WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT SPONSORSHIP

What is Dunamis Outreach Australia?
Dunamis Outreach Australia is a registered charity in Newcastle, New South Wales which has been operating for over 20 years, providing sponsorship funding for children in children’s homes across the state of Andhra Pradesh in India. Dunamis has been working in conjunction with Miriam Children’s Homes, an organization based in India that has been
establishing and running children’s homes in India for 40 years and has established over 30 homes since its inception in 1969. Miriam Children’s Homes provide food, clothing, shelter and education to over 10,000 children.

Dunamis Outreach Australia has been mainly working with one of the larger children’s homes. This home is located in Payakaraopeta. This home has gone through stages of growth, most prominently following the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, where 75 affected children were taken into the home to live with the 75 children already there.

This home has flourished because of the generous donations and sponsorships from people like you. Dunamis is a Christian organization managed and operated entirely by volunteers. It was established to find child sponsors, and to manage the transfer of sponsorship funds from Australia and around the world to give Indian children a brighter future. Dunamis Taskforce is a branch of the charity set up solely to find sponsors and donors for five additional homes. It is a working party of volunteers committed to the cause of fighting poverty and bringing the Christian Gospel to the young people of India.

Who are Miriam Children’s Homes; what type of organization is it?
Miriam Children’s Homes is a subsidiary of Manna Ministries and is responsible for all 30 Children’s Homes. For more information on the work of Manna Ministries go to www.manna7.org. MCH has established over 30 homes and has provided food, clothing, shelter and education for over 10 000 children since 1969. MCH was founded by Bishop Ernest and Reverend Rachel Komanapalli. In 1977 oversight of this ministry was given to Reverend Carl Komanapalli. Carl, and his wife Sharon have been leaders of the Miriam Children’s homes for over 30 years, witnessing some remarkable growth. As well as the 30 homes across the State, Carl has been responsible for administrating churches, hospitals, schools, Colleges and other Christian ministries. He received his Bachelor of Business administration from the American Christian College in Oklahoma, U.S.A., and now supervises hundreds of staff and thousands of children. Carl has been instrumental in the success of Miriam Childress Homes and shares our passion for giving Indian children every opportunity to experience the love of God, and to break the terrible cycle of poverty.

What is my commitment as a Dunamis Outreach Australia child sponsor?
As a child sponsor through Dunamis Outreach Australia you are committing to make monthly (or the equivalent) financial contributions to the development and care of your sponsor child. We also encourage you to communicate with your child and get to know him or her. If you pray, then we would ask you to include your sponsor child or children in your prayers that they may grow up knowing the Lord personally.

There is also a small annual administration fee to help cover the costs of running Dunamis Outreach Australia.

Can I communicate directly with my sponsor child
or do I have to go through the Dunamis office?
Sponsors are encouraged to write and send photos to their sponsor child and you may do this directly, however, we try to ensure that every child receives correspondence for his or her sponsor so there are
occasions when we would require correspondence to be sent through the office. For information on sending something to your child, please e-mail our office.

What about visiting my child in India?
Almost every year in January a Dunamis Outreach team travels to India for this very purpose. Sponsors will receive correspondence outlining the travel details, inviting expressions of interest in being part of a team.

As there are currently six (6) children’s homes that DOA sponsors, teams may visit several homes during a trip to the area.

Every sponsor is strongly encouraged to make the trip at least once. In fact, after you have been once you will be almost guaranteed to want to go again. It is truly a life-changing experience.

In recent years, many members of DOA have paid their own way to travel to India to meet the children and to experience the impact that sponsors have on these children. Together they work with leaders of local churches and the houseparents of the children’s homes, to determine needs and to see how effectively these homes are being run. It is important that we maintain these relationships because we rely so heavily on the local Indian people to run these homes. There are many opportunities for sponsors to join these mission teams and get to know their sponsor children. This is such an impacting experience and we would
encourage you to firmly consider taking a trip to visit your child.

How is the monthly sponsorship rate determined?
Currently the Dunamis Outreach Australia ‘staff’ are volunteers and, apart from a small annual administration fee, all your sponsorship money goes directly to meeting the needs of your sponsor child. Hence your monthly rate is around $15 per month less than the large child sponsorship organizations. This makes it possible for many individuals and families to sponsor several children. The amount of the monthly rate is determined primarily by Miriam Children’s Homes. The sponsorship funds pay for the child’s food, housing, clothing, education and medical expenses, and contribute to the cost of the staff in the home and the administration of Miriam Children’s Homes.
Just think, $1 per child per day is all that is needed to ensure these children are given every opportunity to break the scourge of poverty, to know the love of a Heavenly Father and to have a much brighter future!

