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I am crushed/devastated and angry.
I have been sponsoring children with Compassion since 2001.
I received TWO letters on Friday from a child I have sponsored since 2003. Both letters were dated the same date, both claimed to be from "my" child and yet... they had different handwriting!!! On one of them, "my" child has SPELLED HER NAME WRONG. Really???
For years I have defended Compassion from those who told me it was a scam. I am truly heartbroken to feel I have been duped.
I e-mailed Compassion privately, requesting a telephone call regarding this issue prior to this posting.
They have not responded.
I have been sponsoring children with Compassion since 2001.
I received TWO letters on Friday from a child I have sponsored since 2003. Both letters were dated the same date, both claimed to be from "my" child and yet... they had different handwriting!!! On one of them, "my" child has SPELLED HER NAME WRONG. Really???
For years I have defended Compassion from those who told me it was a scam. I am truly heartbroken to feel I have been duped.
I e-mailed Compassion privately, requesting a telephone call regarding this issue prior to this posting.
They have not responded.
Posted 4 years ago
We sponsor more than one child- i pray this is not true. If it is- can someone please email me? kelly@equipment-jobs.com
God Bless
God Bless
Hi, Kelly.
I'm just another sponsor and while I have no doubt in what the original poster experienced, I'm sure that there's a completely sound explanation for whatever happened such as what Kathy suggested above. I can guarantee that Compassion is a wonderful organization. I've been fortunate enough to have traveled to meet some of my sponsored children and can speak personally for the great work the organization is doing.
thank you for replying Lindsay- I feel the same, reputable. but ive read that there are 10 people sponsoring one child and that the replies are the same and it makes me wonder after reading so much negative... just want to support kids that are in need. we love all of ours!
I saw that post, too. I'm curious to see where she had heard that, but it is 1:1. There are some circumstances in whish a group of people opt to go in together to sponsor, such as like a youth group or something like that, but there would still be one person designated as the head of the group or something, and that child certainly wouldn't be sponsored by anyone else. I'm anxiously awaiting to see where that other thread goes.
Yes, that might explain it! I was wondering where this idea of 10 people sponsoring a child came from, knowing that each child only has one sponsor. If there are a group of 10 people such as a Youth Group, each contributing £2.50 / month to make up the £25/month that would explain it. The child would have one 'group' sponsoring him/her as opposed to one person. Our Church sponsored a child in this way, but one person took on the role of writing to the child on behalf of the church.
I submitted the letters to Compassion this morning, as requested.
I am posting them both here (with my name and sponsor information covered).
Both letters contain my full name - first, middle initial, and last on the first line.
The letters are dated the same and arrived in two separate envelopes 2/20/2016.
They do NOT contain the same content, they are two different letters.
I am posting them both here (with my name and sponsor information covered).
Both letters contain my full name - first, middle initial, and last on the first line.
The letters are dated the same and arrived in two separate envelopes 2/20/2016.
They do NOT contain the same content, they are two different letters.
(Edited)
In seeing the two letters side by side... I would say it is the translator's handwriting that is different from your child's. The handwriting from the child looks the same in both to me. The different spelling of a name is common in other countries where they don't care so much for proper spelling and sometimes don't have birth certificates. I'm guessing this is Indonesia. My boy there alternates between "Chris" and "Cris" all the time. Looking at the two, it would seem your child wrote two letters on the same day. Maybe she wrote one and then asked to write more as she remembered something else she wanted to tell you?
I agree, in some other countries, they don't pay as much attention to details like the proper spelling of names. I have not personally seen this with my Compassion kids, but I have noticed that they tend not to really know how old they are! In the U.S. these details are very important to us, but that may not be the case in the countries we are sponsoring kids in.
I would also say that it may be awhile until you hear back. I mailed a copy of a letter in to have retranslated, and it was a month until I received notification that it had reached the desk of the Compassion staff it was addressed to in Colorado.
KristenH, Champion
I typed a reply earlier while I was standing in my bathroom getting ready for work and don't see it. As I generally operate in a stupor until about noon, forgive me if that post is 1) already hidden in this thread somewhere or 2) pops up somewhere in a totally unrelated post. Oy... Anyway, I was reminded of something last night regarding letters from my own sponsor kids that may very well be the case here. On a lot of the letters we receive, the date is not actually the date written but the date of translation. It's very possible that there was a slight backlog on translations and two or more letters were translated on the same day even though they had been written perhaps weeks apart. If a different translator took a letter that day, dated it and put in in the mail, that would explain everything. It may be a completely different story, mind you, but it's an option.
