Hongkonger challenges World Vision HK on whereabouts of donations

A Hongkonger challenged World Vision Hong Kong about where his donation had really gone after he reached out to an Albanian child whom World Vision said he had been sponsoring, only to find the youth denies receiving any sponsorship at all. 

It is the second case this year where a donor challenged World Vision about the actual destination of their sponsorship. 

The man surnamed Law posted on Facebook on Sunday and said he had been donating money to a Cambodian girl via the Child Sponsorship scheme of World Vision Hong Kong for years so that she could study. 

One day, he was informed by World Vision that the girl could do fine without his donation and asked if he could sponsor other kids. Law said he "agreed to continue the sponsorship without thinking at that moment." 

Law then continued that about eight to 10 years earlier, he received a photo from World Vision showing a boy receiving his sponsorship. Law added he received reports from World Vision and Christmas cards from the boy every year. 

"However, I received a report recently and saw the face of the boy, who now looks older than me. (His face looks like the child in the photo, according to my fragile memory) I also saw his full name provided and tried searching his name on Instagram," Law said. 

It was then that Law saw that the Albanian boy had been posting photos of him smoking with his friends and posing by a sports car. 

Law then texted the Albanian boy on Instagram, and the boy confirmed he was the one in the photo Law received from World Vision. Yet, the boy claimed he knew nothing about receiving sponsorship from Law via World Vision's scheme. 

"Errrrr... you didn't receive anything from World Vision?" Law asked. 

"No, I don't know anything about this [World Vision's scheme]," the Albanian replied. 

"I only know that [I] was photographed... did not write anything," the Albanian continued when Law asked him about the photos and Christmas cards he received every year. 

The Albanian also wrote, "I think World Vision cheats" and "[My] family doesn't know [about] this." He addressed Law as "my friend" and asked him for money as well. 

"D**k, I don't even know my donation really went, how dare you ask me for money," Law, enraged, said on Facebook. 

World Vision has been under fire since the post went viral online. The group said on Facebook on Monday that they highly value the opinions of donors and are contacting the branch in Albania to follow up on the incident. They added parents or guardians of a child will sign an agreement first before the child takes part in the scheme to receive sponsorship. 

In February, World Vision faced a similar challenge by a female donor, who suspected the group cheated her of money. 

The donor said on Facebook the group sent the same photo for an Ethiopian boy's sixteenth and seventeenth birthday. In 2018, the donor received a photo showing a young man with a beard from World Vision. Yet in 2019, World Vision sent the donor a picture of a child, raising the suspicion of the donor. 

World Vision in the end posted a video, where the young Ethiopian man showed up and thanked the donor himself. 

Yordanos, the Kolfe area program manager, also explained how the manual process caused the mismatch of photos on the reports and apologized. 

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