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1. What does my $38 per month sponsorship gift accomplish?
Your sponsorship not only benefits a child, but his/her family as well.
Your sponsored child receives access to: food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education, school supplies, and love.
Your money provides the child's family access to: food, health care, vocational training, job opportunities and agricultural expertise.
Your money helps the child's community become self-sufficient by starting sustainable, results-producing projects for the entire community. These include: building clean water wells, introducing immunization programs, and offering small business training.
2. How do I sponsor a child?
3. Does CCFC sponsorship only help Christian children?
No. We help children of all faiths. We do not choose or decline children, families and communities we help based on their religious choices. Our goal is to break the cycle of poverty for the poorest of the poor, whomever they may be, and replace it with a cycle of self-reliance. Children are selected for sponsorship according to need without any regard for sex, race, creed or religious faith.
4. May I choose the country, age, or sex of the child I sponsor?
Meeting these requests can be difficult, although every effort will be made to do so. Many sponsors allow CCFC to select a child based on the greatest need.
5. How many people are served?
There are approximately 43,000 children currently enrolled in our sponsorship program. Since Christian Children's Fund of Canada believes that a child does not live in isolation and that to help one child we must help that child's family and community, your provision of food, healthcare, school, and job opportunities benefit a total of more than 350,000 people worldwide. To improve the life of one child, we work to restore parents' ability to care and provide for their own children.
Sponsorship helps to provide access to: nutritious food, clean drinking water, clothing, medical care and an education. Your help contributes to long-term community development to help children, their families and their communities.
7. Are financial statements available?
8. What countries do you work in?
We have children ready for sponsorship in Nicaragua, Paraguay, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Tanzania and India.
9. What services do my sponsorship dollars cover?
In order to make the best use of supporters' gifts and increase our impact on the greatest number of children, our programs are focused in five priority sectors: Health and Nutrition, Water and Sanitation, Education, Micro-Enterprise Development (MED) and Self Sustainability
Your money helps care for a child by investing in:
Education
Teachers
Schools
Books and pencils
Employment opportunities and training
Libraries
Clean school uniforms
Vocational training
Increased literacy
Access to better paying jobs
Literacy classes for the parents of your sponsored child
Health and Nutrition
Local health clinics
Medicines and vaccines
Nutritious food programs
Pre-natal and newborn healing
Food for children
Care for children with special needs
Treatment programs for HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB
Anti-parasite campaigns
Increased life expectancy
Fewer childhood deaths
Water and Sanitation
Fresh drinking water
Clean wells
Disease free bathing facilities
Toilets
Showers
Water systems
Safety from parasites
Reduced incidence of malaria
Drainage systems to remove bacteria filled water
Garbage clean up
Micro-Enterprise Development
Small business start up loans
Job skills training
Job creation programs
Small business management skills
Basic accounting programs
Technical training
Stimulated local economy
Increased self-sufficiency
Self-Reliance and Self Sustainability
Adult education
Special skills courses
Leadership training for women
Human resource development
Creation of parents committees to coordinate improvements
Community development
Gender equality
Self-reliance
Our approach is simple and one we believe is sustainable over the long term: As Christ did when he walked the earth CCFC reaches out to children and families of all faiths and all cultures. We do not choose or decline the children, families and communities we help, based on their religious choices. Our goal is to break the cycle of poverty for the poorest of the poor, whomever they may be, and replace it with a cycle of self-reliance. With biblical principles guiding our solutions to extreme poverty, we enable local Christian groups to share the love of Christ with children and families in their own communities. By going to where the need is the greatest, we introduce Christ through our actions and build the strength of local Christian organizations to thrive long after we are gone.
11. How do I know that my money actually gets to the child?
A member of the National Better Business Bureau, CCFC guarantees your money gets to your sponsored child.
We also have checkpoints in place. We regularly conduct:
- Random and scheduled audits of all programs by an internal auditor
- Monitoring visits to our programs overseas
- Scheduled field visits and community reports
- Annual third party audits by PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP
- Reviews by Volunteer Board
- Reviews by Volunteer Audit Committee
CCFC believes local communities, and our local partners, know how to best allocate sponsorship funds.
They decide where to direct the money based on urgent needs. If immunization is a greater need than another program, then that's where the money is spent.
Our local partners provide CCFC with an operating budget each year. We then monitor their work based on the plan.
To ensure everything is running smoothly, visits to our field offices are made every three months. At that time we conduct financial and program reviews. The five program areas also undergo yearly audits by authorized auditing companies.
