Child Sponsorship FAQs

Chosen is a new invitation to child sponsorship where a child chooses his/her sponsor.
 
The sponsor can go online and submit a photo OR sign up at an event and have their picture taken. Their name and picture are then sent to a community where World Vision works, and a child from that community will choose them as their sponsor.
 
The sponsor will receive a photo of the child holding their photo, and a letter from the child explaining why they chose them. Then, like in all child sponsorship relationships, the sponsor and child can start a friendship, getting to know each other through emails or letters. And as that child’s sponsor, they’ll help the child’s entire community and other vulnerable children build real, lasting change.

Chosen is a new invitation to enter a child sponsorship relationship, and it works the same as traditional sponsorship.

Our effective, community-empowering sponsorship development model remains the same. The only difference is the way in which the sponsor-and-child relationship can begin. 

In the traditional invitation, sponsors are asked to choose a child to sponsor. In the new Chosen invitation, sponsors send their photo to a community where children choose them to be their sponsors. This new invitation is so powerful because it flips the choosing dynamic on its head and gives children the power to choose who their sponsor will be. This simple switch recognises children in extreme poverty have the power to change their own lives… and our lives, too. As with all sponsorship with World Vision, a sponsor contributes to help empower children and their communities to overcome poverty.

You get to be a part of your Sponsored Child’s life and to witness their community’s transformation. You’ll receive regular news about progress and achievements in your child’s community, annual updates and photos of your child and you’ll be able to respond with letters and emails. Some sponsors even go on to visit their child. 

In most cases, it will be throughout their childhood and into their teens. Many children remain in the sponsorship programme for the duration of World Vision's work in their community. In this way, you could follow their journey into young adulthood.

In some cases, children leave the sponsorship programme unexpectedly. For example, the child's family may move away from the area World Vision is working in. If this happens with your sponsored child, we will let you know as soon as possible and offer you sponsorship of another child.

Most children will be in the sponsorship programme until their community has begun to reach most of its goals, and become self-sustainable. As a project comes to a close we will let you know of the achievements in the community so you can celebrate with us, and we’ll offer you another child to sponsor so the development process can begin again in another community.