Just a short post on something I saw on TV yesterday that made absolutely no sense. There was a commercial for a children’s charity for children overseas, and the spokesperson was a well known former child actress asking us to sign up and sponser a child, and by doing so, you’ll provide the child with food, clothes and an education, AND have the love and gratitude of your particular child. Now that’s all fine and good, I have no problem with that. What I found odd, was what they used as the carrot to dangle in front of the public to get them to sign up. The first 3 months you can sponsor a child for FREE! So for the first 3 months, how is this child going to get the promised food clothes and education from your sponsorship if you aren’t paying anything, thus not truly “sponsoring”? After 3 months, it’ll be $22 per month, but buy then, will person who signed up remember to budget that in. Who knows, I’m sure that there are some who will. We’re also told that we’ll receive a letter from the child we sponsor. So if we get the first 3 months free, should we expect a letter from “our child” in that first 3 months that says, “Thanks for nothing!”?

This isn’t buying a car or a piece of furniture with the promise of “no payments ’til after New Years!”. It’s rather sad that a charity feels that they need to offer this kind of motivation to get sponsors.

Ok, I’m off of my soap box for now.
Lp