March 26, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
International-relief charities often raise money by broadcasting heart-rending appeals that urge donors to transform the lives of poor children by sending a donation and becoming a child’s “sponsor.” But those contributions often fail to reach the children whom donors were told they were helping, according to a two-part series that started in The Chicago Tribune on March 15.
The newspaper reached that conclusion after investigating the work done by Save the Children, the Christian Children’s Fund, Children International, and Childreach — four of the largest child-sponsorship charities.
“A few children received nothing at all, or next-to-nothing,” the newspaper concluded.
Reporters from the Tribune started sponsoring children through the four international charities in the spring of 1995, making contributions in their own names without reference to their employer. Then, in 1997, several reporters were dispatched to see how their contributions were used to benefit the children they sponsored.
In some cases the children were beyond the reach of aid organizations. When a Tribune reporter went to Mali to check up on the child she sponsored through Save the Children, the reporter found that the girl had died nearly two years earlier — just three months after the sponsorship began. But the charity had never informed the reporter of the girl’s demise.
In response to the articles, Save the Children acknowledged that it had failed in some instances to keep track of sponsored children. But it otherwise defended its programs and policies, and it posted a lengthy response to the Tribune’s series on its World-Wide Web site, (http://www.savethechildren.org).
A special section of the Tribune’s Web site (http://www.chicago.tribune.com) makes available the series on international charities.
