Global Poverty Monitor

Next we went to the World Vision office and Alex showed us around, including things like how the filing system works, and the forms that need to be filled out when a child is visited by a World Vision worker. The visit to then World Vision office was one of the most interesting visits that we have made on the whole trip so far, because I am very interested in the internal workings and the procedures involved with child sponsorship. Sacrificio explained at length the progress involved when a sponsor makes a GN (gift notification), i.e. a gift of money to the child’s family and community. I was really interested in this part, because of the two donations that I have made for Kantet’s community. The way that Sacrificio explained it was exactly the way it had worked for me both time – everything from the letters and notification that the sponsor receives at different times, to the way in which the money is proportioned between the child’s family and the child’s community. He even explained how the World Vision worker will discuss with the child’s family how the money is to be best spent. I found all of this fascinating, and it really amazes me the way in which the regional World Vision workers really do care about the sponsored children. I know that sounds so clichéd, but I had imagined regional offices to be all a bunch of administration and paperwork like a lot of Australia offices are (not just Australian World Vision offices, but any kind), where the employees only work there because it is a job, not due to any passion of their own. But from what I’ve seen in the rural offices in Mozambique, the employees take a lot of time and care with every task they have before them. I’ve seen some of the letters that Alex translates to sponsors, and the care that he takes with his work. I applaud World Vision for insisting on employing only local people to work in rural offices, rather than allowing Australians to move to foreign countries and take control of the offices. I think that only a person who has lived in poverty themselves could really invest that amount of time and care into every child sponsorship task.