How much of my child sponsorship gets overseas to help the kids?
Destiny Rescue has a strong commitment to ensure 100% of all child sponsorship funds are sent overseas to help the children in our projects. We do not take anything out of child sponsorship funds in the US; it all goes overseas. All administration costs etc. are covered through other fund raising efforts. Child sponsors can donate knowing Destiny Rescue sends it all!
How many sponsors does each child have?
There are several different forms of child sponsorship which fall into two broad categories. There are sponsor children living within a family unit and then there are children living in a Destiny Rescue children’s home.
Children living within a family unit
Children living within a family unit (with a parent, grandparent, uncle or aunt) are given what we class as "Supplementary" support. This means that Destiny Rescue will pay for the child to go to school, give them regular food assistance, medical care as required, and training in healthcare/financial management etc. Destiny Rescue staff will keep in regular contact with the child to help in anyway possible. But the guardian of the child will generally play the major role in meeting the child’s day to day needs. Destiny Rescue's goal is not to make a welfare system or negate the guardian's responsibility to care for the child, but rather we aim to partner with the guardian to ensure the child is given the best opportunities possible to empower them to break free from poverty. For children in this category we only require a single sponsor.
Children living within a Destiny Rescue home
Children living in one of Destiny Rescue's homes (orphanages/rescue homes, prevention programme/children's homes) require full support, meaning all expenses are paid for by Destiny Rescue. Some of the costs Destiny Rescue is responsible for are:
Rent of the home (or construction of the home if it is not rented)
Utilities (including water, electricity, gas)
Staff wages – House parents, counsellors, teachers, guards, investigation teams, cooks/cleaners, social workers, vocational trainers etc.
Education
Medical
Vocational training
Clothing
Many other incidentals...
It is not realistic to expect all of these costs to be covered by one sponsor so, depending on the home and location, multiple sponsors are sought for children in this category.
Are child sponsorship funds pooled?
Yes, all child sponsorship funds are pooled. We do this for many reasons; the main reasons are as follows:
- It wouldn’t be cost effective to administer the projects if funds weren’t pooled and projects weren't given a set monthly budget. If our head office had to contact each project manager every month to confirm whether a specific child could be helped in that given month, it would make it very time consuming and funds would be wasted trying to keep track of it
- Non-pooling of funds is not practical in a family setting. For example... If there is more than one child in the family, but not all were sponsored, it would not be practical for the sponsored child to sit down to a meal paid for by sponsorship and for their little brothers and sisters to sit and watch them eat. Obviously the assistance would be spread across the other children in the family as well
- Non-pooling of funds is not practical in a children’s home setting. For example... Just as above, when we have children in our homes it would not be fair to treat one child better than another, just because one child is fully sponsored and another isn’t.
- By pooling funds, if your monthly sponsorship is a little late, your child's support is not affected
Are there situations when more funds are raised than required for the support of a child in the child sponsorship program?
Yes. The most common situations for this are -
- The currencies of both the support nation and the project nation change on a daily basis, which means that sometimes the value of the donating currency (US, Australian, Canadian dollar) increases in value at the same time the project nation’s currency (Thai Baht, Indian Rupee etc.) decreases. At these times we would be getting more money for the dollar. Unfortunately this is equally true in reverse.
- With regards to children in our Rescue Homes, the stage they are at in the re-integration process will determine how much assistance they will require. For example, a child that has been rescued from prostitution and is living in one of our homes will require the most intensive care (which is the most expensive phase of their healing and empowerment). Then, as they get older, they will move into one of our semi independent homes which is a little cheaper. They will then move into an independent home or be re-integrated back into normal society (which is even cheaper again), but we remain an important part of their lives and support structure for a minimum of another 2 years. So, for a child that is fully sponsored from the beginning, the costs of caring for that child decrease as they slowly progress through the different stages of re-integration, leaving us with an excess of sponsorship funds
What happens with excess funds?
