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<H1 ALIGN="CENTER">
  Sponsoring a Child
</H1>

You might be wondering about the connection between open source
software and sponsoring a child.   Please read on!
<P>

Open-source software is about everyone pitching in and helping each
other build something better than we could build individually.
Open-source software is about sharing our talents and our resources.
Open-source software is about contributing back to the community in
which we live in order to make it a better place.  I think everyone
involved in open-source can identify with these values at one level or
another.  In the long run, we as individuals benefit from the
contributions of others <STRONG>far</STRONG> more than we could ever
possibly contribute ourselves.  
<P>

What would happen if we took those same open-source values and applied
them outside the world of geeks and computers?
<P>

Having been born in the jungles of Peru, I have seen first-hand how
desperately poor much of the world is, especially in comparison to how
blessed and privileged we find ourselves here in the USA and Europe
and elsewhere.  For some time I have been taking a portion of the
FlightGear CDROM sales and sponsoring a child through <A
HREF="http://worldvision.org">World Vision International</A>.  I
encourage you to visit their web site and read a bit more about who
they are and what they do.  They are by no means the only charity in
the world, but they are the one that I picked.
<P>

To me it seems like a natural extension of the open-source philosophy
to not only help our fellow under-privileged computer geeks who are
stuck running closed, proprietary software, but to also do something
in "real life" that helps people with very basic needs.  I see this as
a way that the FlightGear project can go beyond the virtual world of
bits and bytes, and reach out to the real world of starvation,
poverty, and disease.  That is why I take a portion of the CDROM sales
and give them to a worthy charity.
<P>

I realize that not everyone will be interested in supporting this
particular charity.  If you fall into this category, I urge you
to support some other worthy cause.
<P>

Please don't buy FlightGear cd's for the sole purpose of supporting a
child.  If that is what you want to do, please support a child
directly!  In fact, even if you want to buy FlightGear cd's think
about supporting a child or some other worthy cause.
<P>

That's it.  It probably sounds a lot more noble than it actually is,
it's really not that big of a deal, we are just talking one kid here,
but perhaps as FlightGear grows, we can expand to support more
children, or perhaps whole families or whole communities?  Maybe other
open source projects will follow our lead and do similar things?  My
whole philosophy with the FlightGear project has been to keep putting
one foot in front of the other.  Some months (and years) it may not
seem like we are making much progress, but if we keep moving, even a
just little bit, we eventually will make noticeable progress.  Perhaps
this effort will be similar.  Right now it is only one child, but as
we move forward, maybe we can make that two.  Maybe even more.  Maybe
it will never amount to anything truly significant, but maybe it will,
and maybe this is a way we can leverage our virtual world skills to do
some real world good?  I think it's worth a shot ...

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