Why does it take so long to receive a letter from my sponsored child?
Your letters travel a long way! Here’s why correspondence takes time.
- Remote locations: Many sponsored kids live in rural communities — far from highways and without phones, internet, or sometimes even postal service. This can delay round-trip communication by up to three months.
- Translation: Letters usually need to be translated by a staff member or volunteer in our local office.
- Delivery and reply: Our dedicated team oversees letter writing and personally delivers letters to sponsored children. They help kids who may be new to letter writing or need some help with reading or writing. If your child receives additional support, you’ll find it noted in your letter.
Your child will love to hear from you as often as you’d like to write, and you’ll hear back up to four times a year!
Besides writing, are there other ways I can communicate with my sponsored child?
Throughout the year, we’ll mail you fungreeting cardsyou can sign and return for delivery to your sponsored child. They’re a great way to encourage and connect with your child–children eagerly hope for their name to be called when mail is delivered.
A small donation is suggested to help cover the costs of handling and mailing the cards, but this donation isn’t required in order for the card to be forwarded to your sponsored child.
We print messages on the cards primarily in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swahili because these are the primary languages spoken in our World Vision offices around the world. Our staff translates the card into the local dialects of the children.
If you’d like to send your sponsored child a letter, but want to avoid the cost of a stamp, you can include a letter with one of these greetings cards. Please note, because of how these cards are distributed, it will likely take longer to receive a reply from your sponsored child than if you were to mail the letter directly.
Can I continue to write my sponsored child after they leave the sponsorship program?
No. It’s against ourChild Protection Policy to agree to ongoing communication between a sponsor and their child after the child leaves our program. All communication must be in overseen by World Vision to ensure the protection of the child, their family, community, and for sponsors as well.
Why does the card I got in the mail for my sponsored child seem to be for a much younger child?
For stewardship reasons, we usually develop one greeting card and design it with an 11-year-old in mind because this is roughly the age of the single largest group of children, as well as the median sponsored child age. However, for birthdays we typically create two cards: one for older children and one for younger children.
