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This is intended to be a thought provoking post. Assume your going to visit your sponsor child. What if you could spend an extra day and take a few other sponsor children on an outing. Assuming their sponsors would pay the visit fee and send extra money for the outing. 1.) Would anyone consider sending their sponsor child on such an outing? 2.) What would your sponsor child think? I have already kind of done this when other siblings come on the outing, they are treated the same even if they are sponsored by someone else. I can't buy my sponsor child shoes and exclude the siblings. So allow for the visit fee being $100 and $150  to cover activity fees, lunch and some clothing/shoes.

If the kids were already friends that would probably be nice.  If not, and the kids find themselves sharing their visiting-time with you with other random (albeit sponsored) kids and not their own best friends (or family), that might be less exciting.  If one of my sponsored kids were going along with a larger group like that, I'd make sure he/she had enough to treat the whole group to something nice, I think............Alternatively, I would very much be open to going big, and contributing enough to the local CI office so that they could include, for example, a class-size group (or some other natural grouping) in a group outing.

Those are some good ideas. I think going larger like sending a bus of children on an outing when there are thousands at a center would have drama fallout. Going smaller would keep it under the drama radar e.g. my sponsors friend took us on an outing. What started me thinking about this is a post about a sponsor desiring to arrange an outing for their sponsor child. It made me contemplate if I were visiting my child there why not do something for another child.

I think CI has enough work to do. Sponsor visits are not field trips. It takes time away from the staff that could be better used to provide needed services to the sponsored children and things like inquires, follow up reports, and correspondence for sponsors.  A lot of sponsors sacrifice just to afford their monthly fees.  Would CI contact each child's sponsor to get their permission/money? At the least a driver and  translator would be needed.  I'm not sure that a field trip like this would be the best use of CIs time, resources, staff, or money.

I agree that 'outings' for sponsored children which are arranged and supervised by CI are beyond the scope of what CI should be expected to do. CI maintains minimum paid staff in its centers and relies on volunteers to assist with duties for which they are trained and/or qualified. Because of liability issues I assume the work of supervising 'outings' would require a paid staff member to be in attendance. Additionally, in my opinion, 'outings' have little or nothing to do with CI's mission of developing healthy, educated and employed children through its programs and services. 

Didn't mean to offend!  My thinking is simply that if I were paying for a group thing for my sponsored kids, I'd gladly also pick up the tab for 'everyone' interested, sponsored or not.   I got on to this thought process working through one of the other organizations that I also sponsor kids through.  That one doesn't permit EG's, packages, tuition, or anything, with the idea that no one kid gets a bonanza (shopping trip, tuition, home improvement).  So, my kid said her single biggest obstacle was English language.  Per the guidelines, I couldn't get her tutoring or anything that would give just her a benefit, so we arranged for after school English classes for anyone in her grade interested (including her) plus commensurate activity for everyone else not taking the class. I covered salaries plus expenses. The first class sessions are just underway since June, so we'll see how it works.  So far, everyone seems happy, including the local office.  In the CI comment above, I wasn't suggesting anyone else pay for anything at all (or do any non-compensated or non-mission work).  But if anyone was having a special day, my thinking was that if it were up to me, everyone else might, as well.  This isn't a thought-out plan of any sort, just a stream-of-thought reaction.  Again, apologies.

I wasn't offended, you certainly don't need to apologize.  But you asked for thoughts. My thought is that this would not be the best use of time, resources, or money for CI. It's very generous of you to volunteer to pay for everything.  I think it was wonderful of you to pay for after school English classes. Something like that would be so helpful to children in countries where English is a valuable skill for their future employment and in countries where English is required to pass into the next grade or to get into college.  A field trip seems frivolous. As Nancy said it doesn't address CIs mission. It is (in my opinion) a great idea to contribute to a project that will help the community center do more for the children.  I'm sure any contribution would be greatly appreciated. Or you might want to do more for your sponsored children. The education for a child in some countries can be very expensive Again, no need to apologize!

