving food to the inner sity poor. The bottom line for us is making the poor a part of their lives. We are very fortunate to attend a church that has hundreds of serving opportunities so our kids get the honor of being raised serving others, the least of these especially.
This summer we hope to bring home the newest addition to our family, our son Abel from Ethiopia. He is a seven year old Orphan that we get the priviledge of being his family.
I believe more then anything we lead by example. You and all the people that sponser children and help the poor are GREAT examples of Matthew 25. I pray all Christians will be.
Thanks for your life.