Activism Through Child Sponsorship

I've been a child sponsor through Compassion Canada for almost four years. My first child is a boy in Bangladesh, His name is Joy, and he is now 11.

My decision to become a sponsor was driven by several reasons. As someone who has no children of her own, I felt this was a way of directly impacting a child's life while being able to have a personal relationship with the child. As someone who believes in Tikkun Olam (repairing the world), giving to charitable organizations is important, and through sponsoring a child I can directly see how my resources are being used. Finally, as an activist, sponsoring a child is direct actions towards fighting poverty, providing an education, and taking care of a young person spiritually.

My passion concerning child sponsorship has led me to sponsor a second child. Her name is Katerin, and she is 9 and lives in Bolivia. I have an interest in that part of the world as it is close to Argentina (a place dear to me as an activist and musician - gracias León Gieco y Mercedes Sosa), it is where Che was assassinated, and Spanish is the language spoken there. I hope to some day be able to write letters in Spanish to Katerin.

I encourage everyone, regardless of faith, to consider sponsoring a child. Yes, while we have to work towards eradicating the root causes of institutionalized poverty and oppression, we can also help those individuals affected directly by rampant capitalism and globalization.