Sponsoring Young Children

Who is Eligible for Sponsorship | About Being a Sponsor | Can I write to my sponsored child? | Can I send gifts? | Can I send e-mails? | Can I visit my sponsored child? | Visit by a sponsor

A Sponsorship is a way in which you, a donor, can establish a relationship with a poor Mexican child that can deepen and expand over the years as that child grows into adulthood. As a Sponsor you will receive a photo of the child and annual progress reports. If you visit Colima, we will arrange for you to meet your sponsored child.
    Sponsorship donations help pay for the Christmas fiesta and beach trip which are hosted each year by Project Amigo and the Colima Rotary Club, as well as medical, dental, and educational services provided by Project Amigo volunteers. Click here for more information on Project Amigo's services to sponsored children.
    To sponsor a child, drop us a note, or fill out our On-Line Sponsorhip Form. A minimum donation of $95 US is requested to sponsor a child for a year.

Who is Eligible for Sponsorship

The children in the Project Amigo sponsorship program live in three different locations. All children must be enrolled in kindergarten or primary school to be eligible for sponsorship:
»    Quesería Migrant Labor Camp - a rural camp for indigenous sugar cane cutters and their families. The families live in the camp from October through May. Many of these children speak native languages, rather then Spanish, at home.
»    Colonia Rotaria - Rotary Neighborhood in the city of Colima, fifty low-cost houses built by Project Amigo for poor families with funds from various US Rotary Clubs and the Rotary Foundation. These children live with their families and attend various public schools. Click here for more information about Colonia Rotaria.
»     Escuela Constitucion is a government-run public primary school that serves 350 kids, mostly poor and indigenous, in the village of Cofradía de Suchitlán. Children attend school from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Your sponsorship donation pays for outings which enrich the lives of children living in group homes, housing projects, or migrant labor camps.

RI Volunteer Joe Schrijvers of the Rotary Club of Vermilion, Alberta, Canada, poses with his new friends. It really means a lot to these girls to know that there are people who care about them.

A boy living in Cofradía de Suchitlán is happy to receive a Christmas gift paid for by your sponsorship donation.

Sponsor a child by filing out the On-Line Sponsorhip Form and by using your credit card on-line:

Hello --,
We received your letter today, it was great to hear from you...
Your picture shows a beautiful young girl and I also hope that we can meet you in person some day.

Letter from a sponsor to her "amigo"

Dear Sponsors,
I am very proud that you've sent me a reply to my letter...
I hope that some day we will get to meet each other.

Letter from sponsored girl to her "padrinos"

About Being a Sponsor

When you choose to be an amigo to a poor child in Mexico your child benefits from your sponsorship, and we hope you will also. Here are answers to some questions often asked by Sponsors; if you have further questions, please write or e-mail us at inquiry@projectamigo.org and we will be glad to reply.

Can I write to my sponsored child?

    Please do. We encourage you to send cards and letters to your child. You may write in English and we will be glad to deliver and translate the letters. We will also translate and send to you via surface mail your child's replies, thank-you cards and drawings. Please mail all letters for your child to Project Amigo, 14 Commercial Blvd. #119, Novato, CA 94949. Allow six weeks for a reply.

Can I send gifts?

    No. The best gift you can give your child is your affection shown through your letters. Do not send packages to your child using our Sebastopol address. These packages must be forwarded to Mexico and the customs duty which Project Amigo must pay usually exceeds the value of the gift. Also, do not send packages to Project Amigo in Mexico or directly to the child. The Mexican postal system is not reliable and they will likely not arrive.
    You may enclose in your letters a small, flat gift such as photographs of yourself, your family and your home, stickers, paper stencils, balloons, drawings, etc. Never send cash or checks to your child.

Can I send e-mails?

    Yes. E-mails are received in our Mexican offices. They will be printed out, delivered to and translated for your child. The children do not have access to e-mail themselves so you should expect a reply via surface mail.

Can I visit my sponsored child?

    Yes! If you would like to meet the child you sponsored, please let us know in advance of your visit. The children are very excited to meet their sponsors and you will enjoy a special relationship with your amigo that is extremely rewarding. Spending some time with your sponsored child is the best gift you can give, and we will will arrange for you to have time to read to and play with your child.

Work Week Volunteer Alan Hendrick of the Rotary Club of Norman, Oklahoma, helps a child write to her sponsor.

A boy at the Quesería migrant labor camp proudly wears a Rotary cap given him by his visiting sponsor.

Visitors can meet the children they have sponsored. Here Dr. Steve Ingels, from the Rotary Club of Norman, Oklahoma, shares some quiet time with a boy living in a group home because his parents are in jail.

I am Rosa's mother. I am writing to thank you for the gift you sent us. It is so nice to know that we are important to someone. I hope that you can write again cause Rosa likes to write. ... I don't know how to thank you for what you sent us.

Letter from the mother of a sponsored girl to the child's Sponsor

Visit by a Sponsor

Project Amigo thanks Eileen Factor of the Long Beach Rotary Club for this first hand account of her December 2003 work week visit:

This may have been my first Project Amigo trip, but it was easy to bond with fellow volunteers. Everyone was so friendly, most of us were Rotarians so we had that in common, which is an immediate bond wherever one might travel around the world. I gravitated to Cecil and Charles and we did everything together. Hopefully, this was the beginning of lifelong friendships, although the two of them were already friends - I was the third wheel. This was Cecil's 13th or 14th trip and Charles' first, too.

I don't think either Charles or I were quite prepared for what we saw at Queseria Labor Camp. It sits at the foot of a volcano, amidst the sugar cane fields with families living in pure squalor. The children were filthy. They live in one-room huts with dirt floors and tin roofs. The mothers wash their clothes in a common area using wash boards in cement tubs.

There is a two-room school, built by Project Amigo with a teacher also funded by the project - the only hope the impoverish youth of this camp have for a better life.

What was most impressive about delivering gifts in the camp was that the children who did not attend school, did not get gifts. At first, that seemed harsh, but what a perfect way to "train" mothers to put their children in school - and what a perfect way to "train" children to stay there.

When we visited the labor camp the second time, it was touching to watch Charles lose his heart to a little boy named Victor, who was 4. The three of us sat for an hour or so interacting with Victor and his five-year-old brother and three-year-old sister. As we drove away, we waved out the window and the three of them waved back and smiled. For miles, we talked about how that site will be indelibly etched in our memories forever.

When we got back to the hacienda, Charles immediately signed up to sponsor Victor. It's moments like this and friends like Cecil and Charles that make me say, I'm proud to be a Rotarian!

Sponsoring a child is easy.
You can do it online.
You can do it now.

Volunteer Rotarian Eileen Factor delivers Christmas gifts to students in the Queseria Labor Camp.

As we drove away, we waved out the window and the three of them waved back and smiled. For miles, we talked about how that site will be indelibly etched in our memories forever.

It's moments like this that make me say, I'm proud to be a Rotarian!

Eileen Factor, volunteer from Long Beach Rotary Club

Who is Eligible for Sponsorship | About Being a Sponsor | Can I write to my sponsored child? | Can I send gifts? | Can I send e-mails? | Can I visit my sponsored child? | Visit by a sponsor

This page last updated January, 2008.