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I have sponsored three children in Mexico through ChildFund since February 2018. Although it varied for each of the children, I did not know right away where each child actually resided (in other words, the name of their community or village). In one case, it took nearly a year and a half before I received that information. I never was provided a very good explanation as to why that information was withheld. If it was intentional, then I can only imagine it was due to privacy or security concerns, with me being a new sponsor and all.

I have sponsored one child in Mexico through CI now for a little over a year (February 2019). I must say I like the CI experience much better. As an organization, they seem to have their act together much better. My experience with CI has been so great so far that just a few days ago, I ​signed up to sponsor another one of CI's children in Mexico. One of the children is located in community 5102 and the other is located in community 1306. As a sponsor, do we ever learn th​e actual names of their communities? I imagine we would if we were ever to plan a visit to see them through CI, but as much as I would like to, I do not believe ​a visit will ever be possible for me.

Thanks, Mark

Hi Mark!
My sneaking understanding is that each Community Center (CC) encompasses a catchment area (i.e. communities located within a certain radius).

For example:  In Zambia, CI has 3 centers in Lusaka – Kanyama, Chibolya and George. (i.e. Kanyama CC, The David C. Emmett Center in Chibolya compound, and Hope Center Kansas City in George compound)

My Faith and Simon go to Kanyama CC, but they both are from different communities (1333, 1500). Kanyama was the first CI operation to start in Zambia in 2004, so their community numbers start with 1 – may be other sponsors of children going to Chibolya and George centers can confirm this.

In Mexico, CI has 5 centers in Guadalajara. My Ana and Mairani go to the same CC, but they both are in different communities (2108, 2511). I believe Nina Rae Wesson Community Center is the second one to open there, hence their community numbers start with 2. And, my Karla is from community 3303 and goes to another CC – Jacqueline Byer Dial Center – must be the third one to open in Guadalajara.

So, you get the picture.. It appears that your children go to CC1 and CC5 in Guadalajara. If you ask, CI can tell you names of CC your children go to.

Two questions I have though..
1) Whether each of the 67 CC around the world has set catchment area or it depends on country, city, population density, mobility, etc?
2) Whether or not all of the SOAs (central offices) located inside or outside of SAC (community center) boundaries? I know, sometimes children have to travel by train, etc to collect DP packages in India.

They're not going to share that information based on their Child Protection Policies. This is why a sponsor visit can be so incredibly illuminating; we learned how far our youth's schools are from their homes, what their commute is like, and their routine schedules (John Denver gets up at 5am!) - but even we didn't get to see these specific locations. The most you can do is ask your youth in your letters about their communities and day-to-days, but it's going to be vague.

Thanks for the reply chelaka. You may be on to something here, with the first number of the community ID representing the community center number. ​Such a thought hadn't occurred to me. I submitted an e-mail to CI inquiring as to what community centers the two children I will be sponsoring attend. As I await their response, I did a bit of research, trying to see if I could figure out the names of all five centers. Only one ​reference I could find was actually published by CI. This article stated that Jacqueline Byer Dial Center was opened (inaugurated) in July 2008 and the Nina Rae Wesson Center was inaugurated in August 2007. Other references I found consisted of newspaper articles (predominately in Spanish, thus putting my rudimentary Spanish to the test). According to these articles, two other CI community centers include Tlajomulco Community Center, which was inaugurated in March 2012 and the Tlaquepaque Community Center, which was inaugurated in August 2010. So that's four so far, not sure on the fifth. It would seem from the newspaper articles that Tlaquepaque was indeed the fourth to be opened and Tlajomulco the fifth and final one to be opened. I think CI has been in Mexico since 2005, so the center I'm missing likely dates back to the mid 2000s.

You posit some good questions. I have no idea. Does CI staff regularly monitor and weigh in on things posted to this message board? Perhaps they can provide additional insight. Thanks again for your help!

Thanks for the reply BennyNJun! When I first started sponsoring through CI, I ​assumed all children in the program were in​ner-city kids that resided in the core of the sprawling metropolis that is Guadalajara. It seems now that CI ​serves children in many of the neighboring municipalities as well. Thanks for the tip - I need to get better at asking questions in my correspondence!

I try to keep up-to-date on all the local news coming out of Guadalajara. I had heard about the hailstorm in Guadalajara in late June 2019. While from what I underst​ood at the time, the hailstorm was localized, I asked the child I am sponsoring if her family's house sustained any damage. Her translated reply was essentially no, "the hail storm . . . was far from my house." The child I sponsor is really into competitive gymnastics and in her most recent letter, she stated: "There's going to be a competition in (Puerto?) Vallarta, but I won't go, but there's going to be another one in my city. I hope I can compete in that one." So vague, as you mention, but Puerto Vallarta is nearly 5 hours travel by road west ​of the city center of Guadalajara. I wonder if her community center ​and her community is ​somewhere west of Guadalajara​? Curiosity is what ​drove my original​ post, and ​a "ballpark" answer will hopefully help me to tailor ​future correspondence and the questions I ask better.

Thanks for the help. I will keep you posted on what I find out. At the very least, I hope to learn what community center she attends.

Ok, so did a little more digging, and found the order in which the CI community centers were opened. It would seem the original community center (Center N​o. 1) is located in Paraisos del Colli in Zapopan. By the sound of it, it might as well be dedicated to Benton Wayne Dial, who passed away in 2013. The second community center ​is located in Villas de Guadalupe, also in Zapopan. This one was dedicated to Nina Rae Wesson. The third community center, dedicated to Jacqueline Byer Dial (Benton's wife), is located in Santa Paula, Tonala. The fourth center is the one in Tlaquepaque and the fifth center is the one in Tlajomulco. The Internet can be a wonderful thing!

That's impressive! I now know where to look for something to talk about with them. Thanks Mark.
If you haven't seen, here are the links to 2 videos from CI Jalisco:
youtu.be/oNSFLUfxWyg
youtu.be/zxf6cHceaq4

Hi chelaka, thanks for the links to the videos. I had not seen those. The community center shown is incredible. I had no idea the centers were so modern, high-tech and expansive! It is good to learn that these children are so well looked after by CI.

It took a couple emails, but it looks like your hunch was correct about the link between community IDs and community center numbers. The girl I am sponsoring is enrolled in CC5 and the boy I just signed up to start sponsoring is enrolled in CC1.