Child sponsorship is an effective and fulfilling way to help give a child from a poor community the chance of a brighter future. Child sponsorship contributions fund community-based development activities, designed to bring about long-term sustainable improvements in the wellbeing of children, families and their communities.

The aim of the work is to help to ensure each child in the community:

• enjoys good health
• is educated for life
• is cared for, protected, and participating in decisions that affect their lives 
• experiences the emergence of hope in their lives

Each community that World Vision partners with faces specific challenges. Through partnerships with local families, community groups, faith-based organisations and governments, World Vision builds trusting relationships to help identify the community’s assets and needs, along with the underlying causes of children’s poverty and vulnerability.

Project activities focus on empowering communities to break the cycle of poverty and typically include:

• advocacy – supporting local communities to secure their rights to essential services
• education – opportunities for children and adults to go to school or participate in non-formal or vocational education
• healthcare – improving health facilities and access to things like immunisation and antenatal care
• water & sanitation – working with local partners to drill boreholes, build wells and basic sanitation and provide hygiene education
• food & agriculture – access to seeds, tools and agricultural training and activities to improve child nutrition
• economic development – skills and vocational training to improve incomes and support for small and medium-sized business activity

Other activities may focus on disaster preparedness, housing, peace building or capacity building for community workers and volunteers.

To achieve the best outcomes, child sponsorship contributions are combined and sometimes supplemented with funds from other sources, such as government grants. These funds are then used to implement development projects that benefit not only the sponsored child and his or her community, but children in other sponsorship communities as well.

As a child sponsor you’ll receive:

• a Welcome Pack including a folder with your sponsored child’s photo and personal details and information about your sponsored child’s community
• an Annual Progress Report detailing the health and educational status of your sponsored child and achievements his or her community has made with your support
• regular editions of the World Vision Magazine and the opportunity to receive World Vision News Online
• the chance to develop a personal connection with your sponsored child by exchanging letters, e-letters, cards and photo

Experience has taught us that the best way to change a child’s life is to change the community in which they live.

World Vision works with local families, community groups and governments to:

• identify the specific, local causes of children’s poverty and vulnerability
• develop a mutually agreed range of development projects to address them

These projects are designed to:

• break the cycle of poverty
• create long-term changes 
• give all children the opportunity to reach their potential

As World Vision builds trust and credibility with the community, community members participate in, and take ownership of, the projects. Our goal is to enable the community to become independent and self-sustaining.

Over time, all children in the community benefit from improved access to things like:

• healthcare
• educational opportunities
• clean water and sanitation
• nutritious food
• the chance to participate in decisions affecting their lives

Ideally, child sponsorship is a long-term commitment throughout the period of our work in a particular community, which typically lasts for 10-15 years. But how long child sponsorship lasts will be different for each sponsor. Some sponsors join us at the beginning of our work in their sponsored child’s community and others join us towards the end.

Sponsorship can end for a number of reasons. These include:

• when our work in a community is completed
• when your sponsored child finishes school or begins to earn an income
• when your sponsored child’s family moves away from the community in which World Vision is working

Whatever the reason, we’ll notify you when your sponsorship comes to an end and at that time offer you the opportunity to sponsor another child.

World Vision places a special priority on helping vulnerable children. We work with community representatives to identify areas of greatest need and then the community selects children from those areas for sponsorship. We then ask the children’s families if they want to be part of the sponsorship program and explain how it works.

Child sponsorship funded programs focus on meeting needs in poor and disadvantaged communities in both rural and urban areas where children lack access to the essentials they need to reach their full potential, such as healthcare, education, clean water and sanitation or nutritious food.

Before we commence a sponsorship program, the following things must be in place:

• a basic level of security and stability in the community
• access to remote parts of the community and basic communications so that we can regularly visit and monitor children’s wellbeing
• community understanding and commitment to the program

The decision to commence a sponsorship program is made jointly with the communities involved and is the result of many months of discussion and assessment carried out by local World Vision staff in consultation with community representatives, local authorities and other non-government organisations working in the area.

Apart from the communication shared between sponsored children and their sponsors, there is no difference between the way World Vision supports sponsored and non-sponsored children. You can therefore expect the wellbeing of your sponsored child to improve because our development work is community based and designed to improve the wellbeing of all children living in his or her community.

Yes. World Vision assigns only one sponsor per sponsored child.

We encourage sponsors to view sponsorship as a long-term commitment. But a sponsor can cancel at any time, for any reason.

We understand that people’s circumstances change over time. If you are unable to make regular payments either temporarily or permanently, we can assist you with a range of options.

If you do need to cancel your sponsorship, we will inform your sponsored child and their family and we will ensure your sponsored child is made available for sponsorship by another family or individual.

Sponsors can pay monthly, every two, three, four or six months or annually.

We encourage automatic deductions from a credit card or bank account as this is the easiest and most reliable payment method.

Sponsors can also choose a non-automatic payment method:

• cheque
• money order
• single credit card payments

You can help World Vision reduce administration costs by selecting an automatic payment method and/or a less frequent payment method. Annual payments are the most cost effective.
 

To save costs we don’t issue receipts for individual payments unless requested. Instead, sponsors receive an annual tax receipt detailing all their donations in the past financial year.

