Sponsoring Girls is a Waste of Time

Tell me, how much money did your parents spend on your education? Did they pay your school fees late or early? What about your extra-school activities? How much did these cost and for when was the payment of them due? I’m sure if you’re reading this, you’ve had the opportunity to participate in sports clubs, dancing schools, music lessons, holiday clubs and more. I’m also pretty certain that none of you will know or care to remember the details of costs and payments that funded all these elements of our development. In contrast, I’m equally sure that everyone will remember which friends and family attended which sporting matches, which teachers believed in us and which coaches encouraged us to be who we are now.

Note: Some of the sponsors that have given to the Inanda Seminary Project are featured through this blog (more to follow in next post...)

Coastland Sales Team

Quite simply, I’m trying to illustrate a point which I’ve largely taken for granted until recently being involved in the lives of the girls of Micah6: it’s not money that makes a difference in lives; rather, it’s a consistent investment of time. This might sound clichéd to you (as it does to me writing it) but stop to think for a moment about the implications of being orphaned and placed in the care of someone with very little money and many other children. Returning to my earlier thoughts about activities that shaped our development – more important than the skill learned was the potential in us that was sought and recognised by a parent, coach or other form of mentor. Their cheering, clapping and post performance analysis praised the good they saw in us and constructively dealt with our weak points. Since these were people that loved us, we responded by changing in a way that was guided by their input. Over time, with this constant encouragement, we grew up into young adults who had fulfilled our early potential and had the vision for great things to come.

Hylton and Alex Mowday

This analysis doesn’t come from a psychology textbook but rather from real stories of girls within the Micah6 program whose lives changed significantly when sponsors and other people involved with the organisation took the time to make contact and be involved in their lives. I hope to be able to write about these more in future blogs but the focus of this post is the “sponsorships” Micah6 has received so far. Right from the outset, Gabi has maintained that these girls need adoption. Not necessarily in the legal sense but in the way the sponsors and girls are connected. As time goes on we learn more about what that means – right now for me it means an individual relationship where there is an investment into a life that is for the long term and not based on merit. That is why Gabi has asked for sponsors to commit to one child’s fees for the duration of their high-school tuition and also why the program has taken on a maximum of twelve girls.

Alan Wills and Associates

As it stands now, we are at a critical point of growth in the life of Micah6. This growth, though, will not happen in the number of girls on the program but rather with the number of people (including ourselves) that come to understand the best response to the crisis before us of vulnerable girls unable to realise their potential through the current education and social support systems. To this end we’re not looking for more money given at arm’s length but rather for minds and hearts to navigate with us through the complex and often helpless situations we face together with these girls.

Andre and Clare van der Stoep