You kind of got to the heart of the thread. That is doing something for on child vs each child. Yet at a center there may be 5000 + children so doing something for all would be a great undertaking. So far overlooked is a key ingredient and that is hope. One hope they have is to someday meet their sponsor. They pray about it, dream about it and I have had one study English so that if he ever me his sponsor he could talk to them. So I thought if I visited why not include others. But your post has me thinking bigger. Keeping CI out of this how could one person inspire hope in all the children. I then realized that this was done for me as a child. Some sponsors backed chess tournaments with prizes. There was this hope of someday winning a prize. At school we played chess, at home we played chess and basically played chess with anyone that wanted to play or learn. We also read books about chess. We traveled from the mountains into the city to participate in the tournaments. So perhaps the answer is mostly outside CI. Donate chess boards to the centers and help support tournaments in the area that are not only available to CI but all children. Chess is only an example but is an example where a relatively small amount of money could inspire thousands of children. Another example from my childhood was a $10 prize for painting the best Christmas scene in the windows in town. The winner got their picture in the paper with their work. I actually won that in grade school. My friends would ask what I was going to spend the $10 on. I still have that $10 from 45 years ago.

This is why I'm glad I found this forum.  I really like the 'chess' example, and now that has me thinking more broadly as well.  One thing that I've tried to nudge some centers into - and which I have offered to pay for - are college campus visits and tours.  Not just whisk-throughs, but a tour with maybe a realty-check talk from an admissions person.  In Lusaka, if for example a sponsor said that they were taking the kids over to get a tour of University of Zambia, I'd say great!  But I think we'd also quickly realize that if we were a group of let's say 50, they likely could get time with administrators, student ambassadors and such - more than one of us alone could do just wandering through campus. ...If it were an age- and interest-appropriate group, it naturally wouldn't have to include all 5,000 kids at once - they would understand that their chance for something like this will come, as well.   I really got onto this initially through sponsorships in places where every kid wanted to be a doctor (or teacher, etc) but few had any idea what was actually involved.  I'd be happy to sponsor an outing like this, alone or with others, no matter..... Switching back to chess, that prompted me to start giving these activities some more thought.  On yet another tangent, it also reminded me of this (from a sponsored student with another organization): 'We have celebrated International Womens Day on 8th March of all mothers of sponsored children.  My friend and myself taught dance to our mothers of village.  They performed very well and have received 3rd prize.  All mothers were very happy.'

You sound like a very dedicated and generous sponsor. I would talk to CI and ask for ideas from the staff in Zambia. If you have not done so already, you can also ask CI for an educational report on each of your sponsored children, what grade they are in, and what the costs of their next school year are if you want to send an educational  EG.  Remember that,unlike most faith based organisations, CI does not operate it's own schools. This is just a suggestion that I hope will be helpful to you and your sponsored children.

I might look at the college tour from the opposite direction. The college or youths school might be better equipped like with busses. Perhaps the center could post a flyer and be a safe place for pickup and drop off. It is my experience the educational organization respond to donations too. This way it is not a CI event and perhaps be open to all youths. At a minimum it may be possible for the college reps to come and talk to the youths. As you identified previously a lot of youths want to be doctors but don't know what it takes to become one. 

There are a few reasons why I would only work through the sponsoring organization (CI) and not directly with either the children's schools or the local universities.  First, I wouldn't want to go outside the CI chain of communication in anything involving the kids or the kids' own schools - in fact I've never asked for school names (I certainly wouldn't ask the kids themselves, and I don't recall seeing them identified in the educational reports). I also wouldn't feel comfortable having even university employees organizing anything with the young ladies that didn't include CI's oversight.  I also would not send money - any kind of donation - directly to any organization in Lusaka, as reputable as they might appear.  Instead, I'd give CI whatever was required, with any next-level donations going through them (plus their piece, of course)........ I pretty much see my relation with the kids, in all respects, as being 100% through CI..... All that said, however, if CI was open to having someone (me, or us, for example) provide funding for college liaison-type counseling staff or activities, I'd be glad to do it, as an add-on benefit to my sponsored kids and their peers.

Those are all valid points. I think my underlying thoughts were to limit CIs part to what is within their charter. I also know the centers have some latitude but something like this may have to from the main office. I have proposed things and some move forward and some don't. Your thoughts are in line with why I started this thread. You could travel and perhaps do this as an outing for one youth or for the cost of that send 50 youths having a much bigger impact.