Frequently Asked Questions

Looks can be deceiving. The photographs do not show the conditions in which these children live or the hunger and abuse many experience. Compassion believes in maintaining the dignity of the poor. For this reason, as much as we are able, we try to ensure the children are photographed in clean clothes.

Learn more about why your sponsor child may not “look poor”. 

You can easily donate to Compassion Canada through internet banking. Just like adding a payee for paying bills, search for Compassion Canada and use your supporter number as the account number. Your supporter number will start with an “8-,” and be followed by 8 digits.

Depending on the bank you may need to omit the “8” or the dash. If your donation is for anything other than sponsorship—such as Urgent Needs, Christmas Gift Fund, etc.—please provide instructions in the notes section.

Presently, we work with Royal Bank, Scotiabank, TD Canada Trust, Bank of Montreal, CIBC, Canadian Western Bank, Citizens Bank and Credit Unions located in the provinces of British Columbia and Saskatchewan.

Alternatively, you can make a donation by credit card through our secure website.

Child sponsorship provides a holistic development program for children in Compassion’s ministry. But at times there are other factors that can have a significant impact on a child’s life. This additional $10 donation to the Urgent Needs Fund helps to address those unforeseen circumstances.

This donation does not go directly to your sponsored child, but is available to help all sponsored children and their families around the world as needed. This could include—but is not limited to—emergency medical care, disaster relief and reconstruction, income-generation training and other critical interventions. These initiatives combine with the benefits of child sponsorship to break the cycle of poverty.

You can set up a monthly donation to the Urgent Needs Fund online at any time.

Children don’t necessarily write back to you on the same day that they receive your letter. Instead, they reply on a scheduled day when all the children at the project write to their sponsors. Your sponsored child may have proudly taken your letter home to share with family & friends and may not have it handy to remind them of the questions you answered. Please remember that it can take up to two months for your letter to be translated (if needed) and delivered. Please check the date of your sponsored child’s letter so you can work out whether he or she would have received your answers before they last wrote. Compassion is working on a program to ensure that answers are recorded by project staff, so they can ensure that the children know them. You can help in this process by underlining or highlighting your answers in your letter and making them easy to understand.

In most of the countries we work in, photographs are a “big deal”. Each child wishes to look his/her best for their potential sponsor. This means in some countries that this photo is a serious occasion and not the appropriate time for a smile.

Check out this great story about picture day!

Communication within many of the countries where we work can be extremely slow. All letters to and from the children can take two to four months to arrive. They are couriered to the Compassion office in each country where they are translated. As projects are often very remote, the head office will wait until they have received a reasonable number of letters before they are delivered to a particular project. A member of staff will then hand deliver them as mail systems can be very erratic and unreliable. Many sponsored children do not have a postal address in the way that we do in Canada. Please be assured that we will do our best to make sure that your letter will arrive as soon as possible. The exchange of letters is a crucial element of sponsorship and it is an area we are constantly working to improve.

Check out this detailed description of the letter writing process in Ghana.

Follow a letter from a sponsored child in Guatemala to her sponsor.

You can send a family gift of $40-$1,200 CAD up to two times per year (gift limit is cumulative). The centre staff will talk with the child and family to help them to spend your gift in the wisest way.

To send a gift online through your My Compassion account click here or contact us for more information.

Children are required to write to their sponsors a minimum of two letters a year. If there is something wrong with your sponsored child, we will contact you. If it has been 6 months since you have received a letter, please contact our office. We may have an undeliverable address for you and have been unable to send your sponsored child’s letters through to you.

You can reach us by phone at 1-800-563-5437 or by email at info@compassion.ca

Children don’t necessarily write back to you on the same day that they receive your letter. Instead, they reply on a scheduled day when all the children at the project write to their sponsors. Your sponsored child may have proudly taken your letter home to share with family & friends and may not have it handy to remind them of the questions you answered. Please remember that it can take up to two months for your letter to be translated (if needed) and delivered. Please check the date of your sponsored child’s letter so you can work out whether he or she would have received your questions before they last wrote. In some cultures children are rarely asked about what they think and do, which may explain why your child doesn’t always answer your questions, or has difficulty expressing an answer. Compassion is working on a program to ensure that questions are recorded by project staff, so they can ensure that the children answer them. You can help in this process by underlining or highlighting your questions in your letter and making them easy to understand.

Compassion’s child development ministry is not based on material handouts. We facilitate individual child development by providing learning opportunities that a child may not encounter in another situation. Learning is central to Compassion’s mission-we provide life skills that foster each child’s success. Learning opportunities also are provided for parents, which enables them to improve their parenting skills and provide for their families. Therefore we do not allow extra money to be given every month, but there are several opportunities over the year for you to bless your sponsored child and family with a special monetary gift.

