Writing to your Child

Helpful Hints

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• Keep your letters short and simple.

  • Describe your family to your sponsored child. Children also love to receive pictures of their sponsors' families.
  • Discuss your favorite pastimes. Talk about your hobbies or sports you enjoy.
  • A description of your work, church, or school would be of interest to your sponsored child.
  • Explain customs for special holidays.
  • Provide a general description of the area where you live. (No specific addresses, please. This will protect your address from falling into the hands of professional beggars.)
  • Encourage your sponsored child in any success or milestone he or she has achieved.

• Avoid certain topics.

  • Elaborating on your material possessions (the size of your home or kind of car you drive).
  • Suggesting that your sponsored child visit the United States.
  • Using slang or colloquialisms that would be difficult to translate or understand.
  • Asking what your sponsored child would like as a gift from you. This may put your sponsored child in an awkward situation.

• Correspondence between you and your child is not immediate.

  • After we receive your letter at World Help, we forward it along with other sponsors' letters to the country office where they are translated. Then the letters are hand-carried to the children in a children's home or to their home. Depending on the accessibility of your child's location, it may take anywhere from one month to four months for correspondence to travel between you and your sponsored child.

• The most important thing about writing letters to your sponsored child is that you write.

  • You can use World Help's letter writing form and envelope or you can use your own stationery, as long as you include your sponsored child's name and complete number, and your sponsor number on the outside of the envelope or at the beginning of the letter.
  • You may also write to your child via e-mail. The specific e-mail address you should use is info@worldhelp.net. Using e-mail will not necessarily be a quicker process and if you get a response it may take just as long as writing a letter. Also, be sure to include your child's name and number as well as your name and sponsor number at the beginning of the e-mail.

• Allow your sponsored child the appropriate time to develop letter-writing skills.

  • Children love to receive letters, but they may find it very difficult to write them. This is especially true for younger children, children who start late in school, and children in remote locations. Either your sponsored child or a staff member or teacher will assist your sponsored child in responding to your letters. If the child is too young to write, they may draw or color a picture for you.

• You may send small paper items for your sponsored child with a letter.

  • You can enclose small paper items - postcards, greeting cards, stickers, bookmarks, stamps, pages from a coloring book, photos, and pictures - with the letters you write. Children love receiving these gifts which are simple reminders of their sponsors' love for them. This should all be able to fit inside a card or letter-sized envelope no larger than 6" by 9". It is also a good practice to label all pieces with the child's number.

• Never send cash to your sponsored child.

  • Please do not send cash directly to your child. In some countries it is actually against the law to possess American money. Also, it is not possible for us to receipt you and the money could be lost due to the unreliability of the foreign postal system. Extra money sent for birthday or Christmas gifts will be designated to one of our projects such as Christmas for an Orphan. We are unable to send this money directly to the child. This is because it is difficult for the children to understand why one child received money or a gift and the others did not.

  World Help
  Child Sponsorship Program
  P.O. Box 501
  Forest, Virginia 24551
  800-541-6691