Frequently Asked Questions

Many answers can be found right here in our frequently asked questions.

Please visit our child sponsorship page and find a child you'd like to sponsor. You can sponsor a girl or sponsor a child from a specific country; you can even sponsor a child with the same birthday as you. If you'd like help sponsoring a child, please get in touch with our friendly team at 01932 836490 or by email at info@compassionuk.org. Sponsor a child today and give them life-changing support, including food, education and health-checks. Child sponsorship with Compassion is an opportunity to come alongside a local church, and together, bring hope and lasting change to a child living in poverty.

Child sponsorship with Compassion is an opportunity to come alongside a local church, and together, bring hope and lasting change to a child in poverty. Independent research shows that this approach works! Education: Formal education or vocational training and training on subjects like hygiene, computing and music. Alongside educational support, including school uniforms and resources or advocating for identification papers and other documents that help children access local schooling. Healthcare: Each child and youth receives a yearly medical check-up. Additionally, they can access recommended immunisations to support their fight against diseases and help them stay healthy. Follow-up medical care and interventions will be provided as necessary.  Nutritional support: Malnutrition is one of the world’s leading causes of child deaths and hinders brain and physical development. Regular monitoring helps identify and address malnutrition before it critically impacts development.    
Community: through pastors, tutors, church staff and volunteers, children we work with are cared for and invested in by members of their own communities who encourage them to discover their unique gifts, passions and abilities. Through the local church, children and youth have peers to learn alongside and opportunities to form healthy friendships. Sponsors play an important role through prayers and messages of encouragement. Compassion also addresses the wider context of the child by providing opportunities for the caregivers, families and communities of those we serve.    Safety: child protection is at the heart of our work. Child development projects are safe places to learn and play. Adults who engage with children are trained and committed to protecting children. Children and youth are taught about how to safeguard and advocate for themselves. Compassion commits to high-quality systems and processes for handling reports of abuse.    Support during disasters and crises: Compassion’s local church partners are often the first to respond in the community. When a crisis strikes – like widespread natural disasters, civil unrest and economic instability facing the world today – vulnerable children and families are the hardest hit. Compassion comes alongside so children and youth can access emergency aid and necessities like clean water, shelter, clothing and trauma counselling.   What’s more, by empowering and educating one child, you bring change to a family. Sponsored children share what they learn with their siblings and parents. We regularly hear stories of children teaching their parents and siblings to read or how to practice good hygiene in the home. Moreover, they receive the love, care and support of a local church community, which can make a transformative difference for the whole family. If you have further questions, please get in touch with our friendly team at 01932 836490 or by email at info@compassionuk.org.

Our church partners reach the children in the greatest need.
Staff who know their communities inside out identify the children most in need of your sponsorship support. Children are given help regardless of their backgrounds or beliefs. We start searching for a sponsor, like you.
Once registered in the Compassion Programme, we look for one sponsor to support each child. One Compassion sponsor starts to empower one child.
When you start sponsoring, you sponsor a child directly! Your donations will immediately begin to support the child you sponsor. Children meet at their local Compassion project We have thousands of local church partners tailoring our holistic child development model to the contextualised needs of the children they serve — the children in their communities. When you sponsor a child with us, the beneficiary of your support is the specific child you sponsor. The family may receive additional or indirect benefits, but we focus on one child. The child you sponsor will attend a Compassion Project at their local church. There, they'll;

  • Receive a curriculum based on their individual needs and development stage
  • Access to a church-driven local project, and the love and support of staff and volunteers
  • Nutritional support
  • Health check-ups
  • Educational opportunities
  • Personal attention and guidance from loving staff members
  • An age-appropriate Bible and Biblical teaching and opportunities to hear about the love of Jesus
  • Vocational training opportunities
Sponsors exchange letters with the child they sponsor. Letters will be an encouragement to you both. Please be patient as letter delivery can be disrupted by local circumstances such as restrictions on meeting, floods or unrest, but we do all we can to deliver them swiftly and safely. The cycle of poverty is broken! Compassion-sponsored children are empowered to live free from poverty and bring change to their families and communities. You can read about what Compassion graduates think of the programme here. If you have further questions, please get in touch with our friendly team at 01932 836490 or by email at info@compassionuk.org

Compassion is a leading Christian charity and is considered one of the best child sponsorship organisations. We have experience! Founded in 1952, Compassion is a Christian child development charity releasing children from poverty, in Jesus’ name. We work across the globe exclusively through local church-driven projects Working in 29 countries, we partner with more than 8,600 local churches within communities experiencing poverty. Our heart is to give children and young people living in extreme need the opportunity to thrive and reach their God-given potential both now and into the future. We’re Christ-centred We're motivated by Jesus’ call to love our neighbour. We're child-focused We're helping those left most vulnerable to the effects of poverty. Our programmes care for every part of a child's life Compassion’s child development programmes are holistic, giving children support in every core area of their lives. Because we work in partnership with local churches who know their communities inside out, our programmes are tailored to a child’s age, gender, health, culture and family situation. Independent research shows they are highly effective; now, more than 2.3 million children are being released from poverty. Click here to find out what graduates say.
Click here to find out what sponsors say. If you have further questions, please get in touch with our friendly team at 01932 836490 or by email at info@compassionuk.org

Gifts are a great opportunity to show the child you sponsor that you care for them. We don’t want to overwhelm the children we serve and their families, and we want to be mindful of the local context. We suggest the following:

