Sorry, please bare with me. I'm going to rant. I really don't know how to ask, or if this is the correct area to as, but I'm wanting to sponsor a thai, cambodian, laos, vietnamese family or person. It's odd but I feel impelled to help others, but I want to be connected to those I help rather than a stranger just sending money to another stranger. I have an aunt that is Chinese, and a wife that is half thai and all their relatives accepted me and made me part of their family and I'd like to find the same somewhere else. I'm fairly young (23 years old) and own my own house. I make enough to pay all my bills and have money left over. I think to myself, what can I invest my money in that will be most beneficial? All I can think of is, I can invest in this and that and by the time I'm old enough to retire I can have this much money, or I can invest in a person and they can start a new life and better themselves and start a family. I saw a KERA documentary, I think in vietnam or cambodia where $20 allowed their kids to purchase school uniforms to attend school, and I thought to myself, what better investment than that? When ever I think I'm struggling, even the people here in America looking for a handout, I think of all the other people in other countries really struggling. To make a long story short. I'd just like to know how to find a family in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos to sponsor in their own country or mine. I just don't want to send money so some charity and the people I'm trying to help gets a small percentage of what I send. I also want to obtain some type of relationship and contact of who I help. It's just hard when the people that need the most help don't have access to a computer. I'm willing to house people to until they get on their own feet. I have a four bedroom house and three of them are empty. How could I go about helping?
Please feel free to PM me!

Have you heard of Kiva? Kiva - Loans that change lives

Kiva allows you to lend money to someone in the developing world so that they may start a business venture. There is a risk that it is not paid back but the payback rate is extraordinarily high: 98.6% or something. You would be doing good things with your money, would in all likelihood receive it back and during the lending period I believe you receive updates on how they get on.

How about starting with this Cambodian chap? Kiva - Lend > Tam from Cambodia

Just a thought!

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Hey SteveAdmin,
Thanks for the suggestion!
I'd like to be in direct contact with them...but I guess that would be hard for them to seeing that they probably don't have the resources.
I'll just keep looking.