Sponsorship not only links individuals providing financial support with children and communities in the south, but also exposes them, often for the first time, to a unique insight into the lives of poor children, families and communities who are denied access to the resources required to satisfy their basic needs in violation of their rights as human beings.
Child sponsorship encourages stronger understanding of cultural differences, based on the assumption that the relationship between supporter, child and community is between individuals from different experiences, cultures and faiths. Child sponsorship has the potential to raise awareness in supporters and, with time, move them from a concept of “charity” towards recognition of the dignity and strength of poor people and the need for basic rights to enable poverty to be overcome. The link also actively involves them in our campaigns to influence governments and institutions at local, national and international levels.
Child sponsorship provides the opportunity for supporters to grow in their awareness of global issues and understand how certain decisions taken in the north by the world’s strongest economic and political powers can have serious impacts on the lives of poor people in the south, encouraging them to become stronger and more active citizens in the fight against poverty and injustice.
Child-focused project
Not fun activities, an emergency assistance, one-off activities, child-focused project is regular and relevant activities programmed to benefit children educationally or professionally. It can be a medium or long-term project related to, for instance, education or skills that responds to the need of children, parents and community.
Not only does child focused project help strengthen child sponsorship, but it also provides so much benefit to our poor children—they get equipped educationally and professionally. It improves recognition of child sponsorship at community level. It shows that we do care about children and we really do something for their future.
Basic requirements
The concept of Child Sponsorship is that of a link between an individual donor supporter (usually in the north) and a child in the south. For ActionAid, there is accountability at each end of the link. In the community where the child lives, ActionAid makes certain commitments in how the child and community will be partners in the process of their empowerment, how this process will be carried out, what rights will be ensured for children and the community, what funds are being raised and how they are spent and what changes the programme will seek to bring about in their lives. At the supporter end of the link, the expected outcomes as a result of this partnership, how they can engage with the child and community, how they can influence their own country and what communications they will receive.