Bethel China Foundation

With only 30EUR (50EUR for a student) per month, you participate in the daily expenses of a child's life and studies in a foster home, in order to give him/her a chance to grow up in a safe and loving environment and a chance to prepare himself/herself for a bright and independent future. Your support will change a child's life, also yours!

In Bethel, we consider sponsorship beyond just simple donations; it is indeed a gesture of love. For this reason, we want to encourage our sponsors to get involved in each child's daily life, to make real impact in their lives.

What are the donations used for?
What will I receive?
Reminder
Letters
Presents
Visit
Children's answers
Our commitment

What are the donations used for?
- The sponsorship of a child covers:
  1. The child's daily expenses: meals, clothes, hygiene, etc.
  2. The salaries of the nannies that take care of him/her.
  3. The cooks and cleaning ladies'salaries, who participate in foster homes'good work.
  Those fees amount to 120 Euros (160USD) per month and per child. In order to meet his/her daily needs, a child therefore needs four sponsors, each of them paying 30 Euros (40 USD) per month.
- The sponsorship of a student covers:
  1. The salaries of Bethel's specialized teachers.
  2. The school's equipment expenses (books, arts and crafts equipment, etc).
  3. The cooks and cleaning ladies'salaries, who participate in foster homes' good work.
  4. The school cafeteria's expenses.
  5. Maintenance of the school building.
  Altogether, these expenses amount to an average of 100 Euros per month and per child. Thus every child needs two sponsors, each of them paying 50 Euros, in order to meet his school expenses.
  
  This sponsorship does not cover payment for specialized equipment that is sometimes needed, and is very expensive (Braille Note takers, Computer screen readers etc). We rely on our corporate sponsors to cover these expensive items.
The child sponsorship program is not a designated fund, which means funds received through this program goes into the general account to support all the children. This program is designated to generate a regular income to make sure that at least the children's basic needs are covered. This is why above 4 sponsorships per child or 2 sponsorships per student, the money can be used to go beyond the basic needs and help us improve their environment.
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What will I receive?

In order to follow the child's growing in his daily life, the sponsor receives:
- A quarterly newsletter: through email. This letter contains some recent pictures of child as well as a short description of his last progress of activities that help the sponsor to know the child better and see him/her growing.
- If you sponsor a student, you can receive the child's quarterly school results at the end of each quarter. A general report on child's progress and achievement will be communicated, as well as a brief comment from his teachers.
- The possibility to communicate with the child. You can communicate with the child online. We will also translate and read your letter to the child. If the child is able to answer, you will receive his/her answer. You can also visit the child at Bethel.
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Reminder

Above all, it is important for you to keep in mind that the child you are sponsoring is an orphan and that the abandonment he once suffered from has left a trace of insecurity in his/her relationships with adults. Therefore, it is important that you ensure faithfulness and regularity in your relationship with him/her.

Likewise, any promise or insinuation about adoption is to be avoided in your exchanges. We also ask you to always keep in mind the age and level of development of the child you are speaking to. We are here to help you for those so don't hesitate to ask your questions by contacting us.
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Letters

For the children of Bethel, a sponsor at the other side of the world is a window on another country, another culture they don't have the opportunity to mix with in normal time. Likewise, the children can enrich their daily activities or their passions with what their sponsor can bring them.

Though the children are blind and don't have a sufficient English level to correspond independently in English, we can translate your letters and describe your pictures and cards. Therefore, don't neglect the visual aspect!

In your letters, you can choose to talk about specific themes. When the child is young, he/she often won't be able to bring new subjects to the conversation in his/her letters; whereas for the children who are going to school, it can be a "little more" about their personal knowledge and culture.

Here are some ideas:
- Your job: describe your work and why you chose this one, what you like doing the most.
- The culture of your country/region/city: famous people, food, music, language.
- The sport you practice.
- Your daily life: a typical day with you.
- Testimonies that can be used as models for the children: a fear that you have surpassed, the first time you accomplished something important (your first day at school when you were a kid, how you learned to swim or to ride a bike).
You can also enrich your letters with cooking recipes, arts and craft ideas, music scores, etc depending on the activities and tastes of the child.

All the children learn or are introduced to English; therefore you can send K7 or CDs of children songs or stories in English.

Be positive! It is important for the children to experience those correspondences and relationships as joyful moments and to feel eager and curious about it.

Generally speaking, we encourage each sponsor to send, at least, a card for Christmas and for the child's birthday.
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Presents

In order to keep consistency in the presents offered to the kids, we restrict those gifts (which, besides, are not obligatory) to two per year, on the occasion of Christmas and the child's birthday. For the same reason, each gift shouldn't exceed 30 Euros.

For each child, we will tell you, upon asking, his height, weight, level of sight, tastes (color or animal he prefers) as well as his possible needs (specific games, clothes, etc).
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Visit

The sponsors' visits to the children are always a great moment of joy. However for the children's well being as well as for our daily organization, we have set up a few rules:
- Always inform us of your visit in advance either by phone or email. We will confirm the day and time and make sure it is appropriate considering the children's schedule.
- The visit time is always between 10am to 4pm. The sponsor's visit cannot exceed one day.
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Children's answers

The children on the list below, because of their young age or their development, are not able to answer to their sponsor's letters. In spite of this inability, a few simple lines can be read to them and would also touch the nannies who are taking care of them with devotion:
- Tian Xia
- Zhen Guang
- Fu Ming
- Xin Ai
- Jia Min
- Rong Yuan
- Zhen Lin
- Dong Qiang
- Xia Shan
- Wang Zheng
- Xiao Xin
- Zi Liang
- Yang An
- Cha Lu
- Hai Feng
- Li Ping
- Yu Zhi
- Liu Gui
- Dong Fang
- Jian Fei
- Zhao Jing
- Meng Meng
- Fu Kai
- Song Po
- Rui Zhi
- Qi Hong
- Feng Yu
- Qing Lian
- Jia Ning
- Yun Jing
- Teng Fei
- Jian Yu
- Xin Ming
All the other children will answer you in an average of three weeks time. The youngests could make drawings, have their photo taken or even make short movies. While the oldest one would tell us the answers they want to send you.
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Our commitment

In order for you and the child to enjoy most of this special relationship, we are committed to:
- Translate your mails/letters and to read them to the children.
- Encourage and help them to reply to you.
- Provide you with the necessary information and help which you might need if you decide to come and visit us at Bethel.
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For any further information on sponsorship, please contact us.