A colleague of mine sent me an email recently, remarking that what is transpiring in countries like Syria, Iraq, Afganistan, Sudan, and Somalia was like child sponsorship in reverse. It is true.
Children who are internationally sponsored through organizations like Food for the Hungry, Compassion International, or ChildFund receive a number of benefits: help with school tuition, tutoring, nutritious meals, and a nurturing, secure environment in which they can take root, grow, and flourish. They are taught that there is a God who is good and loves them deeply, that adults can be trusted, and that their lives have intrinsic purpose and meaning. Sponsored children flourish in stable local communities with roots to culture and tradition. They develop aspirations for their lives. They are taught to dream.
And as our impact studies on child sponsorship indicate, they dream big dreams. They are more optimistic. They have higher self-esteem. Sponsored children aspire to greater levels of schooling, and have higher hopes for a professional career. Indeed, they are fantastically more hopeful in general, up to 0.8 of a standard deviation by our estimation. (That’s a whole lotta hope.)
And moreover, these hopes are based in the reality of a substantially better future. As adults we find that sponsored children are 45% more likely to finish secondary school and 60% more likely to graduate from a university. They are are 18% more likely to be employed and 35% more likely to have a white-collar job. Our forthcoming paper in the World Bank Economic Review finds that they live in better houses as adults, with an income that is 20% higher than it would have been had they not been sponsored.
But consider the impact of civil war in these countries. First, it has taught them that religion–at least in its local form–is a weapon of death rather than a source of life. People who claim to speak for God engage in acts of arbitrary cruelty and horror. And rather than rooting children in a local community, it displaces them: 4 million refugees and 7 million internally displace people from Syria alone, 1.5 million refugees from Afghanistan and approximately 54 million more from other countries, principally from the Middle East and North Africa. Internal displacement and refugee status cause a dramatic increase in stress, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and general hopelessness. Children in conflict zones are far more likely to be chronically malnourished.
Another great tragedy that occurs among child refugees is missed schooling. For many of these children, years of missed school will never be recovered. As a consequence, children grow up unprepared and unequipped for adult life, unable to economically provide for themselves or their families. And their lack of ability to participate in a modern economy has dark ramifications. The psychological damage endured during displacement, the difficulties in resettling in foreign communities, the lack of education and training–all of this breeds the next generation of frustrated and hopeless young men ready to fight in the next jihad.
Effective development programs such as international child sponsorship bring hope and life to impoverished children. Civil conflict creates children bereft of not only hope but the critical investments they need to live successful adult lives. It is like child sponsorship in reverse.
Learn about different ways to directly help refugee children on the WorldRenew and Adopt-a-Refugee Family program websites. Both offer a number of ways to give to help refugees from Syria and other countries in conflict. Follow Bruce Wydick on Twitter at @BruceWydick and on AcrossTwoWorlds.net.
Syria: Child Sponsorship in Reverse
A colleague of mine sent me an email recently, remarking that what is transpiring in countries like Syria, Iraq, Afganistan, Sudan, and Somalia was like child sponsorship in reverse. It is true.
Children who are internationally sponsored through organizations like Food for the Hungry, Compassion International, or ChildFund receive a number of benefits: help with school tuition, tutoring, nutritious meals, and a nurturing, secure environment in which they can take root, grow, and flourish. They are taught that there is a God who is good and loves them deeply, that adults can be trusted, and that their lives have intrinsic purpose and meaning. Sponsored children flourish in stable local communities with roots to culture and tradition. They develop aspirations for their lives. They are taught to dream.
And as our impact studies on child sponsorship indicate, they dream big dreams. They are more optimistic. They have higher self-esteem. Sponsored children aspire to greater levels of schooling, and have higher hopes for a professional career. Indeed, they are fantastically more hopeful in general, up to 0.8 of a standard deviation by our estimation. (That’s a whole lotta hope.)
And moreover, these hopes are based in the reality of a substantially better future. As adults we find that sponsored children are 45% more likely to finish secondary school and 60% more likely to graduate from a university. They are are 18% more likely to be employed and 35% more likely to have a white-collar job. Our forthcoming paper in the World Bank Economic Review finds that they live in better houses as adults, with an income that is 20% higher than it would have been had they not been sponsored.
But consider the impact of civil war in these countries. First, it has taught them that religion–at least in its local form–is a weapon of death rather than a source of life. People who claim to speak for God engage in acts of arbitrary cruelty and horror. And rather than rooting children in a local community, it displaces them: 4 million refugees and 7 million internally displace people from Syria alone, 1.5 million refugees from Afghanistan and approximately 54 million more from other countries, principally from the Middle East and North Africa. Internal displacement and refugee status cause a dramatic increase in stress, depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and general hopelessness. Children in conflict zones are far more likely to be chronically malnourished.
Effective development programs such as international child sponsorship bring hope and life to impoverished children. Civil conflict creates children bereft of not only hope but the critical investments they need to live successful adult lives. It is like child sponsorship in reverse.
Learn about different ways to directly help refugee children on the WorldRenew and Adopt-a-Refugee Family program websites. Both offer a number of ways to give to help refugees from Syria and other countries in conflict. Follow Bruce Wydick on Twitter at @BruceWydick and on AcrossTwoWorlds.net.