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.

Why Sponsor a Child For 25 Cents
By Thando Mavimbela

A sponsorship as little as 25 cents a day can make a world of a difference to children in third world countries. Take the next few minutes and read about the plight of the African child. You don’t have to donate but just read - after all, knowledge is power! It is important to know what is happening around you and in other parts of the world.

Childhood is a unique gift that any individual has the natural right to claim. But for many children this natural right is more of a myth than a reality. Because of their poor economic situations, which are a result of factors including poverty, HIV/AIDS and climate change, many children in third world nations such as Swaziland, Ghana, Indonesia, India and Senegal are not in school.

Furthermore, life-threatening diseases including diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and measles have put many children in impoverished countries at risk. Globally, pneumonia and diarrhea cause 36 percent of child deaths among children under age 5, while malnutrition contributes to 53 percent.

The youth and children in third world countries who are not in school are instead busy looking after their siblings with whom they are orphaned together, working in factories where they are exploited as child labourers, working on the streets enticing unscrupulous men and women to plunder their innocence through prostitution so they can at least have a meal, or in luckier cases, they are in orphanages and orphan care-points where civil society and governments are trying to salvage some of their innocence by providing much-needed food, education and care for them.

Dire, as it is, this situation calls for immediate intervention, requiring everyone to use whatever available resources they have to save the future; the children of our nations. The above-stated facts are reason enough for one to contribute towards helping these children. The children can be helped as a collective - through sponsoring an orphanage or care-point, or they can be helped as individuals by sponsoring one orphan in an orphanage or village with a minimum donation of 25 cents per day.

Sponsorship helps provide necessities such as access to quality education, primary health care, nutrition, immunization, recreation and creativity inputs for the children. Sponsorship as little as 25 cents a day gives the child not only the necessary physical input needed for survival, but also the emotional input which is extended as care by the people that help the children to access the physical things such as healthcare. Sponsorship can also be used to help underprivileged children in formal education by paying for their fees, helping them to access a better education and better recreation facilities as well as provide improved health facilities for their use in the schools. These are other reasons why everyone should sponsor a child.

Go see AIDS orphans in Africa at

http://youngheroes.org.sz

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Thando_Mavimbela
http://EzineArticles.com/?Why-Sponsor-a-Child-For-25-Cents&id=1423074

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.