Save the Children

i would donate if i was absolutely sure the children would receive it.i'm not donating so country leaders or organization leaders can get fat off the donations. i've heard stories of food rotting on docks because the military leaders of particular countries weren't letting it through.

I honestly hate those infomercials. I heard once that they actually starve the children all day, just to get them to look that way. I always think, hey you're right there, give them a sandwich. I have never sponsored a child, nor would I do so through one of those agencies. They just seem to ooze fraud. I have given donations to local shelters and contributed to food drives, etc. I would much rather see my donations going to work in my community, and know where they are going.

nope. my dad and the family never sponsored a child through agencies. but we adopted a baby girl for us to raise. and we are sending atleast 3 people to college. those we know whose parents can't afford to send their kids to college. it's not much. but atleast we see them grow and we're sure that the money goes straight to their education. i wanna try and atleast donate something to the kids starving in africa. but everytime i see in national geographic channel how these people quickly multiply, i feel bad. i mean, i hope they'll also be taught about family planning. if we always just say we will feed them, they will just have idea of it's okey to just multiply and multiply because there are concerned people who will feed them anyway. i just don't know. i have mixed feelings about it... anne

I am ashamed to admit that I turn the channel when these commercials come on- they sadden me so- and I just would rather not think about that- I have never given to these- I do donate alot to charities- local ones- cancer- heart association- etc. As mean as this sounds I want to try to help people (kids- starving) here in the states first- there is alot of poverty and starving kids right here- I don't know how to do this-

I like the concept, but honestly I think my money would probably be better suited to going to a local women's shelter or just to some homeless guy on the street. At least I know they're getting 100% of my donation. I read somewhere that with some of those agencies, only a small fraction of what you donate actually goes towards the actual kids, most goes towards administration costs and salaries of the CEOs and CFOs. If I'm only sending 75 cents a day, then does that mean only a dime is going towards the child? Since most of us don't have the means to fly to third world countries to personally check the progress of the children we sponsor, then we really have no way of knowing whether or not it's helping -- if the charity is actually being financially accountable, or if we're just short on coffee money for the next while.

I have a mmonthly debit to Gorta. we don't get individual updates on aprticular children. The money gets pooled together for general resoures and I can only hope that it is doing good for someone. At Christmas we also have every child make up a shoe box full of goodies whic are shipped to children in impoverished countries so they can get a little treat. We never hear back from the child, but we get a great deal of satisfaction out of choosing what to put in the box.

I have not ever sponsered a child in a foreign country but I do know a man that does. I give a certain amoutn ot groceries to the church sponsered food panty here near my home There are several wayys to find out if a charity is on the up and up. Here is one ssuch site. http://www.charitynavigator.org/?gclid=COiZj-WA5IwCFRs_ggod-Q2M6g .

Well if we are talking about Africa then you really need to live there for a few years to even start to offer an opinion. When you look at the film clips of poor starving children and old folk, try to look in the background at the adults managing the place, the administrators, the civil servents, the police, the army, the politicians of that country. Not a starved face among them. And not much sympathy too.