Direct Packages (DP's) Cancel Title is required

Based on feedback from the sponsored families and our staff, as well as keeping inline with Child Protection rules, we've made a few tweaks to our DP guidelines. 

We've mailed a letter to every active sponsor who has sent a DP in the last 2.5 years to provide them with the specific information, but we wanted to give those of you on MSC a preview update. 

The letter includes: 
  
Customs fee tips and reminders
Consideration of the weight of the package and the distance the family must carry/transport the items
Digital Devices

This info is being included in all new requests for package addresses, and if you've sent a package since 1/1/2016, you'll be receiving a letter.  Of course, if you have any questions, please reach out to our Care Team. They'll be happy to help you navigate this update.  Thank you!

Just a little additional info to hopefully bring some clarity and reassurance to the Direct Package changes:

There are so many online sellers now-a-days that the number of DP’s our field staff is processing has increased significantly within the past few years. Our field staff had been asking us to implement changes months before we finally took the plunge.

We know how important DP’s are to sponsors, (and we never want to upset our sponsors – we love you guys!), so we didn’t make any changes until after much consideration (and doing things like walking around the office with bags of items weighing different amounts to recreate a sponsored family’s journey home). 

The reality is the SOA staff is overwhelmed with the number of packages being received, in all countries, and in some cases, they have nowhere to store them until it is time for the next scheduled delivery to the community centers. 

For example, earlier this year staff in the Lusaka central office received two vans (filled to the brim) with DP’s (about 50 packages) in ONE day.  The majority being sent via Shopzed. 

In India, where some families are 5-10 hours from the central office, the staff generally makes a monthly trip (it requires spending the night) to deliver and collect letters/DP’s etc...  The office can get really crowded in-between deliveries (imagine packages stuffed under tables). 

CIKC cannot afford to track DP’s and keep up with who has exceeded the weight or number of packages limit, so that duty falls on the SOA staff.  Of course, they don’t have a lot of time to track all of this either.  

If the staff or family determines that a direct package (whether mailed or ordered online) doesn’t meet the DP criteria outlined in the package address info we send to sponsors (i.e. inappropriate content, weight, expired food, broken/dirty/used items, etc.), it can be subject to disposal, delivery declined at the central office or declined at the customs/carrier office.  

If any package is declined, there’s a delivery fee or the number of packages received exceeds 2-3, the SOA staff contacts us and we contact the sponsor.

The staff would not discard items without contacting CIKC. In fact, so far the only items discarded have been expired food (from Shopzed), and some very, very well used clothing that arrived – and we’ve reached out to those sponsors. 

MSC is a wonderful place for sponsors to share their kid’s letters, photos and stories, but it can also be a place of misconceptions and, sometimes, confusion. I know we sound like broken records, but really no 2 situations are the same, because no 2 kids/families are the same. That’s why we always urge (ok to be honest, we preach) sponsors to call/chat/e-mail the Care Team to get the most accurate info for their child or situation. 

And, if you’re ever not happy with the service/answer you receive, we wanna know!  We want you to be absolutely happy with your decision to sponsor with CI.