Child Sponsorship
Developing, discipling and equipping children for life
Compassion’s Child Development through Sponsorship Program is the heart of Compassion’s ministry to children living in poverty and aims to disciple, equip and enable children to develop into fulfilled and responsible adults.
The Child Development Program is operated through a Child Development Centre which is run in partnership with a local church in the child’s community. Child sponsorship is a one-to-one relationship between a sponsor and a child living in desperate poverty in the developing world. The faithful financial support of the individual sponsor equips the child for the future by providing for their core needs – spiritually, economically, socially, and physically.
Compassion’s Child Sponsorship Program offers: educational opportunities, including literacy and life skills training; health care and health education; and, if required, supplemental nutrition. Children are also given opportunities to hear and respond to the gospel.
The unique structure of the one-to-one sponsorship model allows sponsors and sponsored children to have input into each other’s lives by writing letters, and through prayer. Many Compassion sponsors also take the opportunity to visit their sponsored child.
Sponsorship Provides
Sponsorship costs $35 CDN per month which provides the child you sponsor with opportunities and services such as:
- Christian teaching*
- Learning opportunities – this can include school attendance, regular participation in alternative educational activities as well as opportunities to learn life skills.
- Health treatment and training – this includes regular physical examinations, dental care, vaccinations and referrals to appropriate medical professionals. It also includes instruction in physical and dental hygiene, exercise, nutrition and preventive health care strategies.
- Socio-emotional development – this includes opportunities for children to learn basic social skills, grow emotionally, be a part of a team, encourage and support one another, and participate in group activities that can include excursions, camps, art, drama and dance.
- Materials, supplies and activities – this can include hygiene supplies, project supplies, snacks and any necessary food or supplemental nutrition required, fees or associated costs of excursions, camps, drama, art and dance activities.
- Individualized care and attention – this consists of progress reports and attendance records, health records, home visits by social workers, and adult supervision in a safe and loving environment.
* Your sponsored child receives Christian teaching as part of the outreach ministry of the local church with whom Compassion partners to deliver and administer the program.
Sponsorship Plus
Sponsorship Plus costs $45 CDN per month and provides sponsored children with all the necessities of basic sponsorship, with the additional $10 per month providing:
- Support for registered children awaiting sponsorship
- Parent education programs – these include health and hygiene training, literacy programs, micro-enterprise and income generation projects for parents of Compassion-assisted children
- Partner development – this includes staff training and other capacity building measures
- Emergency medical care
- HIV/AIDS interventions
- Education fund – includes the top-up costs of school fees and expenses for sponsored children, and costs relating to attending school away from home for children from isolated areas
- Non-formal education programs – these can include income generation and micro-enterprise activities for Compassion-assisted children
- Advocacy – includes raising awareness of child poverty issues