To give a child, family or project gift online click here or connect with our office directly.

Sponsorship plus Urgent Needs provides funds for additional benefits for sponsored children, their families and communities that cannot be provided by child sponsorship funds alone. While sponsorship funds provide activities which directly benefit your sponsored child, the extra $10 from Sponsorship plus Urgent needs is used to fund initiatives and programs which sow further into the lives of Compassion assisted children, their families and communities.

As Compassion raises more funds for these activities, we will be able to assist more sponsored children with these additional benefits.

Some of these include:

• Emergency medical care
• HIV and AIDS Initiative – includes education on prevention as well as care
• Education and training programs for parents of sponsored children
• Partner church development – including church partner staff training

If you could sum up our ministry in a phrase, it would be “holistic child development.”

We want to see children grow and flourish in all areas of their life – spiritual, physical, cognitive and social-emotional. Through sponsorship we can help make that happen. Each child is linked with one sponsor that contributes $41 a month to ensure that their sponsored child receives healthcare, education, food, clothing, vocational training, social, emotional and spiritual care. These benefits are provided through activities run through the church-based child development centre.

No less than 80 percent of your monthly support benefits your child, either directly or indirectly. Compassion-assisted children and their families receive no cash. Benefits are in the form of goods and services, carefully designed, delivered and purchased according to each child’s individual needs.

As a general rule, 20 percent of these funds are invested in the development, oversight, and auditing of Compassion’s programs in which every assisted-child participates. These investments ensure that each child receives the best care possible, rather than becoming the recipient of a handout.

The remaining funds are used to meet the day-to-day needs of each child. This can include:

• nutritional meals and the provision of clean drinking water;
• medical and dental check-ups, care and education;
• educational supplies and tuition fees;
• clothing including school uniforms;
• non-formal educational and life-skills training such as participation in excursions and camps;
• extra-curricular activities such as drama, dance, music and art etc.; and
• biblical training and discipleship

Our local church partners also invest considerable resources in the development of each child, allowing Compassion and the church to help bring an eternal solution to poverty in the life of a child.

You can change your bank account information through the Payment Methods section of your My Compassion account or by calling our office. Thank you for supporting Compassion.

Due to the limitations of customs regulations, only paper items can be sent to sponsored children. Items made of paper up to 8.5″ by 11″ and up to .25″ thick can be sent on. Compassion cannot send on or return items that do not fall within these guidelines. If you would like to bless your child in other ways, please send a financial gift, which your child can use to purchase something they really need. Your money will go a lot further in the countries where we work and it will help stimulate the local economy.

Examples of what you can send in the mail include: photos, greeting cards, stickers, bookmarks, postcards, colouring pages, booklets, small calendars, scripture cards, decorative writing paper, paper dolls, and paper planes.

Items which we cannot send include: pencils, crayons, balloons, gum, jewelry, candy, magnets, clothes, toys, seeds, etc.

When you write a letter online, we send it digitally to the Country Office. From there, Compassion staff translate, print and deliver the letters (and photos) to your child. We are unable to send emails directly to your sponsored child but our online letter writing process is the next best option.

Write a letter today from your My Compassion account.

Yes, it is possible for a group to sponsor one child. We have a few options to make donations simpler.

Depending on donation preferences and the group type, there may be different options for how this is set up. Please contact our office to walk through the sponsorship set-up for groups.

It is possible to send financial gifts to your sponsored child, however, these gift funds are to be allocated to the child’s greatest need as determined by local staff and the child’s family.  Depending on the gift amount and the family needs at the time the gift is received, the gift could be allocated to further education opportunities for your child or another pressing family need.

Child and family gifts can be sent once per calendar year. To learn more, please check out the gift section of your My Compassion account or connect with our office directly.

Yes. Writing online means your letter bypasses our local postal service and will already be in digital format so we can forward it directly to the Country Office. From there, Compassion staff translate, print and deliver the letters (and photos, if included) to your child.

Write a letter today from your My Compassion account .

Compassion aims to reach as many families as possible. Typically, only one child from a family will attend a project. The parents will choose which child is registered. However, if the family has great needs up to three children may be enrolled. The benefits of the program reach the whole family through interaction with staff, health screening, nutritional advice and supplies, parenting workshops and other church activities. Sponsored children often share what they learn at the Compassion project with siblings and many lead their entire families to Christ. As well as supporting your sponsored child and their family through prayer, as a sponsor you are able to send financial gifts to your sponsored child’s family.

Check out this story!

http://blog.compassion.com/one-child-sponsorship-helps-an-entire-family/