Help a child in crisis

why sponsor a child during the pandemic

When a crisis hits, it usually hits the poor hardest

Through sponsorship, your ongoing support will provide the help every child in poverty needs to thrive. Especially crucial during this global crisis, sponsorship is even more powerful. It fills in the gaps between what a child has and what they need.

Sponsor a child

Why sponsor a child during times of crisis?

The impacts of disasters, pandemics, economic and other times of crisis is disproportionately harder on the poor and more vulnerable segments of society. The pandemic triggered the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, making it increasingly difficult for people to pay for care. Even before the pandemic, half a billion people were being pushed (or pushed still further) into extreme poverty because of payments they made for health care.* When you become a sponsor, you help provide:

- Access to medical and dental care, and physical and mental health resources
- Education assistance, tutoring, youth programs and core life-skills training
- A team of skilled staff and volunteers and the safety net of their support
- Your support and encouragement during a crisis like no other
  - The support of sponsorship is so important right now. It’s a scary time for all of us, and finding a new friend can be such a source of hope, especially for a child in poverty. You can give a child strength as they continue to navigate the unknown.

Source

Programming that addresses all stages of a child’s development

Learn how your support drives our programming under normal circumstances. Over the past 80 years, we’ve fine-tuned a high-impact, evidence-based approach that empowers children and youth to break free from poverty for good.

Learn more

You can protect a child in crisis

While all of our children urgently need the support of sponsorship, those with a "most at risk" flag are facing the least stable living circumstances. The criteria to determine those children at higher risk are related to basic necessities, and include availability of electricity, clean water, sanitary conditions, sleeping accommodations and presence of parents.
Sponsor a child today.

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Tania Monserrat

8 years old Waiting 86 days Mexico
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Oscar Enrique

8 years old Waiting 53 days Colombia
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Fatima Alejandra

6 years old Waiting 43 days Guatemala

Search for the most needy children by country, birthday, age and more.

While all of our children urgently need the support of sponsorship, those with a "most needy" red flag are facing the least stable living circumstances. The criteria to determine the ‘most needy’ flag are related to basic necessities, and include availability of electricity, clean water, sanitary conditions, sleeping accommodations and presence of parents.

Children in poverty need your help right now

100,000+
additional child deaths are predicted to occur in 2020.

Doctors are using telehealth to educate sponsored children and families on the coronavirus and equip them with resources to stay healthy through handwashing and other hygiene practices.

Source: Aggregate Income Shocks and Infant Mortality in the Developing World

25%
of children under 5 are stunted due to poor nutrition.

Through the Emergency Community Fund, we provide immediate and direct food assistance to children and families in our communities who have lost income due to the crisis.

Source: UNICEF Nutrition Report

1.2 billion
children and youth are experiencing school closures.

Some of our programs are being delivered in new, innovative ways — such as job training webinars through Facebook live, and virtual tutoring in math and reading via WhatsApp.

Source: UNESCO

3x
more likely to struggle with lasting depression and anxiety.

Through our resilience program, we provide children with tools to thrive despite the difficulties they’re up against. They learn calming techniques and creative ways to express themselves.

Source: British Colombia Medical Journal

Sponsorship continues providing life-changing help to your child

Your support is especially critical right now. Disadvantaged families around the world are trying to recover from the economic and emotional toll caused by the ongoing effects of the pandemic. Due to sporadic closures from spiking infection rates in some of the areas we serve, as well as other related factors, your sponsorship experience may begin a bit differently than it normally would.

Read about some of the changes you can expect

What changes should I expect to the sponsorship experience due to the coronavirus?

Photos – as a sponsor, you receive a photo of your child each year, which you will still receive in your welcome kit. However, due to occasional shutdowns and other ongoing interruptions and shortages beyond our control, a more recent photo of your child may be delayed. We continually assess our processes and adjust so we can provide sponsors with the latest possible updates.
Letters – as a sponsor, you can expect to receive a welcome letter, and then one to two letters from your child each year. But we cannot guarantee that communities – or that all community centers – will not experience occasional shutdowns. For the health of children, parents, and staff, we will only collect letters when it is safe to do so. Significant delays of letters, including the welcome letter you would normally receive, are still possible. We appreciate your patience!
Your letters – we encourage sponsors to write to their children, but for now, there still could be interruptions in delivering letters to sponsored children. Currently, the only letters we can process are ones written through MyCI. When you write a letter through MyCI, your letter will be transferred electronically to your child’s field office. If your child’s family has a phone, a staff member will either digitally forward it to your child’s family or call and read it to them.

Note: If the family is not able to communicate digitally, we will try to find a way to deliver it and keep the lines of communication open whenever possible. The use of digital communications enables agency staff to get your messages to families much more quickly, and vice-versa. There is also a cost-saving feature with virtual letters. Families save time and money (transportation to the center, taking time off from work or school to retrieve letters, etc.) and our staff processing time is significantly reduced by digital communications.

Sponsorship support is so important right now. It’s been a difficult time for everyone and finding a new friend can be a great source of hope and confidence, especially for children in poverty.