What you should know now
Questions and answers
You have taken on the personal sponsorship of a child in the third world and come across questions when having read the documents received. For example you want to write to your godchild or give him something and you do not know how to proceed. You want to reduce costs, are moving or preparing your tax declaration. Here are the answers.
Questions about sponsorship
From various partner institutions looking after our godchildren we have been informed that it can be very difficult and time-consuming to collect all the details about a child because of missing documents, the family is scattered, is often not complete or a child literally lives on the street. We therefore ask for your understanding if any information is missing on your sponsorship sheet.
The information on your sponsorship sheet has been taken over by us like it had been communicated to us by the partner institutions. We do not want to modify it in any way but would only ask you not to judge it; the way of expression may be a little different from what we are used to. As to the families, their internal and external situations are often so difficult that the parents are unable to take care of their children. Our primary concern is to give them our assistance to improve the current situation.
Teenagers being supported by sponsorships have partly gone to school but at a later age because they had not been registered earlier or because they had to earn a living with their families. In certain developing countries a further training at school has the same meaning like an apprenticeship here in Switzerland. It is very important that the young people receive a good education; this will enable them to take care of themselves and their families later on, to stand up for their rights and to enrich society.
In numerous developing countries professionals such as teachers, employees, etc. earn very little and must often wait for their salaries for months. For this reason it seems important to us that we also support children with sponsorships of such parents.
Questions about correspondence
The mail should never go from the sponsor to the sponsored child, because this way there would be no control by Children’s Care Emmaus (and the person caring for them). Children having grown up on the streets are used to begging and would occasionally also do so in their letters. It does not make sense that they then receive money, watches etc. from their sponsor without our knowing about it. All mail should therefore be sent to Children’s Care Emmaus which will forward it to the person in charge and the sponsored child.
The godchildren are very happy about letters, photographs and postcards which give them an idea of their sponsors and their surroundings. Please, observe the weight of your small gifts in order to save postage.
Please, mention in your mail with your godchild but your name, yet not your address. Sometimes the sponsored children give their sponsors their e-mail address. Please, ignore this and abstain from giving yours.
As it is very expensive to send parcels with special gifts, e.g. birthday presents, you better pay a smaller amount into our postal account quoting « Special gift for godchild … (No.) or his family». We accordingly inform the person in charge who will find out together with the sponsored child or his family what is most needed and really makes happy. We, however, leave it to the person in charge to decide whether the amount is fully applied to the named godchild or is shared with other very needy children.
Sponsors‘ Christmas letters that still need be translated should be with us by15th November at the latest so that we can forward them to the sponsored children in time. Letters that don't have to be translated should be in our possession till 1st December.
Many physically or mentally handicapped godchildren are unable to write letters nor even their name. However, they can produce big drawings for their sponsors with great enthusiasm and joy.
If godchildren are physically or mentally handicapped it is often the parents who write the letters for them. If the parents are analphabets, they ask third persons to write the letters. It may also happen that healthy godchildren dictate for fun their letters to a «secretary» (an older child, a friend, etc.). So it is not to be excluded that letters of a godchild show different handwriting. If sponsors so desire we follow up the matter individually.
It requires quite some effort to organize the correspondence between godparents and children of the Third World. Many people are involved. The reponsible persons on site, mostly on a free of charge basis, have a lot of work to be done to motivate the girls and boys of the coordinated institutions to write their godparents. They collect the letters during a longer time, translate them – e.g. from the Indian idioms into English – and then send them in a single mailing to save postage. Once arrived at our end, they are individually recorded by volunteers; the Spanish letters must be translated into German; afterwards the letters must be read so that we can follow up special cases or particular requests for help and, finally, they are forwarded to the godmothers and godfathers. If a godmother or a godfather cares for several children, their letters are collected in one evelope and sent but three times a year to save postage. This way it is quite possible that your godchild’s letters arrive delayed. Please have understanding patience!
Questions about donating
Unfortunately postage is expensive. If you pay your donation or your sponsorship contribution in cash at the postal cash desk to our postal account, the Swiss post will charge us CHF 2.00 on amounts up to CHF 50.00. You help us reducing costs:
by making your transfers to the debit of your own postal account (if you have one) which is free of charge;
by giving your bank a payment order which is executed by the bank as a free of charge service (a private account is necessary);
by summing up (if possible) your monthly sponsorship contribution into a quarterly, halfyearly or even yearly instalment;
by deciding to have once an increased donation transferred instead of several smaller instalments;
by notifying us of your new address after a relocation.
The godmothers and godfathers paying somewhat in excess of their usual sponsorship contribution a big thank you! With these additional donations we can help those godchildren having lost their godparents in the meantime (death, entering a nursing home, loss of job, etc.). These godchildren Children’s Care Emmaus will care for as long as new godmothers and godfathers have been found for them.
Now and again generous donors consider Children’s Care Emmaus with a donation or leave our institution a part of their estate. That always makes us extremely happy. Legacies have often enabled us to overcome financial emergencies. You can express your last wishes with a will you have written yourself even without a notary and without witnesses. Provided that place and time as well as the signature are available and everything is written by hand, the will is immediately valid.
Detailed information you will find here.
As Children’s Care Emmaus is considered an aid organization you are entitled to deduct from taxes your sponsorship contributions and donations. To take advantage of a tax reduction please enclose the donation sheet to your tax declaration for the respective year. You will receive this form at the beginning of every year.
Questions as to data protection
The Swiss Post allows certain categories of senders of non-commercial material to distribute such mailings to mailboxes with the sticker «Please no advertising». This particularly applies to political parties, authorities and non-profit organizations. Thank you for your understanding.
We use your personal data but for internal administrative purposes. Your address will not be passed on to third parties. The data kept in our database are protected, and we strictly observe all the legal regulations for data protection.