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Child sponsorship
Q. What is sponsorship?
A. Child sponsorship establishes a relationship between individual donors and sponsored children. Sponsors provide a monthly gift, which is used to help provide benefits for their sponsored children. STAO has chosen sponsorship as our means for helping needy and orphaned children because we've found that pairing one child with one sponsor is the most effective way to receive consistent gifts from our donors...and therefore provide stable, ongoing benefits and services to the orphaned children.
Q. How much does it cost to sponsor a child?
A. Just $25.00 a month. We've found ways to keep costs down without cutting into the care you help provide your child.
Q. How can sponsors provide so much for $25.00 a month?
A. STAO looks for ways to keep costs down without sacrificing the care each child receives: Whenever possible, we provide sponsorship to large numbers of orphaned children concentrated in the same area. This helps us more quickly and effectively distribute benefits, administer care and keep children informed about programs and services. We use trained volunteers to help us carry out program activities -- many of whom are the guardians of sponsored children. We purchase items for the children such as food, clothing and school supplies in bulk quantities in the areas where we work -- to save money and help the local economies.
Q. How are the funds you receive used to help needy and orphaned children?
A. Funds are used as follows: Medical care and nutritional support: STAO provides access to medical care for every sponsored child, provides follow-up care and medication to sick and injured children Educational assistance: We provide textbooks and school supplies for sponsored children. Clothing , Food ,: Every child in the sponsorship program receives a number of new clothing items every year, ranging from shirts, pants, shoes, socks, skirts and school uniforms to underwear. Material aid: Sponsored children receive assistance with practical necessities such as bedding, dishes, eating utensils, cleaning supplies.
Q. How do you ensure that the funds you receive are spent as your sponsors intend?
A. Financial accountability is a matter of paramount importance at STAO .Our strong foundation has been established through stringent accounting and financial reporting procedures to ensure that the funds and products that we send to our projects are properly used.
Q. Can I visit my child?
A. Of course! Nothing is better than meeting the child you are sponsoring face-to-face, to see how your child lives and witness firsthand what your contributions help provide.
Q. Will my child write to me? Can I write to my child?
A. Yes! You will receive two letters a year from your child, approximately six months apart. Of course, you may write to your child as often as you wish. And you will receive a reply to your letter.
Q. As a sponsor, what do I receive throughout the year?
A. You'll receive:
- Two letters from your child each year.
- A new color photograph of your child every year.
- An annual communication from your child's Project Director to keep you informed about exactly what's happening in your child's community.
- The opportunity to send birthday, Christmas and Easter greetings to your child and help provide gifts on these and other special occasions.
Q. Are my gifts tax-deductible?
A. Please consult with your tax advisor for more information.
Q. What types of benefits do sponsored children receive?
A. Through sponsorship, your child receives direct and vital benefits to help him or her grow up healthy and educated. You'll help provide important assistance, such as:
- Medical and dental care.
- A better chance for an education by helping remove barriers that can keep a child from attending school. This is accomplished by providing school-age children with needed items like school fees, books, supplies and uniforms.
- New, durable clothing.
- Improved living conditions, nutrition education and other vital assistance that affects your child.
- Emergency food and vitamins
- Structured activities to encourage moral and spiritual values.
- And much more!
- Our program benefits focus on the needs of individual children. To help ensure the children receive the best possible care, detailed benefit registers, listing benefits received for each child, are signed by the and kept on file in our field project areas.
Q. May I help my child through my employer's matching gifts program or the Combined Federal Campaign?
A. Absolutely! Many sponsors participate in their employer's Matching Gifts program -- in which the employer matches their employees' charitable contributions. Please contact your human resources or payroll department today to find out if they can match your contributions to STAO and, if you're a government employee, please consider helping STAO through the Combined Federal Campaign. Through this special program, a charitable contribution may be automatically deducted from your paycheck to give vital help to impoverished children.
Q. Am I my child's only sponsor?
A. Yes, if you sponsor a child through our Sponsorship program, your child will have only one sponsor -- you!
Q. Can I get free, no-obligation information on an actual child who needs a sponsor -- before I make my decision?
A. Absolutely! We'll send you the actual photo and personal history of one child who needs a sponsor -- completely free and with no obligation -- so you can see the child you would be helping before you decide.
Q. How does your contribution amount compare to that requested by other sponsorship organizations?
A. At $25.00 a month, STAO remains one of the lowest-cost major child sponsorship programs. We've been able to keep our costs down through careful planning, smart spending, utilizing volunteers, and through intensive evaluation of our programs for maximum effectiveness. And we'll continue to spend your contributions carefully and wisely to help benefit your child.
Q. What percentage of the funds you receive is used for programs and services that benefit sponsored children?
A. We are proud of our financial accountability and integrity. STAO is highly rated by the local communities where we work.
Q. If I must discontinue my sponsorship, what happens to the child I'm helping?
A. We will look for another sponsor for your child immediately, doing our very best to provide uninterrupted support of that orphan.
Q.What length of time is my sponsorship for?
A. Your sponsorship will last as long as your sponsored orphan remains in our program. This could be years, or months, depending on the situation of the orphan. If there is any change in the status of the child, we will immediately let you know.
Q. Is prayer important in STAO sponsorship?
A. It is important to pray, not only for your sponsored child, but for the needs of orphans and widows worldwide as well. While the needs are many, some, you might remember to pray for include: health, safety, developmental and physical growth, and educational, emotional and spiritual growth.
