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Compassion Sponsorship Program
Last week, i had the pleasure of interviewing Shannon, Rocks in My Dryer, one of a group of bloggers going on a trip to Uganda with Compassion International. This week, I caught up with Sophie, who writes BooMama and be joining Shannon and a dozen or so other bloggers in Uganda.
Compassion International is a Christian child advocacy ministry that releases children from spiritual, economic, social, and physical poverty. The organization's tagline, "Changing the World one child at a time" and they are working in many impoverished countries all over the world. The organization forms partnerships where local churches are active and focused on caring for children. They an AIDS Initiative that provides treatment to children with HIV/AIDS. A large component of the program is their child sponsorship program. For example, here are some of the children from Uganda who need sponsors.
Sophie, BooMama Blog
1. Why are you going to Uganda?
I'm going with Compassion International to see some of the relief work they're doing over there and then blog about what I see
2. Have you ever been to Uganda before? What made you decide to go?
I've never been overseas, much less to Uganda I had to get a brand-spankin' new passport for the trip And while I am not by nature an adventurous girl, I'm smart enough to know a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity when I see it This is something that goes way beyond blogging - it's about having the opportunity to be a voice for kids who might not be heard otherwise
3. What will you do there? What do you hope to accomplish?
We'll be visiting different Compassion projects - some that are focused on helping infants and their mothers, some that are focused on HIV / AIDS relief, some that are focused on school-aged children We'll be going into people's homes, getting a glimpse of what their day-to-day lives look like, and then blogging about the experiences we have while we're there
Hopefully we'll be able to increase awareness of what's going on in that part of the world - and in real-time, without the filter or the delay of other kinds of media And ultimately, I think all the bloggers involved want to show other people how they can pitch in and help by sponsoring a Ugandan child through Compassion
4. What are your biggest concerns or fears about the trip?
Oddly enough, I'm not at all concerned or fearful about being on a plane for that long, even though I am typically a colossal chicken I am concerned that I'm going to be emotionally overwhelmed by what we see and then struggle with finding the words to write about it And for some reason I'm worried that I won't be able to sleep - that I won't be able to turn off my brain at night
5. What advice do you have for other activist, social change blogger going right to the source to live blog?
Ask me in about a month I've never done anything like this before - but I have a feeling that it's going to change my life in ways I can't even imagine.
Well, stay tuned. I plan to do follow up interviews with both Sophie and Shannon to find out what they learned.
Beth Kanter, BlogHer CE for Social Change and NGOS, also writes Beth's Blog.
