Save the Children’s sponsorship programs provide children with the best start to life – supporting them from birth to adulthood. While we work to address the specific needs of an individual community, we focus on five core areas:

Healthy Moms and Babies – Giving mothers and babies a healthy start in life.
The first years of a child’s life are the most critical – and dangerous. Despite remarkable progress in child survival, nearly 6 million children under age 5 still die each year, mostly from preventable or treatable causes like pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. Thanks to you, we’re doing whatever it takes to ensure access to lifesaving health care, right from the start, so babies and their mothers survive and thrive.

Early Learners – Building the foundation for success in school.
All children deserve to learn and grow. Yet only about half of young children around the world have the opportunity to attend preschool. Because of sponsors like you, girls and boys can have access to the early care and development they need, both at home and within their communities, so they’re ready from the start to succeed in school and life.

Successful Students – Learning today for a better tomorrow.
Every child deserves a quality education. Unfortunately, globally more than 50 million children each year are never able to set foot in a classroom. And 130 million more still can’t read after years of schooling. Through school and community based reading, writing and math programs, we ensure children are in school, protected and learning, providing the best chance for success and a brighter future.

Healthy Girls and Boys – Staying healthy to learn, learning to stay healthy.
Children can’t reach their full learning potential if they’re not in school. Yet millions of children each year are missing out on education due to preventable illnesses caused by conditions such as unsafe water and poor sanitation and diet. Thanks to sponsors like you, we’re addressing these barriers and teaching children lifelong health, hygiene and nutrition habits that they can use in school and at home – ensuring they and their families have healthy behaviors that will last far beyond their school years.

Empowered Teens – Building skills for a brighter future.
Adolescence is a time of intense change, which shapes future opportunities. But without support, young people around the world can make decisions that will compromise their futures, like dropping out of school or becoming a teen parent. Because of your generosity, we are able to help adolescents build lasting life skills for personal and workplace success so they can positively transition to adulthood —building a brighter future for themselves and their communities.

Save the Children has country offices and local staff in all of our sponsorship areas. Each child is identified and offered the opportunity to participate in sponsorship in consultation with their family or caregiver. It is up to the child if they want to have a sponsor. When a child receives a sponsor, they are notified by our local staff. Even if a child does not have a sponsor, they can still actively participate and receive the benefits of sponsorship programs.

No. When you begin sponsoring a child, you are connected to the child in a one-to-one relationship.

Yes. When you sign-up for child sponsorship you will be connected to a specific child with whom you will be able to communicate with if you choose. This allows you to build a relationship with your sponsored child and personally share the positive changes you are making in his or her life.

Modest gifts that fit into a C5 envelope (229mm x 162mm x 2mm) and individual items should not exceed HK$70, such as stickers, activity sheets, and colouring books, may be sent to sponsored children. However, please be aware that gifts can be lost in unreliable postal systems and gifts we deem inappropriate will not be sent to your sponsored child. Only gifts that can be shared with all children should be sent, individual gifts can sometimes cause jealousy among children.

Please see below for types of items that are not permitted:

Apparel (e.g. clothes, coats, shoes)
Accessories (e.g. hats, scarves, ties)
Breakables (e.g. glass items and dishware)
Food/Candy
Large, extravagant gifts (e.g. bikes, skateboards)
Liquids (e.g. bubbles, perfume, toothpaste)
Money
Personal hygiene products (e.g. body wash, makeup, soap)

It is not permitted nor safe to send cash directly to the child. Additional monetary gifts (over and above your monthly sponsorship donation) are always appreciated, and those funds will be applied to the programs that support your sponsored child and his or her community. If you wish to help your sponsored child’s community with an extra gift, please contact our sponsor support team.

Yes! One of the great delights of being a Save the Children sponsor is having the chance to visit your sponsored child — to meet face to face, interact in person and further strengthen the bond you’ve formed.

Save the Children will organise annual group visits regularly for sponsors to see their sponsorship contributions in action. You’ll be able to visit — and maybe participate in — sponsorship-funded programmes in your child’s community and meet local Save the Children staff.

Yes, of course! Correspondence can be one of the greatest joys of sponsorship. We encourage you to correspond with your sponsored child regularly (three or four letters a year is recommended) so your sponsored child can learn about you and you can learn more about them! As you are looking to build a connection, it is best to limit the number of people who correspond with the child. Writing a letter on behalf of your family, or even having your child/grandchild correspond, is recommended so multiple people can be part of the experience. Sending photographs with your letter is also a great way for sponsors to connect with their sponsored child and for the child to put a face to a name. When sending photos, sponsors should ensure that every person in the image is appropriately dressed and the photo is culturally sensitive.

Step 1. Start your letter with your name, Sponsor ID,

sponsored child’s name and Child ID

Step 2. Write your short letter and you can also attach a photo to them

Step 3. You can choose to send a letter to your sponsored child through

email or by mail

Step 4. Apply sufficient postage and mail your letter to “Child Sponsorship

Team, Save the Children Hong Kong,

8/F Pacific Plaza, 410-418 Des Voeux Road West, Sai Wan, Hong Kong”

Step 5. Email your letter to [email protected] with

subject line “Write to my sponsored child”

.

If you write your letter in English through email, the translation process will be

skipped and the letter will be sent to the child a little sooner and you will receive

the reply as soon as possible.

.

To protect sponsored children and sponsors like you, Save the Children does not permit communication of any type that bypasses country offices. For this reason, the sharing of personal contact information (email address, home address, telephone number, etc.) is prohibited.

If you are contacted by your sponsored child, or their family, outside of communications sent by the country office, we ask that you refrain from responding and immediately contact our sponsor support team.

Ensuring children are protected from harm is critical to Save the Children’s work. With 100 years working to protect children, we have extensive experience and expertise in designing strategies to keep children safe.
We are committed to ensuring that our Child Sponsorship programmes create safe environments where children are protected and not only survive, but also succeed in life.

We take our responsibilities for protecting and promoting the rights of children very seriously. We are confident that our sponsors like you will join us so that together we can do our best to ensure that the children we help remain safe.

Correspondence:
In our efforts to keep children safe, we monitor the letters and gifts sent to sponsored children. To protect the privacy of all parties, we do not allow children and sponsors to exchange contact information or full names and require that all correspondence be sent to our field offices.

Visits:
An application form, release form and a background check are required. All visits to sponsorship areas must be coordinated by the country office and are fully supervised; visits are never to the child’s home. Unannounced visits to our country offices are unacceptable.

No. For child safety and protection reasons, all communications with the child are facilitated through Save the Children.

Please contact our sponsor support team at [email protected] or 3160 8786.

Additional contributions are always appreciated, and those funds will be applied to the programs that support your sponsored child and his or her community. You can also sponsor more than one child. If you wish to help your sponsored child’s community with an extra gift, please contact our sponsor support team.

Your relationship with your child is special and your support is an amazing gift. But, one day your sponsored child will graduate from the sponsorship programme. While it’s difficult to say goodbye, you will have the satisfaction of knowing that because of you and other sponsors, they will be better prepared to succeed in life. We structure our sponsorship programmes so that we remain in a community for an average of 8 to 10 years. When the time comes and your sponsored child’s community can be able to self-sustain their development or changes in child’s situation like finish school, get married or move out of the community, we will notify you as soon as possible. We will transfer your sponsorship to another child and continue to make a lasting positive difference in the lives of children in need. Please contact us if you prefer other arrangements.