Believe it or not, but a dollar a day can literally save the life of someone half a world away. Just by passing on that latte or music download, you can make an impact in someone's life you may never meet.

Several years ago, my husband and I spent nearly a month in Bolivia, helping to run a summer camp for teenagers and young adults. We were warmly received by the people we met, who played our games and joined in our activities with more energy and enthusiasm than I've ever seen! For that month, we were able to experience just a small piece of what it is like to live in poverty. And we were able to live among those for whom poverty is a daily reality.

Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, and children there often do not have access to clean water, health care, food, or education. Several years after our time there, we were looking for a way to make a positive difference in someone's life. We were looking for a way to be committed to a practice of giving on a regular basis. We were looking for a way to do good in this world. And so we decided to "adopt" a child through Compassion International, a Christian child advocacy ministry that seeks to release children from poverty.

Compassion is but one of many organizations that function in a similar way. World Vision is another. These types of child sponsorship organizations allow individuals to adopt a child, which entails a monthly financial commitment of about $30. This money goes to support things like clean water, health care, education, and spiritual nurture. Most of these organizations partner with local communities to provide projects that offer long-term, holistic development. Sponsors are encouraged to develop a relationship with their child by sending letters and pictures and are updated several times a year by receiving letters and pictures from their child.

Over the last several years, it has been rewarding to send letters to and receive letters from our adopted daughter. Sometimes it's hard to know what to say to someone who lives so far away and whose lifestyle is so different from what I've always known. When she was younger, she'd draw us pictures and a tutor would write to us on her behalf. Now that she's a bit older, she has started writing letters herself. She tells us she likes to hear from us and to see the pictures that we send. We tell her we are thinking of her family and her and that we hope she's doing well. We send birthday greetings and try to send a little extra money for Christmas gifts.

Child sponsorship has been for us a long-term financial and relational commitment to the life of a little girl we've never met. We keep her picture on our refrigerator to serve as a reminder that we have a responsibility to her. We've been given the opportunity to listen to and learn from someone a world away. We'll get to see her change and grow through the years, and I imagine that we, too, will be ones whose lives are changed.

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Stephen commented, on February 25, 2007 at 11:12 a.m.:

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Ingredients:

• Internet Connection
• Pen and Paper
• Address
• Desire to change the conditions that keep people in poverty

Caring Time:

• 30 Minutes (to select a child to sponsor, and then a few more minutes to write to them every so often)

Cost:

• $32 a month

Results:

• Feeling of satisfaction
• Sense of achievement for making a long-term commitment
• Helping someone escape the conditions of poverty