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Some of the questions we are frequently asked about the Sponsorship of a child or Vision for Africa Intl. in general, we try to answer here.
We hope we could answer most of your questions. If you have further question do not hesitate to contact us!
All important information about the child is included in the sponsorship folder that will be mailed to you at the beginning of the sponsorship period. You will also receive a contact address for the child.
Yes, the child’s contact address is in your sponsorship folder. (We do not give the sponsor’s address to the child.) Some sponsors regularly send letters to their child. Sometimes the children are too shy to write; sometimes they are too young or their English is not good enough. Teachers and our co-workers in Kampala regularly encourage children to write to their sponsors and tell them about their lives.
Our co-workers in Uganda regularly visit schools and inquire about the children’s progress. Sometimes they receive a report card and a recent photograph of the child, which we forward to the sponsor. If a child is progressing from primary (after completing P7) to secondary school or starting vocational training we inform the sponsor and ask whether the sponsor is still prepared to support the child or not. After completing S4 (approximately equal to sophomore/G.C.S.E. level) children with high marks are encouraged to proceed to S6 (high school diploma/A levels). The rest of the students are encouraged to start vocational training.
Many sponsors would like to send a birthday gift for their child. In Uganda, birthdays are not celebrated as in Europe or the United States. Frequently, children and their parents do not know the child’s date of birth. They might say, ‘during the rainy season in the year 1997’. To avoid embarrassment, parents might give a date, not knowing if it is correct.
Just knowing about a sponsor brings a child much joy! Nevertheless, if you want to give the child another small gift, learning and play materials are appreciated. For example, colored pencils, crayons, children’s writing paper, sharpeners, erasers, balloons, well-packed candies or photos of the sponsors would be very appropriate. The children are always very pleased to receive mail, and also when they know what their sponsors look like and where they live.
You can send your letters or small packages directly to the child’s contact address, which is the school address listed in your sponsorship folder. Please do not send mail for the child to our offices in Austria, Kampala (Uganda) or the USA.
Letters and small presents (not more than what can be put into a small envelope) will be delivered to the child’s school address (PO box). Most of the letters and packages arrive. In Uganda, however, it is impossible for us to verify if packages and letters have arrived at the correct location! Therefore, please understand there is no guarantee of delivery.
Please also consider that packages must be picked up individually from a sometimes distant post office (there is no mail delivery system); that entails transportation costs and sometimes high custom costs that the recipient has to pay. For this reason it may happen that packages arriving in Uganda are not claimed, due to a lack of funds. The children receive their most valuable gift in the form of your sponsorship.
Yes, you can. However, it is not always advantageous for one child to be favoured more than another. Sometimes a one-time donation may be necessary if a child needs to do a special training during vacation time, needs holiday-tuition; or in the case of sickness where the child needs special treatment. In these cases we will inform sponsors beforehand.
For one-time special payments, please get in touch with our office in Imst.
Yes, it is possible! We have already started building small holiday apartments where we can accommodate visitors. We are also planning to build a vocational school for tourism, where students will be able to learn the hotel business and at the same time practise their newly acquired skills. (Beginning not before mid 2008).
If you want to visit the child, please get in touch with us with enough time to plan effectively (at least two months beforehand), so that we can plan your visit and provide you with the necessary information.
We are concerned about private letters from your child or his/her relatives. Sometimes they write that they do not have enough food or no place to sleep, that they have brothers and sisters who would like to go to school etc. and they ask for additional support. Should you receive such a letter, please contact our office in Imst. This will enable us to contact our co-workers in Kampala. They will find out whether these statements are true or not. We want to make sure your generosity and willingness to help are misused.
Due to changes in your own life you might feel you want to withdraw your sponsorship. In such a case we ask you for a short written notice of cancellation of your sponsorship (it is not necessary to give a reason for your decision because you are under no obligation).
However, we would be grateful for your timely information in order to find a new sponsor for the child. Even when a child is not sponsored for a short time they will stay in school and school fees will be covered by Vision for Africa until a new sponsor is found.
Of course you can help support the any number of building projects with your donations, without taking on a sponsorship. We are pleased about every contribution to maintain our construction work. We would be grateful if you could introduce our work to your friends and co-workers. Flyers and newsletters for circulation can be requested from our office in Imst. You can also download them.
(find out more about the different projects)
If you change your address, your phone number or e-mail address, please fill in the form in your sponsorship folder and forward it to us either by surface mail or send us an e-mail informing us of your updates. We want to make sure you receive your donation receipt, photos and letters from your child.
The Europe sponsorship contributions and donations are tax deductible in Germany and in some cantons of Switzerland. The USA donations paid to Vision for Africa are tax deductible for USA residents.
In the beginning of every year, we send receipts for all donations and contributions you have made during the previous year. If you do not need a receipt, please inform our office in Imst or Denver about it. You help us save postage and reduce administrative costs.
Some schools fees are higher because children either study in a day school, where sometimes lunch is provided, or a boarding school, where they have their lessons and full board and lodging. Many children are placed in boarding schools because their parents or guardians are so poor that they hardly can afford meals, let alone bedding or school fees. Some schools offer special subjects such as chemistry or biology that require lab equipment.
Besides some schools are supported by the government and therefore cheaper than others which are private schools.
Even the students level can make a big difference in the school fees. Kindergarten and Primary School are of course cheaper than Secondary School, High School or even University.
With the monthly sponsorship donations we promote the personal development of the child, as well as improving his/her social environment. We pay the children’s school fees, school materials, school uniforms and food. For children in boarding schools we cover the entire costs for boarding. We have built our own boarding school, one vocational training centre for boys and one for girls. We are planning to construct a day clinic hospital and other facilities. We provide good education, health care and make sure that the social environment is favourable to the child’s spiritual, intellectual and social development.
We are committed to using your donation as economically and responsibly as possible. It is of utmost concern to us to keep administrative costs very low. They amount to a minimum of 10% and maximum of 20%. At the end of every calendar year this percentage is reviewed and adjusted.
"Vision for Africa Intl. " mainly works independently, partly in partnerships with other Christian organizations like the Anglican Church or Catholic-Charismatic Renewal, but above all with the respective local authorities and others in deprived areas.