What is Child Sponsorship?

Child Sponsorship connects a supporter with one child and their community, funding long-term programmes that improve the life of all children and their families.

Child Sponsorship provides children and whole communities with access to food, water, education, healthcare and the opportunity to earn a living.

We work hand in hand with local communities to ensure the solutions we implement are long-term, feasible, appropriate and most importantly, sustainable.

I am a current Child Sponsor, what is my gift helping to achieve?

Your monthly donation will go to the community your sponsored child lives in and provides a range of services including access to food, clean water, healthcare and education and training programmes.

The regular, long-term gift of child sponsorship means that communities can organise and deliver tried and tested methods of lifting themselves out of poverty.

I am a current Child Sponsor, how is my money spent?

Your child sponsorship money is split 72:28.

72% of the money goes to the child’s community and 28% is spent on campaigning for structural changes to end poverty, on raising awareness about our work and on encouraging others to become supporters of ActionAid.

What happens if I need to cancel my child sponsorship?

You can end your sponsorship at any time, for any reason, without causing any harm to your sponsored child. Your child and his or her family will continue to benefit from our community programmes, which you will have helped to set up and grow.

Projects are designed to benefit all families living in the area regardless of whether or not they are part of the child sponsorship scheme.

How do I write a letter to my sponsored child?

Letter-writing is an important part of your relationship with your sponsored child and his or her community. You can write to your child by sending a letter to:

https://actionaid.ie/take-action/already-a-sponsor/

Please remember to keep your sentences relatively short and simple. Only a few sponsored children speak English so your messages will be translated into their local language by our field staff.

Children like to know more about you, your family and friends, what animals there are in the country, which sports you like…any of these is a good place to start!

Can I send a gift to my sponsored child?

We appreciate the gesture of a gift to sponsored children, however we do not encourage special gifts of money or goods to be sent to individual children for several reasons:

• This might cause jealousy and unhappiness because not all of the children within the community are sponsored.
• Some sponsors might send gifts that are unsuitable in nature or value, which might confuse or disorientate the child and their family.
• In the countries where we work postal systems can be unreliable, and we cannot guarantee that a parcel will arrive at its destination.
• Additional resources may also be involved as ActionAid staff would have to collect and deliver any packages to remote areas that are difficult to reach and in some cases customs duty may also be payable. These costs often outweigh the value of the gift.
• Wherever possible, we also try to purchase items for the community locally; this not only ensures better value for money but also helps to improve the local economy.

I am new to ActionAid and I would like to become a Child Sponsor

Thank you so much for your interest in sponsoring a child through ActionAid. Your support can truly change lives.

Right now, one of the most powerful ways you can help is by becoming a Regular Giver. Instead of supporting one community, your donations will reach where the need is greatest — helping women, girls, and families in some of the world’s most vulnerable places.

Regular Givers create long-lasting, positive change in the lives of women and girls, from providing life-saving shelter to women fleeing conflict, to ensuring that girls have the resources they need to thrive. Your commitment helps us plan, act, and respond with the confidence that we can there for women and girls, today and in the future.

At the moment, ActionAid Ireland is supporting communities in Nepal, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Cambodia and Vietnam with long term support to communities. We are also supporting emergency work in the occupied Palestinian territory, Myanmar and other areas where communities are affected by crisis. Thanks to generous supporters in Ireland, we can work with communities over a long period of time, always with a focus on women and girls.

Practically we provide supports like access to education for girls, livelihood and income generating opportunities, support for women to farm in more climate friendly ways, safe houses for those fleeing gender-based violence. But we also work to address the root causes of issues, by working with communities and women to realise their human rights we create more sustainable change. These women and empowered communities go on to fight for others, improving their own lives, their children’s and their communities. During times of horror and crisis, we support communities to rebuild their lives, piece by piece- providing food, shelter and period supplies for women in emergencies.

Becoming a Regular Giver means your donations reach more people, more quickly — wherever the need is greatest. You can learn more about becoming a Regular Giver with ActionAid here.