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Are there any plans to reintroduce the option for sponsors to mail physical letters to the children through CIKC in the near future? If the answer is "no" then I would also like to know what needs to change before it can happen - in other words, what is preventing it? Thanks!

Gabor

Hi Gabor, I was recently told that the community centers are indeed not yet ready to receive postal mail. They are slowly opening up. Staff are focusing on meeting families, updating information and getting programs up and running again. CI will make a public announcement once traditional mail becomes possible again. I have no idea of the schedule.

When asked CI about resuming of normal activities I got..

"Oh, believe me, when this pandemic ends and things get back to normal, we’ll be shouting it from the roof tops!"

I only started sending greeting cards (with hidden mysteries!) via CIKC in early 2020 just as the pandemic broke.. yes, this has to recommence in the not too distance future.

Have a few year's worth of yearly photos of my sponsored youth to send them.

Thanks for the responses! I mostly miss the ability to send real photos and to use the stationery I bought on Amazon that's been sitting in my drawer for over 2 years. :P

Anyways, I hope it won't be too much longer. This weekend I'm going to send off another round of online letters, but I don't bother with the option to attach photos to ​those because they end up tiny. 

Wish there was some sort of ETA. We want sponsor visits to open up! Otherwise I guess we'll just party in BGC for the Manila leg of our trip. ;P

You guys will be the first to know...I swear!

Any updates in this regard? I started sponsoring Brenda in 2020, and so I started writing to her in a little notebook while I couldn't send her hand-written letters. That little notebook is approaching two years worth of letters and photos now...I'd be nice to finally be able to send it to her!

Most Covid-era restrictions have been lifted worldwide, so even the most patient sponsors are having trouble understanding why CI does not yet allow visits and paper letters. Also, the family reports of seven of my sponsored children have not been updated since 2019/2020. Cheers to the countries, agencies, offices and staff who have managed to update six of the FRs in 2022 (I'm looking at you, India and Philippines)! Since the EG process introduced during the pandemic has now become permanent, does CI intend to do the same thing when it comes to letters and visits, and can we no longer expect yearly updates of family reports and photos?

We're inching closer and closer to being able to do this and will update the website -- and of course tell everyone on MSC just as soon as we open it back up. 

Over the summer we asked our staff in each agency to survey the staff, families and volunteers about their feelings on re-starting visits. We wanted to ensure that our staff, the volunteers and families felt comfortable -- and most importantly safe -- having people from outside the community come into the community for a day. We also asked our staff to send the current government guidelines to us.

Some agencies reported the families, staff and volunteers feel that slowly opening up for short, controlled visits would be feasible. In other agencies it was an overwhelming no, families would not feel safe or comfortable having visitors.

There have been no visits yet, but we have had a few inquiries that we are working with the agencies to arrange. Of course, the first thing we must do before approving any visit is to ask the family if they are willing and take our cue from them. 

In the case, the hare will win the race. 

With regards to family records and photos, our plan is to continue updating these annually. Most SOA's could not update after March 2020, and many still could not in 2021. We set forth a plan to keep the SOA staff and volunteers from being completely overwhelmed by allowing them to skip a year. Meaning, if it was last updated in 2019/2020 it should be updated in 2022. If it was updated in 2021, the next update would be 2023. After that it would be annually for all youth. @elemay we'll look into the kids from 2019 and 2020 and reach out to you privately. Thanks. 

I would appreciate the return of donor's being able to send physical letters, as well. :-)

debbies said: Some agencies reported the families, staff and volunteers feel that slowly opening up for short, controlled visits would be feasible. In other agencies it was an overwhelming no, families would not feel safe or comfortable having visitors.

There have been no visits yet, but we have had a few inquiries that we are working with the agencies to arrange. Of course, the first thing we must do before approving any visit is to ask the family if they are willing and take our cue from them.

What was the consensus regarding visits in Guatemala?

I'm (temporarily) living in Guatemala right now and I may consider visiting one of my sponsored children towards the end of my stay in March/April, but that depends on a number of things and how the volunteers/families generally feel about visits is among them.

To me, it seems like life is mostly back to normal here in Guatemala and although many people do wear masks, especially when entering businesses, other than that COVID-19 no longer seems like a huge concern from what I've seen.

Guatemala is scheduling visits and are asking for a 8 week lead time, so please reach out to the Care Team to coordinate.  Thanks. 

Manila visits when?! We leave for the Philippines in 7 weeks. T_T

Hi BennyNJun. Due to restrictions and constant changes in contagion level in Asia, the Manila agency is not yet ready to consider sponsor visits. 

I don't want to be obstreperous, but couldn't something be done like testing before a visit to be sure they don't have Covid? I mean, come on, these dudes are the best sponsors ever and I have no doubt the children would love to see them. At what point do we start balancing these things with others? I know for a fact that most of the Philippines are rolling along just fine, Covid or no Covid- the schools are in person again, the mail is going… and yet, here we are: no mail, no visits. This is starting to boarder on the ridiculous. 

Hi Kiyoshi, as I mentioned in my October 20, 2022 post, the decision on when to allow visits again is not and was not decided by the staff at CIKC.  The decision was/is  solely up to the families, community volunteers and staff based their concerns of remaining safe. To date the only agencies not allowing visits are Manila, Little Rock, Lusaka and Guayaquil.   

Additionally, sponsors are able to send letters (mail) to their sponsored youth via their MyCI. If you mean mail received at CIKC via the USPS, we are working on a new system of sending these letters to the SOA's as a means of helping those without computers get their letters to their kids easily.

