How to Sponsor a Child

If you’d like to know how to sponsor a child, but don’t know where to begin, we can help. For £26 a month, sponsoring a child can be a truly heartwarming experience, one that makes a real difference to a vulnerable child in need.

Sponsoring a child is a simple but powerful act. You’ll receive letters and photos from your sponsored child, as well as updates from the community. Meanwhile, we get to work making positive changes in the community, such as installing clean water taps and improving education and healthcare. Together, we help a community in one of the toughest parts of the world, and you see the change through the eyes of one special child.

1. You select a child in need, or let us choose for you

2. Complete our simple signup form

3. Receive a letter from your sponsored child and begin changing their life

Sponsor a child

Sponsoring a child - step by step

You choose a child

You can choose from the children shown on our Child Sponsorship page. Whether you’d prefer to sponsor a girl or boy, or you’d like to support a child in a particular country (many of our sponsors like to choose children the same age as their own so they can build a relationship too, based on countries they’ve visited, or where they have family from).

If you don’t want to choose, you can select ‘choose a child for me’, and we’ll pair you with a child in the greatest need.

World Vision staff members and community sit down together having a discussion in Bangladesh

We create a plan

We've found that the best way to create lasting change is to work with the communities n need to learn the best way to help them break free from the cycle of poverty. To make sure that when it's time to move on and help a new community, they can continue to thrive without us.

We make a plan with the family, community and the children themselves. The children we help face different dangers, like child marriage, child labour, lack of clean drinking water, and lack of education, and the support of sponsors means we can put an end to these issues, for good.

You’ll receive updates of the difference you're making to the lives of the community and your sponsored child.

UK based welcome pack to introduce people to World Vision

You receive a welcome pack

We send you a welcome pack within the first 2 weeks of you sponsoring a child.

You'll find information on how to contact your sponsored child if you would like to.

Many sponsors chose to share this experience with their children. So that their children can build a friendship with a child in another country, while learning the value of helping others.

Group of children and adult sit together outside in Ghana, smiling

Support for as long as you like

We stay in a community for at least ten years, whether you can sponsor for this long or not.

We help families and communities get to a place where they no longer need our help.

We know circumstances change, so you're free to cancel your sponsorship at any time. And because of our community-focused solutions, your sponsored child will continue to receive the support they need.

“I would say to someone who is thinking about sponsoring a child - go ahead and do it, it is the most life changing thing ever!”

Shemi

Child Sponsor

Sponsor a child

Sign up for more

Sponsoring a child FAQs

You can easily sign up to sponsor a child on the Sponsor a Child page or by calling our Supporter Care Team on 01908 84 10 10.
World Vision has had a Child Sponsorship programme for more than 70 years, we pair donors with a vulnerable child who needs protection and empowerment.

Child Sponsorship brings much-needed change to more than just one child — the benefits you help provide extends to each child's family, their community and other children in need.

This is because World Vision partners, plans and works alongside local community members to help build healthy, sustainable communities for vulnerable children in the world’s hardest places. Learn more about how Child Sponsorship works.
All of World Vision's work begins with listening to communities in need. Community leaders work with us to identify the most vulnerable children and families who will benefit from Child Sponsorship.
We work with national governments and other international agencies to identify the regions and communities that are most in need and where the most vulnerable children live. We then meet with community leaders and the wider community to gain a greater understanding of the challenges and the opportunities that exist for them and we develop a long-term plan together, to break the cycle of poverty. Find out more about how Child Sponsorship works.