Maybe you’ve just received your sponsorship packet in the mail, or maybe you’ve been a child sponsor for years. Either way, you may be wondering, “What does my $35 monthly gift actually provide?”
While it varies a bit from program to program, every sponsored child receives the key essentials he or she most needs. A child in Rwanda often doesn’t have the exact same needs as a child in Brazil, for example. So rather than a one-size-fits-all solution, each program caters to the unique situation of the community.
Here are some ways your gift brings help and hope to children around the world.
Food
Most child sponsorship programs provide food for the children. The countries we work in are extremely poor, and many parents struggle to give their children enough nutritious food to grow and thrive. A lack of food can have devastating consequences on a child’s health, but it also can leave him or her lethargic. This makes it difficult to pay attention in school. By providing food, you invest in a child many times over.
Honduras is known as a hub for gang violence and drug trafficking. Families cannot afford basic needs like food; young children join gangs simply to survive. However, thanks to child sponsors, children at one of our programs receive breakfast, lunch, and a healthy snack at school. Now, school is the place that keeps them fed — physically and mentally. By meeting the physical needs of these kids, their sponsors are helping keep them off the streets and encouraging them to pursue an education.
Education and support
In many programs, sponsorship either helps send a child to school or provides tutoring and other supplemental classes. Your monthly gift also may be used to help buy supplies such as school uniforms and books. Education helps change a child’s future and gives him or her every opportunity to succeed in life.
Sponsors help to fund an after-school program in Thailand where kids receive tutoring, snacks, and educational support from caring adults. In Honduras, children are even able to attend school for free — a rare occurrence. Through education, children are offered a way out of poverty.
Medical attention and safety
Proper medical care is expensive and out of reach for many sponsored children’s families. In developing countries, poverty and a lack of nutritious food or clean water can lead to serious illness and disease. Without immediate attention, children could die. However, when you become a sponsor, you provide access to emergency medical treatment. Through sponsorship, you help save lives.
One school for sponsored children in Uganda has its own medical clinic on campus, so children can receive immediate treatment in emergencies. This is especially important because many of the students live at the school. Some of these students no longer have parents; for others, the journey home is simply too dangerous. Thanks to sponsors, these children have a safe place to live and access to any medical care they may need.
Spiritual encouragement
While sponsorship looks different around the world, one thing remains the same —every child experiences the love of Jesus. When you sponsor a child, you help meet his or her physical needs and also demonstrate the compassion of our Savior.
Your love and your sponsorship have helped open the door to bring a message of truth into communities around the world.
What else?
Of course, sponsorship is more than just a monetary gift. A sponsored child knows that he or she is loved by someone halfway around the world. Through your letters, your prayers, and your gifts, you help encourage one child to follow his or her dreams and give back to the community. By sponsoring one child, you not only change that child’s life — you also impact a family and an entire village.
Your $35 every month helps change a child’s life forever.