Can we get ‘customer’ support?
The Dunamis Taskforce team are only too happy to assist you with any concern or general enquiry. All you have to do is e-mail us at taskforce@dunamisaustralia.org with your question and we will do our best to help.

Is there a maximum number of children in the home?
In most cases the homes have a maximum of 50 children. This allows the sense of a large family community rather than an institution. The children can generally get to know all of the other children in the home and develop a strong sense of identity.

Where do we get information about our sponsor child?
In the pack that you received with this booklet you will have been given a laminated Child Sponsor Card and a separate A4 page of information about your child. If you want to know further information that is not on the child’s case
history sheet, please e-mail us and we will do our best to assist you.

Who is the contact in India?
Our main contact person in India is Reverend Carl Komanapalli, the Secretary for Miriam Children’s Homes. In due course you may also be able to contact the home
‘parents’ of your sponsor child but this facility is not yet available.

What is the process for accepting a child into the home?
Parents make application to the home of their choice (usually in their local area) with a reference from a local church pastor. Each application is considered and enrolment determined in light of the degree of need of each child. Once their application is successful, the child’s information is sent to the head office of
Miriam Children’s Homes in Amalapuram and maintained on their central database, and the child is brought into the home.
Many children have either one or no living parents, or one parent has left the home. Whilst they are in the home, the children can still make visits to see parents and other relatives and they are allowed to have visitors.

What about their schooling?
In most of the homes the children attend a local public school in which they are taught in the local vernacular which is Telugu. The home provides the uniform and school materials but they travel each school day to a government school.
Gradually, as funds become available, Manna Ministries are building and developing Christian Schools directly associated with the homes. English is taught in these schools. Children who achieve strong grades have the opportunity when they complete their secondary education to move to Amalapuram to attend one of several Colleges run by Manna Ministries. These include vocational training, teacher and nursing training and Information Technology.

How is the cost of land, buildings and facilities covered?
Buildings can only be built with special capital donations. Sponsorship funds are naturally inadequate to meet the high cost of a building program.
MCH own most of the land and buildings for their homes, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to purchase land, especially in the more urban centres.

Each home generally needs a small number of committed people amongst the community of sponsors who are willing and able to contribute capital funding for the purposes of development. Those homes that have these people are generally the best equipped and resourced.

If you would like to discuss how you might become a partner in the building and facilities development of your sponsor child’s home, don’t hesitate to contact us and we will arrange to discuss the process and options with you.

How do we communicate with the home and the children?
The best method to date is simply the good old letter! The homes generally don’t have e-mail or fax facilities, and sponsors are not encouraged or advised to try phoning the homes. The mailing address of your child’s home will be in your sponsor pack.

What staff does the home have? Who are they, and what are their roles?
The homes all have a ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ who are usually married couple, committed to loving the children as their own. MCH train all their home ‘parents’ in all the essential skills for the efficient running of the home. The home parents are the primary carers for the children. In addition there are other carers who live in the home and fulfil a variety of roles from cooking to tutoring.

Are staff wages etc covered by the sponsorship?
In a word, ‘yes’! The staff are not paid a high wage. It generally requires a deep commitment to the cause of the ministry and to the development of the children for staff to do what they do, day in, and day out. Staff are on duty all day, every day. There really aren’t many breaks. As you can see, the staff make significant sacrifices to care for the children, and are invaluable to the success of the homes.

What are their current facilities and living standards like in the home?
The facilities are fairly basic but significantly better than the extremely poor circumstances from which the children come.

We would like to see all the homes provided with a bed (and mattress) for each child, electricity in the buildings, running water, a locker for each child (and 'box' for their belongings), several changes of clothes and a school uniform (including a pair of shoes). Unfortunately not all the homes have ALL of these things. But they can easily be provided with extra funding. To find out how equip your child's home is and to help, please e-mail us.

The children have 3 meals per day in a dining hall. They each have their own bowl and are responsible in keeping it clean. The homes don’t have a lot of outdoor playground space but the children are used to making creative use of space in India!

