Show I A4 The Salt Lake Tribune NATI ONWORLD Sunday March 15 1998 Charities Dont Help Individual Children Continued From f4 jT 4 V A-- l defend their approach maintaining that their donors clearly understand that money does not go to benefit individual children but to the broader community in which the children live They know it is going for things like schools and water and clinics and village health workers said Charles MacCormack president of Save the Children Federation Inc But he argues that SCFs emphasis on individual children in emoUonal television commercials such as those featuring former actress Sally Strothers is necessary An awful lot of people who sign on to a personal human being will not sign on to a well James Gibson a Childreaeh official In Haiti there are more organizaagreed In America tions competing and the American public is more inclined to respond to emotional rather than intellectual appeals" Overall the Tribune reported on 12 children sponsored through four agencies starting in spring 1995 The journalists made the donations under their own names without reference to the Tribune Some reporters sponsored children for a year some for longer Some wrote to the children others didnt Some let their sponsorships lapse Others all done in lapsed then asked for reinstatement an effort to duplicate a variety of sponsorship experiences All received photos of their sponsored children dossiers detailing their lives and a continuous stream of mailings from the organizations often including pleas for additional contributions Then in May 1997 without alerting any of the sponsorship organizations reporters traveled to Africa Asia South and North America to track down the children they had sponsored and to find out what difference their donations had made in those childrens lives In one instance a Tribune reporter sponsored a young Malian girl through Save the Children one of n the nations child sponsorship groups But when the reporter arrived in the childs remote village it was only to discover that the little girl Korotoumou Kone had been dead for nearly two years The charity had accepted $480 or two years worth of sponsorship money on behalf of Korotoumou Kone who had died less than three months after her sponsorship began At first SCF executives at the charitys Westport Conn headquarters called the case unprecedented and an aberration But a subsequent SCF investigation in Mali uncovered 22 other cases ih which sponsored children had been dead for varying periods of time before sponsors were notified Two youngsters had been dead for five years before them sponsors were informed In four instances the sponsors wse never notified The Tribune's inquiry already has sparked a number of changes at Save the Children including newly e instituted annual reviews of all field offices strengthened internal oversight of sponsorship pro best-know- LIGHTEN UP WITH 15 OFF HAIRCOLOR HIGHLIGHTS Enhance your natural haircolor or discover a whole new look during our Haircolor Highlights Sale Starting March 15 enjoy a 15 discount on highlights specially formulated for your hair Schedule a personal complimentary consultation with one of our styling professionals Our experienced staff will make style and color suggestions you can live with For the JCPenney Styling Salon nearest you cail Offer expints Marti) 1 19& on-sit- grams and staff and an overhaul of the agencys beleaguered database which is plagued by error in the identity and location of sponsored children Other sponsorship agencies are reviewing their operations and practices as a result of the Tribune examination In Washington InterAction a coalition of 160 private relief and development agencies has created an advisory panel of outside experts to review practices improve accountability to sponsors and consider setting up an oversight mechanism that may include an accreditation system for sponsorship organizations We need to put some objective criteria in place with maybe some spot checks so we can convince the public and the media that they sponsorship groups are on the up and up said Michael Kiernan spokesman for InterAction Right now people have better and more objective information to buy and invest in a refrigerator than in a charity The Tribune found that child sponsorship agencies succeed best in implementing broad-brus- h health education sanitation and agricultural programs that benefit communities around the world Many a well school or clinic would not exist were it not for help extended by organizations such as SCF But the organizations also consistently failed to deliver on the basic promise made in their appeals: to make a positive and lasting change in the life of the sponsored child At Save the Children that failure found its most extreme expression in the 24 cases of children whose deaths were ignored or long overlooked due to bureaucratic sloppiness staff negligence and inadequate supervision The agency also said it never tracks a sponsors contribution because it pools all of its resources into a common fund SCF officials said the organization doesnt monitor whether the donors money reaches the sponsored child or even the youngsters village A major recurrent problem the Tribune encountered in child sponsorship involved promises the charities made but found all but impossible to keep h In Haiti for example Rhode Island-base- d promised a Tribune reporter that it would tend to the medical educational and nutritional needs of Pierre Richard Etienne in return for a pledge of $264 the standard annual contribution for Childreaeh After Pierre Richard was struck with malaria though Childreaeh refused to help when his mother went to a clinic sponsored by the organization It also didnt pay his full private school tuition of $44 so he could stay in school His family came up $9 short and he was forced to leave school He eventually had to repeat the grade even though he was the smartest child in his class There is little independent regulation of the charities And unlike some European countries he United States has no federal agency charged with regulating sponsorship groups and other nonprofit charities State agencies respond to some complaints but often by simply referring aggrieved or curious donors to watchdog agencies such as the Better Business Bureau One of the big misconceptions out there is that the nonprofits are really regulated closely" said Mark Pacella a senior deputy in the Pennsylvania Attorney Generals Office whose charities division is known as among the nations most aggressive Government just doesnt have the resources No one does ip Cbil-dreac- I I A 4 t I Ilhe Annual ridal Workshop Salt Downtown Lake ZCMI Thursday March 19 at 6 pni You're Engaged The Wedding Date is set so call 579-703- 1 Now is the time to register for your wedding and shower gift preferences! ZCMI invites you and your fiarc or guest to join us for our annual Bridal Workshop Let us give you the personal attention you deserve as you register your gift preferences 4 guest you will receive a beautiful anniversary book from ZCMI to record memories for years to come special offers good throughout our store and from local businesses and fabuious door prizes from our best manufacturers so RSVP today at 1 As our 579-708- Seating is limited the evening is free ournewlife Wedding This event wii! feature a special presentation by Rosanna Robinson the National Bridal Director for Pfaltzgraff that will help you get ideas & Gift Registry for setting up your new home Plus we will have other representatives on hand to help make those important decisions and answer questions A light dinner will be served 3- -' J sf (ft li w |