Sponsorship payments may be tax deductible depending on your personal tax position.

We encourage you to connect with your sponsored child. Sponsored children love to receive letters and cards from their sponsors and it can be a great source of encouragement for them to know that someone far away cares about them and their future.

There are three ways to correspond and build a connection with your sponsored child:

i. Send a World Vision-supplied greeting card or letter
Three times a year we’ll provide you with the opportunity to send them a card or letter - at Christmas, for their birthday and a general letter. We’ll include a due date for you to send the card or letter back to us in the envelope provided.

ii. Send an email to your sponsored child
You can also send an email to your sponsored child via the My World Vision website. Conditions and technology in your sponsored child’s country are very different to Australia, so once the email arrives in the local World Vision office, it’s printed and hand-delivered.

iii. Write a letter or card and post it to your sponsored child
Many sponsors send a letter, card or postcard directly to their sponsored child's country. You can do this at any time. Information and guidelines on writing to your sponsored child can be viewed here.

As technology becomes more widespread, it is penetrating even the poorest countries and regions in the world. As a result, it is increasingly possible that the communities we work with, particularly those in urban areas, will have access to the internet and sponsors may be contacted via Facebook, Skype or Twitter.

We want our sponsors to communicate with and have a connection with their sponsored child. We think this is key to learning about the conditions in the community and how your support is making a difference. However, communicating through social networking sites such as Facebook can pose a number of problems:

Firstly, it may pose a risk to a child’s safety. In developing countries, just like in Australia, unmonitored contact between an adult and a child online can be a serious issue.

Secondly, it could put you and your sponsored child in a difficult position. Some people may put pressure on your sponsored child to ask for gifts, money, or other favours from you. It is also possible that others may access your sponsored child’s account, or your details may be shared with others.

Thirdly, even with good intentions, language and cultural differences can lead to inappropriate communication, especially through such an immediate and informal  form of communication.

For these reasons, if you are contacted through a social networking site such as Facebook, please do not respond. Contact us on 1300 303 440 and we can follow-up with the sponsored child and community and ensure that they are also aware of the risks involved in communicating in this way and the reasons for using communication channels such as letter and e-letters, that are faciltated by World Vision.

Visit worldvision.com.au/MyWorldVision/BuildingConnection to see how you can communicate with your child and learn more about them.

It’s up to you, but you could write about yourself and your family. Here are some ideas and our guidelines on writing to your sponsored child.

Please don’t send parcels or gifts to your sponsored child.

• World Vision’s office in your sponsored child’s country cannot pay the customs or delivery costs.
• Gifts can cause tension amongst family and community members.
• No matter how well meant, your gift may be inappropriate, culturally or otherwise.
• The item could easily be stolen in the mail.

For more information visit our Send a Gift policy.

Please don’t send money, cheques or postal orders to your sponsored child. We ask this for reasons including:

• Sending money to an individual child and/or their family does not contribute to the long-term development goals of the sponsorship program.
• Our field offices are not equipped to handle funds sent to them directly from sponsors.
• As with gifts, it may cause tension amongst family and community members.
• In some countries it is against the law to receive and send foreign currency.

Yes. Many sponsors add a visit to their sponsored child to a planned overseas trip. It’s a rewarding way to see firsthand how your contributions are helping to make a difference.

If you are thinking about visiting your sponsored child:

• You must contact us on 1300 303 440 at least 3 months before your intended departure date and before you make any travel bookings. It takes time to arrange a sponsor visit with the local World Vision office and remote communities.
• World Vision is committed to protecting the safety and wellbeing of children, families and communities with whom we work.  You will be required to undergo a criminal record check and sign a field trip agreement before your visit can be confirmed.  
• Once we have confirmed your visit, we will arrange for a local World Vision staff member to accompany you and act as an interpreter on the day of your visit. You will need to meet your own expenses in relation to the visit.

No. World Vision does not organise adoptions. Nor does it facilitate bringing sponsored children to Australia for visits.

Most sponsored children live with their families. We believe your help to improve their wellbeing in their own communities has deeper value than removing them from their families and communities and bringing them to a foreign country, either for a visit or the purpose of adoption.

The wellbeing of a child is dependent on their families and community and in order to thrive, children need to grow up in an environment that provides the essentials for today together with hope and opportunity for the future.

The most effective way to improve children’s wellbeing therefore is to strengthen their community’s ability to provide these needs.

Through our sponsorship programs, children and adults gain knowledge and skills which stay with them long after World Vision has gone, and for generations to come.

By the time a sponsorship program ends, the community has reached a point where they can continue the development work we began together on their own. In most cases, committees made up of local people are set up to monitor progress and oversee ongoing development work.

This is the ultimate goal of child sponsorship - self sufficiency. When this has been achieved World Vision moves on to help another community in need.

World Vision is committed to using all donations both wisely and effectively. We combine the contributions of child sponsors with funds from other sources, including government grants, and leverage these for maximum impact.

Full details of our financial stewardship and use of donated funds can be found in our annual reports, available on our website.

World Vision is a Christian organisation serving all people regardless of religion, race, ethnicity or gender. We work with communities of different faiths and we do not proselytise.

Depending on a community’s specific circumstances, we may partner with local faith-based groups and encourage their participation in the community development process.