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Sponsored child Milli smiles at the camera. She's sitting on the floor wearing a formal pink dress and holding a photo of the sponsors she has chosen.

How Chosen Child Sponsorship works

Be Chosen - empower a child to choose. Find out more about Chosen Sponsorship

How does Chosen work?

Your experience | The community | Reviews | A former sponsored child's story | FAQs

Some children wait years to be chosen by sponsors. But what would happen if, instead, they got to choose? Chosen Sponsorship puts the power to choose in the child's hands.

"Sponsorship gives you the chance to help someone out of poverty and give them hope to lead a better life, achieve their dreams and put something back into their community." - Francis, sponsor for 30 years.

When you sign up to be Chosen, you give a child in need a choice. The choice to take hold of their future, create change in their community, and reach their full potential.

Sponsor a child

Chosen Child Sponsorship and you

When you sign up to be Chosen, your photo will be sent to one of the communities we work with and displayed at our next choosing party. Children that need sponsors will then take it in turns to choose their own sponsor.

Shortly after you've been chosen, you'll receive a welcome pack introducing you to the child who chose you and their community. You'll even find out why you were their Chosen sponsor! You’ll then receive regular photos so you can watch them grow through the years, and updates so you can find out how their life and community is changing.

They’ll send you letters and drawings. And if you want to, you can write back to them too, by post or online, so you can become a powerful positive force in their lives.

You can easily see how your donations are making a difference by logging in to your online account and viewing the latest photos, videos and updates.

A young girl in Kenya stands in front of rows of photos. She's holding a photo of the sponsor she chose and smiling at the camera.
Sponsor a child

Chosen Child Sponsorship helps the whole community

The best way to change a child’s life is to transform their whole community, and Chosen Child Sponsorship means helping communities to help themselves.

We work together with communities to tackle the root causes of poverty.

First, we work with local leaders and families to understand their struggles and the areas where they need support. Together, we focus on helping the most vulnerable children in the greatest need – those at risk of the worst poverty, exploitation, and abuse.

Then we create a plan to transform the community into a safe place, where children are cared for and protected, long into the future. This maximises the impact of your sponsorship – empowering communities to break free from poverty and become self-sustaining.

Your sponsorship will help children and the entire community with the essentials they need to build a better future, such as clean water, education, healthcare facilities, nutritious food, protection, and job opportunities for parents to improve their income.

Sponsor a child

World Vision is reaching one new person with clean water every​ 10 seconds

What child sponsors say

Shemi
“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

More Child Sponsorship reviews

How being sponsored changed Nancy's life

Growing up in Kenya, Nancy watched as all her friends were forced to grow up too fast.

One by one, the girls in her class left school to become child brides. She worried that her family wouldn’t be able to afford to send her to school for much longer. But thanks to Child Sponsorship, life in her community started to change. She excelled at school and went much further in life. ​

Hear Nancy share how her sponsor, Georgie, encouraged her to reach her dreams.

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For every child sponsored, four more benefit too

Debby, 7, lives in Zambia. Her sponsor's monthly donations are transforming her home, family, and community. Her friends aren't sponsored, but thanks to her sponsorship they're seeing their lives change too.

  1. Brendah, 12: She can now drink clean water from the new community borehole.
  2. Adam, 5: When Adam fell ill, he was treated at the new local health centre.
  3. Lightwell, 10: New reading classes have given him a love for books.
  4. Beatrice, 11: Beatrice's family are now growing tomatoes, beans, okra, maize, and beautiful sunflowers - enough to share.
Sponsor a child like Debby today
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Child Sponsorship FAQs

  • 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.

  • World Vision only works within countries where we have our own offices so we can be sure that we can account for all the money that we receive and how it is used.

    We have audited accounts that are publicly available at any time. As a charity, we're regulated by the Charities Commission – a legal body, which oversees all UK charities and their activities.

    We are a not-for-profit organisation, and we know that the continued support we receive is dependent on our efficient use of supporters’ money. Our Annual Report is available here. 

  • The donation you give doesn't go directly to your sponsored child or family. That's because experience has taught us it’s more effective to use the money on projects that will benefit your sponsored child’s community as a whole, as well as other sponsorship communities around the world, while still improving the well-being of the child you sponsor. 

More Child Sponsorship FAQs

More about Child Sponsorship