Monday, August 17, 2009

Can I have a child?

So here's the thing- I REALLY want to sponsor a child. Specifically a Child in eastern Europe/ a former Soviet country. Unfortunately Compassion International, a really great christian organisation, does not sponsor children from Europe.

When many people think of sponsoring a child, they think of Africa and Latin America. And while children there are living in extreme poverty and need help, there are also many children in Europe who need the same love and compassion. There are many children living in orphanages that are HIV+ or abandoned by their parents because they do not have enough money to care for them. In Ukraine, for instance, the orphanages are filled with children like this and it is becoming increasingly harder to adopt from there. It is also highly filled with human trafficking- in fact, when I was in Ukraine, we think that our compound was across the street from a brothel.

Europe is generally thought of as one of the "richer" and "more developed" areas of the world, while western Europe is highly developed and has more money, eastern Europe tends to have more poverty, especially the former USSR. But that is where my heart is- and that is where I want to take the gospel and share God's love. I'm in high school, and I can only travel during my summer holidays. But even though I have to stay in America during the school year, I can still share His love internationally from my own home by sponsoring a child. So I'm asking you all- Do you know of any credible, christian organisations that I can sponsor a European child through?
This is Marsha, a Russian Girl who I met and love.

1 comment:

M+ said...

I'll look into it.
I know that Compassion has offices that coordinate for people in the UK, Europe and Australia that sponsor children. Perhaps you'd have to be in a european country to sponsor an eastern european child.
It only stands to reason that if we here in North America are sponsoring children from South and Latin America, as well as the various island chains in the carribean, then maybe the europeans are sponsoring children from eastern europe.