Erick is 4 years old and lives in Malawi.

He became the 9th child sponsored by Freely Give through World Vision from the 1st November 2008.

This was made possible with commissions received from those of you who bought through the links at freelygive.org. Thank you for your generosity

Erick is a HopeChild ( which means a donation of $40 a month)  as he  lives in an area with a high prevalence of HIV, and has been identified by his community as “vulnerable,” and requires extra assistance. This does not mean that the sponsored child has HIV.

How is HopeChild sponsorship different than traditional child sponsorship?
HopeChild sponsorship helps to decrease the impact of HIV and AIDS in child sponsorship communities. HopeChild sponsorship includes all the benefits of traditional child sponsorship, while helping to provide things like:

• extra support for families caring for orphans and vulnerable children;
• training for staff and volunteers who look after children’s emotional, physical, and spiritual needs;
• care for sick or dying parents and guardians;
• age-appropriate education materials to help children understand how to protect themselves from HIV and AIDS and to break down the barriers of stigma and discrimination; and
• vocational training for adults who have been impacted by HIV and AIDS.

AIDS is more than a pandemic. It is the greatest humanitarian crisis of all time. More than 40 million people are infected with the virus.

In Africa, there are 180,000 new orphans a month, mostly through AIDS. However, often a family member, neighbour, or friend in the community will take them in. In many cases, these children would consider their caregivers to be “parents,” and would not think of themselves as orphans.

When you think of generosity, you might look at the size of the gift or the nobility of the cause. But Jesus measured generosity by the condition of the giver’s heart. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

So, giving is more than an obligation for followers of Jesus; it is an exciting opportunity to lay up treasure that will last for all eternity. Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’ ” (Acts 20:35b).

Yet statistics show that North American Christians give proportionately less than they did during the Great Depression.

Even with the present recession, God has positioned His people with unprecedented wealth and opportunity to glorify the risen Jesus by mirroring His generosity.

With the economic downturn in the World, those that will be hit worst are those already at the bottom.

Ok, you maybe losing your savings, your job, etc, but millions will be losing their lives.
In Africa, there are 180,000 new orphans every month.

Helping organizations are noticing a huge impact as people in the “first world” tighten their belts.

 How can you help?

How can you help this Christmas? Maybe you can change what you give? Do we need more stuff anyway?

Freelygive.org offers a way of you helping the most vulnerable when you do buy online — check it out.

Through the generosity of you and people like you, we were just able to sponsor an 8th child, Jose, a 2 year old boy from Peru.

At the moment we are being able to add an additional sponsored child every two weeks, but this depends totally on the participation of people like you.

Recent purchases were made through The BBC Canada Shop, Chapters Books and a Hotel booking through Expedia.ca. This has helped you partner with us to sponsor more children.

Are we asking you to buy online if you don’t already?

No, but if you do buy online, we are asking you to consider this way of giving,  without costing you anything more.

A lot of the stores on freelygive.org offer free shipping to encourage you to buy more. Also, services such as air travel, hotels, car rentals are nearly always cheaper when purchased online.

So remember, when you wish to make future purchases, please come to  FreelyGive.org to access your favourite stores for online purchases, or to book a flight, hotel etc.
In this way, you are able to partner with us to sponsor more children.