So we can tell the boys in our next letters to blame their SOA in Quezon City? Are they even offering services? :)

The SOA staff requested feedback from all the families and volunteers in each community center and that's how the decision was made. Your sponsored youth's families probably provided their feedback (and who knows how they feel about it).  

It's a matter of how many cases are in the community, vaccination status in the community, how comfortable people would feel in being at the center when someone from outside the community was also there.  To be honest, I'm sure some of it also boils down to who wants to be the family who had a visitor and then people in the community get sick, and the family with the visitor gets blamed for it.

Bottomline, it's not CIKC's decision to make. Our top priority is the kids and keeping them healthy, educated and safe.  Our centers are open and programs are going full force, both in-person and virtual, and we'll wait until each Agency tells us their participants feel comfortable and safe to re-start visits. 

Ok, so we will share that in our next letters then. Hope we don’t infect the thousands of Filipinos we encounter while there! God knows they’ll fall over and die. :)

Just as a final note: we just dropped $5k to round out our boys’ sponsorships here at CI until they graduate at 19. Caveat: we receive no more fundraising requests, whether it be for emergency funds, challenge funds, superfun funds, or what have you. We made a commitment to the two kids (and their families!) and will write and send gifts to them until they graduate because we made a commitment and it’s not fair to them to drop out and leave them wondering “Why?”

Frustrating to come to this, but no more frustrating than 3 years of “b-b-but COVID!” and adding insult to injury with a variation of “it’s out of our hands; they just don’t want your cooties!” 

We’ve loved everyone’s stories and they inspired us to be better sponsors! We’ll continue to support our youth but just privately. All the best to everyone.

Ohno! This is the SADDEST entry I have read. I was already looking forward toBennyNJun’s update from their visit to the Philippines. I understand the moveand really hope that this is not the last we hear from them. Philippinesrecently had an election. Mega people were outside and side by side for months.Somehow, in general, the continued excuse of lockdown and repeat lockdowns (even school closure) by whoeveris suspect… just an opinion. 'wishing we could somehow connect with the kids' updates. 

@BennyNJun: I'm very sorry you have decided to go dark, my post was in no way about you personally or any other sponsor on MSC. I thought that by sharing a very real concern of the families, one that may have helped form their decisions, it might help us all to better understand the situation from the families point of view. We do appreciate you and all of our sponsors and I'm happy that you will not let my words affect your continued friendship with your boys. 

This is terribly sad. To see dedicated sponsors so unhappy is a failing on the part of CI, one that should be addressed: Something to ponder, years ago I used to rescue restaurants (think Kitchen Nightmares with less screaming). Something I learned is that one complaining customer represented hundreds of people who never said anything- they just faded into the night, never to be seen again. The complainer was your best friend, as unpleasant as it was, they were telling you what you needed to hear. 
While I personally understand CI’s point of view, I am also increasingly frustrated by the limitations imposed. As sponsors we expect certain things from CI, what was promised, what is still promised, but the parameters of what is actually possible seem to have narrowed to the point where sponsor experience is affected. The children are why we are all here, staff and donor, families and their littles, and that is appropriate. But part of the experience for both donor and child is the connection that is made, and if children are loosing sponsors because of seemingly never-ending Covid policies, isn't that an issue? What about the kids and stability? What about them loosing a caring sponsor with all the benefits that brings? I wonder what the current retention rate rate is. I doubt its good.
I have bumped up against some of this during the last 3 years and have attempted, with various results, to approach it with equanimity. CI, when approached about the issues from a sponsors point of view, seems indifferent. This is a real problem and I know of, sadly, quite a few sponsors who have switched allegiance to other organizations because of it. I don’t know, I like the social center for many reasons, but I begin to wonder if its not just easier to be the kind of sponsor who sends in their money every month and doesn't get too involved. Maybe then this attitude of nonchalance and suck-it-up too-bad-so-sad wouldn’t sting so much. 

Well saidKiyoshi! I, for one, believe that sponsors who truly treasure the letters andvisitation angle of the CI program is a rarity. I do not know the stats. Todate, I have only succeeded in talking one into becoming a sponsor. And no,they are not the letter writing kind. It breaks my heart coz the kid needs towrite at least twice a year. The connection active  CI sponsors try to make via lettersand visits represents a key factor missing for most needy kids: ‘dependable andpresent.’ Hence, this matter should receive more attention.

I am happy to hear that a system is in the works to be able to resume sending physical letters to our children--I'm trying SO hard to be patient about this, but we're coming up on three years of Covid and its impact, and with so many things having returned to normal, it gets harder and harder to keep waiting. And I know Brenda wants the letters and photos as much as I want to send them--she inquires about them each time she writes to me.

The Covid pandemic is a true reason for the world's difficulties, just as dictatorships, human-induced climate change and wars cause all of us stress, complications and hardships. To suggest that Children International is guilty of wrong-doing or cavalier about a Sponsor's frustrations is unexamined anger, perhaps fueled by incomplete absorption of our planet's realities.  I state this clear and loud and with the active experience of sponsoring 21 CI children and youths:  the wild accusations and twisty logic of some sponsor-posts distresses me.  I am saddened. What are these unkind guesses? They sound like conspiracy theories.

Dear Benny and Jun,
I will miss you posts so much.  Your commitment to your sponsored boys has been inspiring, and you have really changed their lives, and their families lives.  
Take care, and happy holidays.
Nancy