Careful; you make it sound like you may have some jealousy issues of your own. I live modestly, and God has blessed me with a good professional job for 25 years, and has kept me free (as my aunt would say) from responsibilities for a family of my own. Raising an American child would easily cost 10-20 times what I give to help one of these Indian girls, without even considering college expenses.

Everything I've heard from Anwesha is quoted in the blog. Problems with the neighbors aren't something I expect a child--from any part of the world--would mention in a letter. The issue came up during my sponsorship of Rina, and is detailed in her blog; recently, Debbie said something about Sahay limiting the # of sponsored children per family to 1 because of jealousy problems. (But that must be in certain areas, because I know some families have more than one sponsored child. Or maybe they're strict about adhering to whatever their limit for an area is, even if there's a sponsor asking to add a sibling, to prevent jealosy.) Basically, in the earlier years of the Sahay project, extra gifts were only allowed at holidays when everyone was getting something; that changed about 5 years ago, when the project had been around for 15 years.

I imagine jealousy becomes less of a problem as the community comes to understand that there is an actual individual behind the special donations, not just the organization. The idea that people are entitled to do what they like with their own money probably isn't strange to anyone. Of course there are always some people who are jealous when their neighbor has better luck, but that's not the same as thinking the organization treats people unevenly.

I worry more about overburdening them with possessions. But from what I can tell, many of the families have virtually nothing to start with. They hang the little clothing and bedding they own over the rafters or on lines strung under the roof. They sit and sleep on the ground. Food may be served on banana leaves instead of plates. You see "a lot;" I see almost everything a family of 7 owns. (Notably, they rarely spend much of the money on clothes. Wearing new clothes during the festival season is important to Indian culture, so one outfit per child is often purchased, and occasionally one for a parent. But they never buy work or "play" clothes.)

I do prefer sponsoring in rural areas, because many of the fathers are involved in cultivating the commonly-owned fields of the area, and once they've made their homes a bit more comfortable, the money is often used to purchase equipment that is useful in increasing their agriculture yield, and provides them some rental income besides. The home improvements also bring income to others in the community--they aren't one-man jobs.

$225-$250; I don't have a record of the exact figure and the exchange rate has changed since them so the dollar buys more rupees. That is, that's the amount I provided; the report says they not only repaired the wall but built an interior wall and a knee-wall for the verandah (I suppose that's what they mean), using their own funds for part of the project. The geometry of the description isn't clear to me.