Looking to know more about supporting a child? Find the answer to your question below. Didn't answer your question? Contact our friendly team members on 1300 789 991 or [email protected].
VERY EFFECTIVE! Your generous sponsorship supports development work that will not only benefit your sponsored child… but also their friends, family, and whole community! And life-skills for children, income generation for families, and safer, flourishing communities translate to lasting change for generations to come.
But you don’t have to take our word for it alone . . . Hasri is a girl from one of our project communities in Nepal who fell in love with going to school through the Sponsorship program. Read her story here.
Baptist World Aid has been elevating the rights of children since 1974.
Our unique partnership approach means we work through skilled local Christian Partners best placed to address the needs of their communities in Uganda, Malawi, Cambodia, Nepal and Bangladesh.
Your Sponsorship funds programs that support children and youth to learn more effectively at school as well as learn about leadership, child rights, nutrition, hygiene and more in our Partners’ Child and Youth Clubs. Children lead and co-design these initiatives.
Sponsors also support families and communities as they take part in learning how to create lasting change–joining in programs for income generation, agricultural skills training, and child rights education.
When you become a Sponsor, you’re helping support a ripple of inter-generational transformation that can end poverty.
A potential Sponsor can view the country, gender and age of the child, which can inform their choice, but the child’s appearance will no longer play a role. Sponsors can also ask us to select a child for them, without parameters.
Faces will be covered by a ‘sticker’, protecting the identity of the child, until after a person signs up to become a Sponsor. Once you sign up, you’ll receive photos of the child you’re supporting.
Children are especially vulnerable, and we take the responsibility to protect them from harm seriously. Protecting a child’s identity online or on printed materials available at public events keeps them safe, and with a child’s appearance no longer playing a role, it is a more dignified way of establishing a relationship between a Sponsor and a child.
Yes—shortly after you have signed up to support a child, their photo will be revealed to you, and you’ll receive annual updates so you can share in that child’s development and progress.
In many places around the world, the cost of food and fuel has been rising for the last two years. These increasing costs, combined with the impact of COVID, conflict and environmental crises are having a devastating effect on communities already vulnerable due to poverty. Costs have increased across every aspect of the work we do—here in Australia; in the offices of our Christian Partners; and within the communities they serve.
Different organisations run different programs and despite the similarity in name, Child Sponsorship doesn’t always equate to the same thing on the ground. Our Child Sponsorship program is grounded in best practice models of development, accredited by the Australian Government, and independently recognised as a leading approach to Child and Youth programming across the sector. We can’t speak to what peer organisations do, but our Partners do exceptional work with the funding provided by our generous and faithful Child Sponsors.
We’re committed to providing ongoing support to our Partners and the communities they serve and recognise that, in the current climate, that requires greater funding. Especially as we want them to grow their reach and expand their impact.
80% of funds are directed to our work overseas. See our Annual Reports for the complete picture.
Your sponsorship supports projects run by our Christian partners. These projects help children learn to break down the barriers of poverty—not just for your sponsored child, but for their friends and family too! Children and families together learn skills to increase their income, build confidence and take control of their future.
The projects encourage children to be part of the solution to poverty. When children choose to become involved with the project, they learn to drive change in their own community. Their special connection with a sponsor in Australia is a chance for them to share their story as they learn and grow.
Some of the activities include:
All these initiatives, and more, provide children with opportunities for a future free from poverty.
For $52/month you’ll be supporting a child or young person, their family and their community to address challenges specific to them. Your monthly gift will support child and youth-led projects run by our Christian partners—helping children and young people lead their communities into a future free from extreme poverty.
For an additional $12 each month, you can pick up a ‘Sponsorship & More’ at $64 to contribute to project activities that protect vulnerable children within and beyond Child Sponsorship—helping prevent early marriage and child labour and providing better access to disability support services.
We know that our program has worked when we can hand a project over to the community leaders. As communities take over the management of their own projects, our child sponsorship program moves into new locations. Each project lasts around 10 years.
When you support a child, they may be at the beginning, middle or end of their project’s cycle. Your child sponsorship reports will tell you the current phase of the project.
When the project has been successful, it looks like this:
All the children in the community go to school every day. They have enough healthy food to eat, and so do their families. They speak out on issues that concern them and take responsibility for their own future. Their families have enough income to afford school fees, food and health care as well as extra money to cope in emergencies. And the community leadership protects children, advocates for further change, and takes responsibility for their own development.
Yes! When you register on this website, a MyAccount will be created for you. Through this, you can easily manage:
• updating your address details
• viewing your sponsorship and past donations
• writing to your sponsored child
• managing your email preferences
We’re so sorry to hear that! We understand that circumstances change and that continuing your support may no longer be possible. We also know that some supporters feel like cancelling is their only option, even though it isn’t their first choice. If you’re not sure that you can continue your sponsorship, please give us a call – we’ll be happy to talk through some options with you and, if cancellation is best, we will be happy to find your sponsored child a new sponsor as quickly as possible.
However, because we have a community approach, children can still be part of our programs… even when they don’t have a sponsor. So, if you do have to cancel, please don’t worry – your sponsored child’s involvement with the program will not be affected.
To facilitate cost effective logistics, we send letters to our Partners twice a year so you can choose between 30 April or 31 October.
Child and Youth Partners are encouraged to be a part of the larger community development project so they are invited to write or respond to letters once a year. This letter will usually be sent to you along with the Annual Progress Report, that explains how the children, family and community are doing.
By keeping letter writing to an annual activity, it helps lower logistical and administrative costs while ensuring that the children get an opportunity to keep in touch with you.
We don’t facilitate visits to children in the program. In the interest of child safety, it is our policy not to disclose the location. Greater interaction between you and the child you sponsor is, instead, encouraged through letter writing and the inclusion of personal photographs.
That’s one of the great things about our child sponsorship program—it’s designed not just for the child you support, but for all the children in the community to benefit. So, when you choose to become a Child Sponsor, you’re actually choosing to support a whole community of children. And we can help you choose if you can’t decide.
We don’t! The communities themselves select children as representatives of the program. These children become leaders in their community and play an important role in communicating the changes that are happening. Each child is linked with only one child sponsor.
A child doesn’t have to be sponsored to be part of the program. And sponsored children do not receive special treatment. Rather, our project activities are designed to address the root causes of child poverty, working with the entire community. This approach means that the community becomes a better place for all children, not just those who are sponsored.
The program is offered with a “no strings attached” policy. This means that communities can be part of the program regardless of race, politics or religion and there are no conditions placed on the community to conform to any culture, politics or religion.
Baptist World Aid is changing the way we share information regarding all our Child Partners, removing their specific date of birth. This is to protect each child’s identity but to also align with our current communication policy. e.g. Martha born June 2008 (instead of Martha born 8th June 2008).
As a child-safe organisation we are proud to have been able to implement this adjustment and continue to protect the identities of the Child Partners we’re honoured to work with.
Children and Youth in our Sponsorship programs refer to themselves as Child (or Youth) Partners. Their role is to partner with Sponsors, our Partners and their communities to bring about lasting change. We refer to them as Partners to celebrate the mutuality and equality of our relationships with them.
When you choose a Child Partner to support, you can be sure that you’re helping a community in need, and that you and your family will grow as you live out Christ’s call to love others as ourselves.
Each of our Child Sponsorship projects has been carefully–and prayerfully–considered. We work in communities where there is great need and where we’re confident your generous support will have great impact.
Support a child as they transform their community and join a community of Christians working together against the injustice of poverty.
Become A Sponsor Today
