Child Sponsorship
Like any kid, 4-year-old Juan has many dreams about her future. But in a few years, she might find it difficult to carry out her dreams because of the poverty in her community.
She can go to school according to the 9 years compulsory education policy in China, but she will find she can hardly feel school life interesting with the shabby school facilities and lacking of teachers.
Most likely, she will drop off from school at teenage for the sake of helping her family do farming and housework. She will give up all her dreams since she can see no hope…
For 10 years, with the help from Child Sponsorship, ActionAid China is trying to help the children to change their life and get their hope back.
Child Sponsorship Introduction
Child 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.
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.
Child sponsorship provides the opportunity for supporters to grow in their awareness of global issues, 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 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.