Unsponsored Children
CRF is often asked what happens to children that lose their sponsor. When you sponsor a child, we have money to devote to the health, education and spiritual training of that specific child. When a child loses their sponsor, I think that it would be unkind for us to cut off their support where they could no longer go to school, be housed, or receive food. As a result, when a sponsored child loses his or her sponsor, we don’t quit supporting them.
But this money no longer comes from a donor. So the money has to be taken out of general funds that are devoted to paying for other CRF programs.
For our finances to work, CRF has to keep the number of unsponsored kids in our programs to a minimum or we don’t have money for our other ministries. When a child loses their sponsor, I try to get them another sponsor at places where I am speaking, and we put them on our website hoping people pick these children to help reduce our general fund spending.
Here’s what you need to know — if a child loses their sponsorship, we don’t leave them high and dry. We still send funds. But we need to quickly replace the sponsorship or hope people donate more money to our general funds to cover the unsponsored children.
We certainly realize that there are a lot of reasons why someone might have to stop sponsoring a child. And we don’t want anyone to fear for the safety and care of their previously sponsored child. We continue taking care of them.
But you could also help us when you sponsor another child to pick one of the unsponsored children—there’s a special “unsponsored” category on our sponsorship website.
Or you can help by giving to our “Most Urgent Needs” general fund, which will provide support for children’s interim needs.
Usually the children who are least likely to get sponsored are older children. Of course, we want you to pick the child you want to sponsor. But sometimes older children don’t come across quite as cute or as in need as the younger kids, so they tend to get bypassed. This often happens with war orphans like those we help in Liberia and on Mt. Elgon in Kenya. Because of war situations, schools were closed—and children had to start school much later than usual. It is also true where famines have occurred. Schools were shut down or didn’t exist. And so by the time schools opened again, the children were older. These kids need a break more than ever.
If you can’t decide what child to sponsor, could you consider an unsponsored kid or an older child? – Milton Jones, CRF President
SPONSOR AN UNSPONSORED CHILD
SPONSOR AN OLDER CHILD
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About Christian Relief Fund
CRF is a non-profit relief organization based in Amarillo, Texas with a focus on holistic programs to rescue orphans and vulnerable children from poverty.
CRF operates child sponsorship programs in over 25 countries and is dedicated to providing food, clean water, healthcare and disaster relief to the glory of God worldwide.