Sponsorship
Some children need your love and support in order to go to school, to be taken care of, to be well nourished, to learn a trade etc. In short, they need to have the same chance as your own children.
Sponsoring children is to enable them to get a good education, to grow in good health, to build a future different from the one of their parents, to be able to take responsibility for themselves, and also to help others to progress. This financial help, together with further subsidies and donations, benefits the family. It also enables Volontariat to help with developing projects beyond academic activities (water supply, disease prevention and health care, family planning and building houses with permanent structure).
We thank you in the name of the children who have already benefitted from your sponsorship. This act of generosity on your part should continue as there are many other children waiting for your help.
The decision to receive a child inside the Sponsorship programme is taken after favorable enquiries of the social workers and agreement of the I/Charge. It is based on several criteria linked with the socio economical situation of the family: number of persons, nature of lodging, the income, the distance to our centers, etc. In fact a majority of families concerned with the Sponsorship programme are living at a few km of Volontariat center Sakthi Vihar.
Our ambition for the children is to bring them each of them, right from the date they are taken into our care, (and very often as early as crèche or nursery school), to their training for a job. Therefore, it is long-term action that also needs long-term support.
Among the various programmes of Volontariat, Parrainage is the most important: more than 1400 children are sponsored [few years ago, it was decided not to go above that number in order to insure the best service with the existing means]. They benefit from a wide range of services: school fees, extra curricular activities, beginners’ course in computing, health care, nutrition, apprenticeship etc.
After a study of the socio economical situation of some families, with the referent social workers, it may be decided to directly give a help to improve their living conditions: groceries, table/chairs, fan, mosquitonet, etc… When the family is too fat from our centers, Volontariat may pay for tuitions for the sponsored children; if the number living in such area becomes important, Volontariat may delocalize evening classes and teachers provided that a place is found.
Volontariat also helps in non-sponsored children (school stationery, uniforms etc.) in special cases. Together with crèche and nursery school applications, files submitted to the committees – with the “unavoidable” special cases, there are up to1800 children who benefit, in full or partly, from sponsorship programme.
Functioning of the programme
The new godparents receive a file from either the Belgium or the French Committee, wherever they apply. That file contains a copy of the birth certificate of the child, a recent photograph, a family record card etc. and a sponsoring agreement form.
Letters are exchanged between godparents
and godchildren. Sponsored children receive school stationery as well as school uniforms (compulsory in all Indian schools), one midday meal if their school is close to Volontariat, a glass of milk and a snack in the evening before the evening classes, as well as health and dental care. The social workers of Volontariat monitor the needs of the children and the services offered by local government, in order to avoid duplicating the services.
Each social worker follows a group of children, he is their referent. Through him, Volontariat is informed of the needs of each child of his group, also he must know if and what kind of help the family may receive from the Authorities in order not to duplicate. Orphans and one-parent children are, if need be, placed in boarding schools outside Pondicherry. The expenses for their boarding and schooling are paid by Volontariat.
Sponsored children in Pondicherry who wish to continue with their studies after secondary school, will be given a bicycle if they have to travel a distance from their home. The students who have to leave Pondicherry to study, will receive special support, according to their particular situation.
Godparent’s commitment
Sponsoring a child is, at the same time, a gift and a moral commitment to give regular and long-term support. The amount asked for many years was seventeen euros per month. But the cost of living increases a lot in India, so now the Volontariat is asking that the monthly amount is not less than twenty two euros, payable monthly, quarterly or yearly, depending on the godparents` choice.
Personal relationship and excess of generosity with godchildren may have negative effects. In fact, godparents should also consider that while they care for one particular child, they also take care of all Volontariat children.