Q. Is STAO affiliated with any church or denomination?
A. As a faith-based program, STAO works with many indigenous churches in the rural areas representing several Christian denominations. Helping one child opens avenues for others to also learn the gospel. About 15 people or more get saved as a result of helping one child because they see how the Lord is blessing her/him.
Q. Which is the best way to send funds to STAO in Uganda?
A. Funds can be wired to us using western union or Money Gram or sent directly on STAO's bank account. Send us an email at Aidsorphanseducation@gmail.com for more details.
Q. Do you have goals you are working toward in your future as a mission? For the children?
A.Yes, STAO Uganda is child focused and encourages integrated interventions, as the needs of orphans and vulnerable children do not exist in isolation.
Q. What is your philosophy of care in regards to children?
A. Our philosophy is to bring glory to God by providing better living conditions and good education in a Christian environment to orphans, widows, and the needy. To uphold the sanctity of human life by meeting the physical, emotional, educational and spiritual needs of orphaned children.
Q. Do you seek to keep families together? (Try to involve relatives)
A.Yes, We try to extend the parent-child relationship in this we decrease the vulnerability experienced by the child.
Q. How is AIDS awareness, prevention, understanding etc part of your project?
A. Lack of awareness about AIDS has resulted in fear, shame and denial. The resulting wall of silence had hindered prevention and care efforts. The ministry now works with other stakeholders to reduce the stigma so that people can support vulnerable children and widows and take advantage of the available resources.
Q. How would your Christian beliefs influence what you do? How are they visible at your project?
A. The Community has understood that it is through God and prayer that they are seeing the fruits in their community. Although the gospel has been presented through the pulpit and possibly crusades, we feel our approach through charitable activities has greatly contributed to getting Christ known in the communities where we work.
Funding And Financial Accountability
- We have a responsibility to be faithful stewards and to maintain integrity and openness in our financial practices. Therefore, we are committed to fulfilling sound, Biblical standards.
- Our unique ministry involves presenting the needs of God's people to God's people, then trusting the Holy Spirit to touch the hearts of those whom He wants to participate in meeting those needs.
- We believe that all we have comes from God and we give it out of His hand (I Chronicles 29:14).
- Because the Lord supplies us with resources for ministry mostly through individual donors, we recognize our accountability both to Him and to our donors. We have a responsibility to be faithful stewards and to maintain integrity and openness in our financial practices.
- STAO 's sources of financial support are mostly individual donors. Most of them support us financially, and some support us with materials. All of them support us in our goal of reaching Uganda's widows orphans and changing a bleak outcome to a hopeful one.
USA for Africa (www.usaforafrica.org) based in CA USA has also in the past supported our projects.
- STAO has two sister organizations registered in Norway
- Save The Aids orphans Norway (www.stao.no)
- Save The Aids orphans giver (www.staogiver.no)
- For a list of individual donors (both local and international) and or references (local and international) to our ministry, send us an email at: Aidsorphanseducation@gmail.com.
WHY SHOULD YOU SUPPORT THE SUFFERING
UGANDAN ORPHANS AND WIDOWS
We understand that as an individual or the member of an organization you are asked frequently to give money. We know that it is important for you that your money is used wisely and effectively. One of the main strength of our projects is that there is very little loss of resources and that you can see clearly the result of your donation. We act directly on the ground with volunteers or paid workers. We don’t have to go through bribes, political contributions or else. Our operations are modest and low-key. We are not one of these organizations using brand new $40,000 four-wheel drive vehicle, or staying in fancy hotels with swimming pools, or buying ultimate technology equipment. A financial contribution of yours can make a huge difference, with results that you can see in the mid-term. You can be an actor in relieving one of the major burdens on the shoulder of Africans. Helping AIDS orphans and widows to access better health care, nutritious food and formal and vocational education is one of the most concrete thing we can do to lifting them out of poverty and thus to giving them more opportunities in the world, which otherwise they wouldn’t have.
WHAT YOUR MONEY CAN DO
- Meet the Basic needs for children at Agape children`s home.
- Facilitate the orphaned children to go to school and have a more economically and intellectually secure future. This will also reduce low esteem and stigma, on top of greatly enhancing their employability
- Empower the families to be food secure, and to meet their own nutritional and financial needs through economic empowerment.
- Improve the quality of life of the widows and orphans by giving them entrepreneurial skills to meet their needs and alleviate emotional trauma.
- Sustain and develop the community by meeting the needs of its most vulnerable members through empowering the care groups, the most available, effective and most cost effective (volunteer) care agency they have and can trust.
- Help in out gospel outreach ministries.
The Children
Whenever a financial gift comes in that is not specifically designed for some other purpose, we channel it to help these orphans by providing school fees, food ,books, supplies and other essential needs. However, we still have a lot of financial worries for the unserved children, especially when school is about to start.
Further more, we are initiating a training programme for 116 widows which will last for one year for every one of them who will learn skills like;tailoring,making art and crafts, literacy and computer knowledge, savings & credit management, small-scale business management and administration, group and individual financial management. This will help them to start and manage some small business as a source of income to their household. Please stand with us as we attempt to show a generation of orphans and widows that there is God who cares about them and love them. $25.00(USD) per month will send one of these orphaned children to school and provide them with food, clothing and other essential needs.
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