Faced with the poverty and suffering of the Third World, many people want to help, but are put off by the size of the problem. Some charity organisations now realise that we give more willingly to ' somebody we know'. One result is 'postal parents'-individual sponsorship of a Third World child. ' Every penny you give goes to support your child and your child's programme.' This is the promise that has made Action in Distress one of Britain's fastest-growing new charities. This Everyman report by Peter France begins with two families in England who are ' postal parents ' and goes to India to discover that the reality for their children is not quite what they imagine.