As an example, Compassion International is a Colorado-based Christian humanitarian child sponsorship company that operates in 26 countries. They actively invite sponsors to visit their children in foreign countries: “The Only Thing Missing is You”: https://www.compassion.com/get-involved/trips-visits.htm The visits are 2 to 6 hours in length. Because they have a “commitment to child protection,” a sponsor needs a background check and is accompanied by a representative from the organization: https://forms.compassion.com/standardvisit/Individual-Visit-Guidelines.pdf These are certainly well-intentioned safeguards, but too often the third-world reality is that a generously greased local palm or two can make rules go away. World Vision International has similar visitation guidelines, as I imagine most others do.

But what could possibly go wrong in this scenario?

Let’s examine the case of one sponsor, a Michigan Christian radio host named John Balyo who in 2014 was arrested and eventually imprisoned for raping children. When police broke into his rented storage unit, they found a bondage kit with handcuffs, rope, tape, zip ties, chain, and rubber gloves: https://youtu.be/UnNn7I1wflk?t=4 They also found children’s socks, a padlock, clippings of missing child reports, and child obituaries: https://www.christiantoday.com/article/christian.radio.host.john.balyo.arrested.for.child.sex.abuse.wife.asks.for.donations/38479.htm

During the trial, the prosecutor presented photos seized at the scene showing Balyo “pointing a handgun at a boy-sized mannequin tied to a post before he used the mannequin’s feet to masturbate.” “He kept the anatomically correct mannequin, with a blond wig, tied up in a dog crate, authorities said. The series of photographs ended with Balyo wrapping the mannequin in a carpet or tarpaulin, as if to bury it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Tessa Hessmiller wrote in court documents. http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/11/john_balyos_fetish_new_details.html

I hope this clears the heads of those who argue that providing pedophiles with baby mannequins for sex will keep them from raping children. Anyway, I bring up Balyo’s unspeakable crimes because before his arrest he is reported to have visited a child that he sponsored through Compassion International in Uganda. While there, he was apparently videotaped being interviewed for a Christian radio program. In the video, now scrubbed from the internet as far as I can determine, a question was put to him:

“John, I have to ask you. You’ve just met your sponsored child. What are you gonna do next?” His answer: “I tell you what, this is a whole lot better than Disney World.” http://www.inquisitr.com/1310247/christian-radio-dj-john-balyo-charged-with-criminal-sexual-conduct-involving-minor/

My point here is that mixed in with the good Samaritans are people like Balyo who are eagerly sponsoring and gleefully accepting the invitation from grateful caretakers who just want to say thank you for the money. It’s a recipe for atrocity.