What makes these homes so exceptional?
The remarkable joy and love that you sense when you enter these homes is immediately apparent. The children are genuinely affectionate and endearing. It will only take you a matter of minutes to have a group of children sitting on your knees and gorgeous little arms wrapped around your neck, even if they don’t
know you! The warmth, exuberance, sincerity and humility of the children and staff are deeply impacting.
The children’s singing and praying during their devotional times is also a very moving experience…even for those who aren’t particularly religious. You will also marvel at their highly disciplined behaviour, most apparent when waiting patiently for their meals. They can sit still when told to do so for a remarkably long time without a hint of attitude or complaint.
You can witness firsthand the direct impact of a loving, nurturing, Christian environment on very disadvantaged children and know that their lives are being changed forever.

How are the children allocated to a sponsor?
Unless specific requests for a certain gender or age of child are made, sponsors are simply allocated the next child on our list. Once the allocation is made, we update our database accordingly.
Occasionally children leave the home for a range of reasons to do with their family circumstances. If your sponsor child leaves, you will be notified as soon as we find out. You will then also be allocated another child.

Where do I get up-to-date information about the child?
We receive updated information from time-to-time as the data from the homes is revised and forwarded on to us from MCH office.

This is generally in the form of an Excel file on the children whose details may have changed.

When this arrives we update our database at this end and create a new report to send to sponsors.

What methods of payment are available for the sponsorship fee?
Methods of payment include:
i) direct debit (account details in the info pack)
ii) Cheques made out to ‘Dunamis Outreach Australia’

Does the fee go up regularly?
The monthly sponsorship for children through Dunamis is currently $30 per month. This hasn’t been raised for some time. When the sponsorship fee is raised, it is generally only by small amounts each time to minimize any cost burden.

How much of my sponsorship goes into administration expenses?
At this stage there is an annual $10 administration fee per child sponsored. This enables us to cover our small administrative costs.

Do the children get to know who their sponsors are? How does this happen?
Absolutely! Once you sign up and commence your regular sponsorship, your details are forwarded to the MCH office where they will be distributed to the respective homes. The home parents will inform each child of his or her sponsor’s
names. As soon as convenient we will ask you for a photo or photos of yourself to send to your sponsor child. We will add the photo to our database and then forward them on to the home for delivery to your sponsor child. He or she will take great care of your photo! We have seen the photos in each of the children’s lockers!

In what ways is this sponsorship different to any other organisation?
Sponsorship through Dunamis Outreach Australia differs from the larger child sponsor organisations in several ways. Firstly we are over 30% cheaper. This is because we are still a relatively small charity with only volunteer staff. At this stage we haven’t yet secured tax deductibility but we are working towards achieving this for our charity as soon as we can.
Secondly, we sponsor children in children’s homes. We support the rationale of Miriam Children’s Homes because we have seen the results of almost 40 years of raising children in homes rather than just supporting them in their existing families and communities. We have been more than satisfied, having visited a number of the homes, that the children receive wonderful care form a very dedicated Christian staff. We see the strong commitment to leading the children into a personal faith in Jesus. Dunamis Outreach is very supportive of the love for Jesus Christ that is engendered in the children.
Thirdly, we develop relationships with the staff of the homes, especially the home parents. This is a dimension not so directly developed by the larger organisations.

Am I able to send gifts to my child/children in the home?
Sponsors may certainly arrange to send gifts to their sponsor child but we specifically request that it is limited to the child’s birthday and one other time through the year. We are conscious to try to generate as much consistency across the home as possible with gifts and correspondence lest certain children constantly miss out.
The child’s birth day is on the sponsor card.

What do I do if I have to stop my sponsorship for any reason?
Just let us know. We will seek another sponsor to replace yours as soon as we can.

Can a sponsorship be shared between people?
Yes, sponsorship can be shared but we do ask you to nominate the contact person as we only specify one sponsor in our database.

Will I receive receipts? Are they tax-deductible?
Yes, you will receive receipts. Unfortunately we have yet to gain tax deductibility status. We will let you know as soon as we do.

What if I want to make a one-off donation in addition to my regular sponsorship?
Use the banking account details provided on the web page to make a donation. Then send us an e-mail to notify of the donation so that we can issue you with a receipt.