Where Is My Letter From My Sponsored Child?

It’s a question we get all the time. You write a letter to your child, then days, weeks, sometimes months pass by and you haven’t heard back. In an age of email and text messaging, we have come to expect instantaneous responses, and when we don’t get them, it can be frustrating. But making sure that each sponsor and child receives the correct letters is no small task. With more than 850,000 letters between children and sponsors every year, it takes time and effort to make sure they get delivered correctly.

So I’d like to give you an insight into how our letter writing process works, from beginning to end.

When you sign up to be a sponsor, you should receive a letter from your child within 90 days. This may seem like a long time, but there is a lot of work that goes into making sure you receive your letter. Most children have to visit one of our community centers to write their letters. Some kids are unable to read or write, so they need the help of their parents or a CI volunteer. After the kids finish writing letters, our staff in the field then has to translate each and every one of them. And some agencies serve more than 30,000 children!

After being translated, these letters make the long journey to the Children International headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, for processing. We work in some very remote locations, so this isn’t as simple as just putting letters on a plane and sending them to the U.S. Our field staff has to travel by boat, off-road motorcycles and other unique means of transportation to get to and from our community centers with the letters.

Thousands of miles later, the letters arrive in Kansas City. Each letter has to be scanned and sorted to make sure they are addressed and sent to the proper sponsor. Then the letters are processed by our automated inserter machines, where they are stuffed into stamped and addressed envelopes ready for the post office. Shortly after, your letter arrives at your front door!

After the welcome letter, each sponsored child is asked to write a letter to his or her sponsor every six months. If you write to your child and ask questions, you could hear back more often. But writing letters can be very difficult for many of our sponsored children. If you don’t hear back, it’s not because they don’t appreciate your support. Trust me, they do. Sometimes it is just hard for children to find words to say. Other times it’s just too difficult for them to make it to the community center to write back because of their location. Whatever the case may be, know that your gifts and correspondence mean the world to your sponsored child.

The easiest and quickest way to write to your child is by using the “Write My Children” (https://www.children.org/MyAccount/Account/LogOn) section in “My Account” of children.org. There are fun templates that are sure to make your sponsored child smile. When you submit a letter to your child through the “Write My Children” option, your letter is sent to our Kansas City office, printed and mailed to the field agency where it will be translated and sent to your child. Currently, we do not have a way of viewing letters you send and receive electronically, but that may be something that is available in the future!

I hope that this brief overview has helped give you a better understanding of the letter writing process. Perhaps it even encouraged you to write a letter right now? Happy writing!