How Child Sponsorship Works

The roots of World Vision are found in child sponsorship. Read below a story about the effect sponsorship had in one child's life. Then discover some of the many ways sponsorship can impact other children.

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A CHANGED LIFE: Sofia Sofia lost seven brothers and sisters to diseases which could have been prevented. Her mother feared her daughter had little hope for a decent future. Then World Vision child sponsorship came to their small community in Bolivia, and the support of caring sponsors helped make a better life possible for Sofia, her family, and community.

Wells were dug to provide clean water and eliminate waterborne disease. Medical care and health education were established.

Sofia is able to go to school with other sponsored children, and she loves to read and write.

With a bright future ahead of her, Sofia's heart is full of gratitude. "If my sponsors came for a visit, I'd give them a big hug and kiss."

World Vision sponsorship is aimed at finding lasting solutions--not temporary, superficial remedies. That's why, after immediate necessities are met, long-term needs are addressed.

If a child has only polluted water to drink, the best answer may be a new community well or other safe water source. If a child doesn't have proper food to eat, then helping the family with improved methods of growing crops provides a lasting solution.

Lack of education and disease are two immense obstacles that block the road to self-reliance for every child. That's why providing improved nutrition, health, and educational opportunities for sponsored children is a priority--for they are the tools that will enable a child to truly build a better future.

Child Survival--and Beyond

Every day about 34,000 children under the age of five die tragic, preventable deaths. They die from diseases like measles, whooping cough, and polio; diseases that immunization could have prevented.

Our Child Survival and Beyond program is aimed directly at saving children's lives--today and tomorrow--by meeting both the immediate and long term needs of children.

World Vision believes we not only have an obligation to save the lives of children, but we have an equally important obligation to show their parents how to build a future worth living.

That's why Child Survival and Beyond programs in 15 countries focus on:

• Immunization to prevent child-killing diseases.
• Clean water to eliminate waterborne disease.
• Health training to keep children safe.
• Oral Rehydration Therapy to combat diarrheal disease.
• Agricultural and Economic Development to help families become self-sufficient.