CCFC operations managers from the Markham office visit each country at least annually for review.
12. How often will I hear from my child?
Children are requested to write at least one letter per year. Programs are requested to send one Child Progress Report per year, with an updated photograph to the sponsor.
If a sponsor writes and asks specific questions, the child should respond. Remember, the letter writing process can be slow due to translation (if applicable), and mail service to remote and distant areas is often slow.
13. Do I have to speak the language of my sponsored child?
No. Correspondence is translated at the field level. The child receives your original message as well as the translated copy.
14. How long is the commitment for sponsorship?
You can decide the length of time. If sponsoring a child isn't right for you, click here for other ways you can help CCFC.
15. Can I volunteer to go to the program?
Unfortunately no. To make the best use of supporter donations, CCFC keeps operational activities very focused and efficient. An overseas volunteer program would demand considerable financial and human resources that would take away from what could then be provided through our other programs.
If interested in volunteering, we suggest you contact organizations such as WUSC and Canada World Youth.
You can request the Who's Who in International Development booklet from The Canadian Council for International Co-operation. It contains information about other non-governmental organizations (NGO's) that accept volunteers.
16. When will I receive my tax receipt?
Receipts are mailed no later than the end of February of next year.
17. What if I can't afford the monthly amount?
No problem. There are other ways to get involved.
18. May I contact my sponsored child directly by phone, or online through email, Facebook, Skype, or other on line channels?
Christian Children's Fund of Canada encourages sponsors to write to their sponsored children using the mailing address provided at the time of sponsorship. CCFC does not authorize any form of direct contact (phone, facebook, Skype or other social media channels) because of the following risks to both parties:
1. Risks for children on social media sites
Social media sites can be unsafe environments for children and CCFC is unable to monitor these online communications. Situations may arise that can leave children particularly vulnerable, for example:
- They may be contacted by an individual who claims to be the child's sponsor, but is unknown to CCFC.
- They may receive communication, content and images that are inappropriate for a child to read or view, and which may also offend their cultural, religious or ethnic beliefs.
Parents will allow their own child to have online communication with an adult whose identity they are unable to verify. Ensuring the safety and protection of all children living in the communities where we work is of paramount importance to Christian Children's Fund of Canada. Social media sites pose too many risks to children which we feel negate the benefit of using them for child-sponsor communications.
2. Risks for sponsors on social media sites
- Using social networking sites can leave our sponsors vulnerable to criminal or unlawful activities, cyber bullying and harassment by people acting under an alias. For example, an individual who knows your sponsored child may create a false name using that child's identity, and attempt to defraud or threaten you as the sponsor of that child.
- Unscrupulous individuals may make false accusations about the behavior of a sponsor over the internet. Given complicated international laws and geographic distances there is no easy way to police such accusations.
- It is impossible to safeguard a sponsor's email address, phone number or home address once it has been given to a child and their family. We want to ensure that this personal information is not given to others who may wish to ask for money or defraud sponsors. (For this reason we currently remove the address of the sponsor and the child from all mail correspondence.)
Our primary concern is protecting both the child and sponsor.
Alternatives to social media communication
To ensure the continued safety of communications between sponsored children and Christian Children's Fund of Canada sponsors, we ask sponsors to ensure that their correspondence is sent to the relevant CCFC country office without exception. This ensures that CCFC can monitor any communications to ensure that both the sponsor and sponsored child are protected from inappropriate content, abuse, and any fraudulent activities. If you are a sponsor the address to communicate with your sponsored child is on the child information folder you received along with the child's photo and profile.
Sponsors can also visit their sponsored children in-person through organized visits. This is a wonderful opportunity for both the sponsor and child to meet in a secure and child-friendly environment.
On line policy
We encourage sponsors to contact their sponsored children through our mail system because it is impossible for us to guarantee the safety of both parties through direct online interaction. Christian Children's Fund of Canada will not take responsibility for any damages or situations which may occur if the sponsor, sponsored child, or sponsored child's family decides to initiate this form of unauthorized contact.
If a sponsor does make contact with their sponsored child in an online environment and we are aware of it, the sponsor will be asked to cease this form of communication and will be reminded that correspondence must go through our country office. In cases where the unauthorized communication continues, Christian Children's Fund of Canada may terminate the sponsorship.
In instances where a child or their family initiates contact, we will also remind them of correct communication procedures. If they disregard this request, we may be forced to remove the child and their family from the sponsorship program.
We strive to protect the children and families we serve and thank our sponsors for their continued support in maintaining a sponsor-child relationship that is both appropriate and safe.