All excess funds are spent within the child sponsorship programs. The most common use of funds being in the following areas:
- Expanding the projects - helping more children in desperate need.
- Supporting children already enrolled in our programs for whom a sponsor has not yet been found.
- Rescuing additional children from sexually exploitive situations
Is it possible that my child may leave the sponsorship program?
Yes. The risk of this happening is usually higher in certain programs. The two programs which have the highest number of children leave are –
- Children in city slum projects. We have found that families that live in city slums are often more transient than others living in poor communities. The reasons for this vary greatly. Sometimes the families get into debt with loan sharks and then flee the city as they are unable to pay the debt back. Other times the parents hear of better job opportunities in other cities and leave the project area. Occasionally the children move to live with another family member outside the project area.
- Children in rescue projects. Children that have been rescued out of brothels and sexually exploitive situations are, in some circumstances, at high risk of leaving the program.
- Some of the negative reasons for leaving are:
- The child runs away and can’t be relocated (to date this has never happened).
- Destiny Rescue has not been given legal guardianship of the child and the child decides to leave.
- Some positive reasons for a child leaving the program are:
- The child progresses through the program until they are eventually re-integrated back into society.
- Other times the investigation team will confirm that the parents did not play a role in the abuse of their child and they want their daughter to return home. In this case Destiny Rescue will still offer assistance and a support structure for at least 2 years (except when the family lives a long distance outside the project area and it is not practical to continue the support).
If your sponsored child leaves the program you will be notified as soon as is practical and be given the photo and profile of the child your sponsorship has been transferred to. There is often a delay in being notified due to our investigation team looking into the circumstance of the departure of the child. When it is in the best interest of the child, we would endeavour to have the child return to one of our rescue homes.
What happens when my sponsored child graduates or leaves the program?
Destiny Rescue will contact you with a final update/photo and/or story about the circumstances/reason the child left. At this time you will also be given the photo and profile information of a new child that you will be empowering to reach their God-given destiny.
What happens if I am late in giving my sponsorship?
This is one of the reasons why we pool child sponsorship funds – so that if you forget to send in your sponsorship donation one month, your child will not suffer because of it. We would ask however, that you bring your sponsorship up to date as soon as you can.
What happens to my child if I stop sponsoring?
Although we are always disappointed for a child to lose their sponsor, we understand that circumstances change. If you were unable to continue your sponsorship, your child would become available to be sponsored again by someone else. While a new sponsor is being found we will continue to support your child from the pooled child sponsorship funds.
I am currently in financial hardship but I don’t want to cancel my sponsorship. Do you have any suggestions on how I can continue to afford to sponsor?
Yes, there are many ways we could help you to continue to support your sponsored child...
- If your financial hardship has a fixed timeline - you may have lost your job, but are starting a new job in 3 months time - we could stop withdrawing your sponsorship money for 3 months and recommence when you start your new job.
- We could halve your sponsorship for a set period of time (3 months, 6 months etc.)
- We could send you some resources to help you to hold a fundraiser, the proceeds of which could offset your child sponsorship for a season.
- We could send you a sponsor form for your child so that you could ask a friend or family member to take over your sponsorship until you are in a position to start again.
How do I go about cancelling my sponsorship?
It is as simple as contacting us and letting us know the date you would like your sponsorship to stop. To ensure any automatic payment is taken out of the system in time, we would ask you contact our office at least 14 days before your next donation is due to be debited from your credit card or bank account.
Does my child sponsorship only help one child?
No, your sponsorship goes to helping your sponsored child and it also gives a little help to the many children that are in our programs that are still waiting for sponsors.
Does Destiny Rescue have more children being helped than are currently sponsored?
Yes. We are constantly coming across children in desperate need. Rather than turning our backs on these children and waiting until we can find a sponsor for them, we have chosen to take that step of faith and do all that we can to help them from the moment they are enrolled into our child sponsorship program.
