What Is Child Sponsorship?

Imagine you have $1.25 in your hand. What will you do with it? Is it even worth spending? You can play a round at the claw machine in a local grocery store. You can order a Coke in a drive-thru. You can put it in a coat pocket and forget about it (until you find it in two years).

Or, you can take your $1.25 and use it to fight generational poverty, create sustainability opportunities, and empower a child on the other side of the world. That’s child sponsorship.

Child sponsorship doesn’t just provide food, water, shelter, and other basic necessities. It starts with those foundational needs and builds upon them with education, discipleship, and mentorship. Sponsoring a child means facilitating long-term success—because with educational opportunities and personal guidance, kids who might otherwise be stuck in a generational cycle of poverty get the chance to break the pattern.

Through child sponsorship, children grow into self-sustaining, capable adults who want to empower others in the same way they have been empowered. They get to begin a new cycle—not of poverty and desperation, but with hope for a sustainable future and the knowledge of Christ’s love.

Child Sponsorship Changes Lives

At Forgotten Children Worldwide, child sponsorship supports, protects, and empowers a child in many ways:

• Clothing: Children receive seasonally appropriate, well-fitting clothes and shoes.
• Nutrition: Children get access to clean drinking water without having to walk miles to secure it, and they receive regular, healthy meals.
• Education: Sponsorship supports children’s school supplies, uniforms, and other needs.
• Medical Care: Sponsored children receive regular medical and dental check-ups other kids their age may not have access to.
• Spiritual Development: Children take part in Biblically-based, Christ-centered programming
• Mentorship: Children get to build relationships with trusted, Christ-following adults who care about their mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

Beyond the needs met in a child’s day-to-day life, child sponsorship also provides kids with connections on the other side of the world. They know that someone they’ve never met loves them, prays for them, and cares for them.

To see how child sponsorship tangibly changes lives, watch the Love:1 videos on our website.

Child Sponsorship Changes You

Sponsoring a child isn’t just about changing the trajectory of kids’ lives—although that is a significant part. Becoming a child sponsor also has a huge impact on you. You could spend $1.25 however you wanted each day—and it might bring you some joy to get a Coke or happen upon it in a coat pocket after two years. But knowing your $1.25 is going toward breaking poverty cycles that have lasted for generations? That’s more than a drive-thru treat.

When you sponsor a child through Forgotten Children Worldwide, you receive bi-annual updates & letters from your child. You get a window into their world; they’ll share what they’re learning in school, what their favorite hobbies are, and what they’re praying for—and even how they’re praying for you.

If you want to learn more about the power of child sponsorship, check out our sponsorship page, where you can also find all the children who are waiting on sponsors like you. You can also flip the script and let a child choose you instead. Sign up for our next I See You Event.