  • Individual Gifts, including birthday gifts between £8 and £120 can be sent to the child you sponsor. Sponsors can make two individual gifts per calendar year with a maximum amount of £240 in total.
  • Family Gifts between £18 and an annual maximum of £800 can be sent for the family of the child you sponsor.
  • Project Gifts between £35 and an annual maximum of £3,000 can be sent to the project the child you sponsor attends.
  • Graduation Gifts between £8 and £2,250 can be sent during the child you sponsor’s final year in the Child Sponsorship Programme.
You can hear more about the impact a gift makes here. For individual and family gifts Once they’ve received the money, the project workers will meet with the child you sponsor and their family to choose the perfect gift. All gifts are sourced locally, so you’ll be helping to boost the local economy too. You may be surprised to see your gift used to buy clothes, household equipment or even livestock! More details about why there are limits to the financial gifts sponsors can send can be found here. How to give The easiest way to send a gift is through your myCompassion account. If you’ve not got an account, registering and setting one up is quick and easy. We can also take gifts over the phone or through email instructions. Just get in touch, and we’ll make the arrangements for you. If you’d like to make a large donation to support the work of Compassion, it’s best to get in touch with us directly, and we can suggest how your donation can make the greatest impact. We have a number of interventions which supplement the work of our sponsorship programme and could be the ideal way to ensure your gift makes a real and lasting difference. I have more questions If you have further questions, please get in touch with our friendly team at 01932 836490 or by email at info@compassionuk.org.

To enable you to easily connect with the child you sponsor through writing letters and looking through their profile, photos and past correspondence, you can log in to your individual myCompassion account online or in the Compassion UK App. You’ll need the email you registered with, so if in doubt, we’re more than happy to create an account for you or let you know the email we have on record. Please do call our friendly team at 01932 836490 or email info@compassionuk.com if you need support. Alternatively, if you know your registered email address, you can create a username and login yourself on our website. Step-by-step

  • At the top of the homepage, you’ll find a Log In button on the top right-hand side, click here.
  • Select Register Now using the exact email we have for you on our records. If you use a different email, sadly, the login won’t connect to your sponsorship, and you won’t be able to see the child or children you sponsor.
  • Once through to the next step, you will need to add your name and select a memorable password – make sure to keep this in a safe place as we don't keep a record of this on our system.
This same login information can be used on the Compassion UK App - the easiest way to pray, write and give! I have more questions If you have further questions, please get in touch with our friendly team at 01932 836490 or by email at info@compassionuk.org.

We have experience! Compassion has been empowering children to overcome poverty since 1952. It works! Independent research shows that Compassion-sponsored children stay in school longer and are more likely to grow up to be employed and leaders in their churches and communities. Moreover, more than 500 Compassion graduates were surveyed about their experience. You can read more here. We believe it’s an injustice that worldwide more than 333 million children live in extreme poverty. And as Christians, we have a biblical call to care for the poor and love our neighbour. That’s why Compassion works in partnership with local churches across 29 countries to release children from poverty, in Jesus’ name. We’re a leading authority in holistic child development, giving children support in every core area of their lives. Our programmes support children's physical and mental wellbeing. They cultivate character and give a child or young person the skills, access to education and motivation they need to be self-sufficient in the future. The care is given in the context of a local church community where children and their families can experience practical expressions of God’s love. We care for children even before they’ve been born, all the way through to young adulthood.

  • Our Child Survival Interventions keep mums safe during pregnancy and protect babies through their vital first 1,000 days of life.
  • Our Child Sponsorship Programme empowers children and young people to overcome poverty. We care for a child’s mind, body, heart and spirit by giving them educational opportunities, nutritional support, medical check-ups and the support of their local church. Our approach is a personal one, linking one child in poverty with one sponsor. Through prayers and messages of encouragement, sponsors play a significant role in building the confidence of their sponsored child and affirming their worth in Christ.
  • Our Compassion Interventions remove any additional obstacles preventing children from thriving, whether giving support after a natural disaster or providing access to medical treatment, safe water, specialised educational resources or legal protection.
Our holistic child development model is tailored to a child’s age, gender, health, culture and family situation. Because we work through the local church, it’s also contextualised to fit the needs of the children in each community. Graduates of our programmes often become changemakers, bringing hope and transformation to their families, communities and even countries. If you have further questions, please get in touch with our friendly team at 01932 836490 or by email at info@compassionuk.org. 

With more than 2.3 million children registered in Compassion projects around the world, it takes time for our project staff to select appropriate presents for every child depending on their individual needs. Writing your greeting as early as possible gives us enough time to process, translate and arrange the delivery of all our sponsors’ messages.

Compassion child sponsorship is a powerful and lasting way to tackle poverty. For £32 a month, you can empower a child to overcome the complex obstacles poverty brings. Your sponsorship ensures a child can access medical check-ups, education, food, clothing, and social and emotional care through the local church. We know this is a significant commitment, but it's the reality of what it costs to provide children with the best care and the resources they need to break free from every aspect of poverty. You can partner with a local church and empower a child with the life-changing message of the Gospel. You can empower a child to see transformation in their family, community and country. When you sponsor a child, you become part of a multiplying movement of change and transformation - in the life of a child and in the lives of those around them. Join the movement to release children from poverty in Jesus’ name. If you have further questions, please get in touch with our friendly team at 01932 836490 or by email at info@compassionuk.org.

Compassion feels specifically called to serve children in poverty around the world. We believe this is the mandate God has given us and that it is the best stewardship to focus our time and efforts on the 29 countries where we work. We do, however, acknowledge the need of families here in the UK and we wholeheartedly support and pray for other Christian charities that are focused on helping them during the cost-of-living crisis. You can find out more by reading our blog here.

   
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01932 836490 - Lines are open from 10am-5pm Monday to Friday.
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Compassion UK Christian Child Development, registered charity in England and Wales (1077216) and Scotland (SC045059). A company limited by guarantee, Registered in England and Wales company number 03719092. Registered address: Compassion House, Barley Way, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 2UT.