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18 Reasons to Write a Letter to Your Sponsored Child

If you need motivation to write a letter to your sponsored child, we have 18 reasons to write a letter now.

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In addition to the letters you receive from your sponsored child each year, you also receive a letter written by someone who knows our program in your child's country. We call these letters "third-party letters" because they are written by a church pastor, a child development center director or a country office director or other qualified staff member.

The third-party letters provide a perspective you most likely won't get from your sponsored child. The letters include compelling stories about how the letters you write affect the children you sponsor. They are stories from the perspective of the men and women who know or work with your sponsored children.

From thousands of third-party letters over several years, we compiled this list of 18 motivating and encouraging reasons you should write a letter to your sponsored child now.

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18. Making a Connection

Letters to children are very important; the connection is made.

When the child’s name is read out as having received a letter, the excitement and joy is contagious!

As they read the letter, they see you. If they do not have your photo, they paint the best picture of you in their minds, and that remains in their heart forever.

They talk about you to their family every day as they pray for you; they tell their neighbors, friends, and their schoolmates, because you are so alive in their lives.

— from Uganda

A young girl holding a pencil as she writes a letter to her sponsor

17. Strengthening the Relationship

Sponsor letters have been making a great impact in the lives of children, such as strengthening the relationship as the child gets to know the sponsor family. The child feels as if the relationship is one of very close friends.

Likewise, through sponsor letters, children get to know other parts of the world and what they look like. Children are also motivated to learn English when they receive sponsor letters.

— from Tanzania

16. Treasured Letters

Those letters are treasured by our children and their families. They are kept where they cannot be rained on — even if other household things can be rained on.

— from Kenya

15. Overcoming Obstacles

Some of the children who have graduated from their child development centers are now worship ministers, teachers and professionals. They cherish all the letters and memories, mentioning that the letters from sponsors helped them overcome obstacles during the formation of their lives.

— from El Salvador

14. Shining Faces

Whenever children are surprised by the arrival of letters from their sponsors, we can see their faces shine with happiness and we see that this reflects the joy in their hearts. Nothing compares to their joy, and it is something that comes from inside.

— from Brazil

13. Becoming Kinder

Children become kinder, because they want to show their sponsors they care for others and are behaving well.

— from Togo

Three Brazilian girls excited to receive their sponsor letters

12. High Expectations

Whenever children are assembled and it is mentioned that the teacher wants to give them letters from their sponsors, all the children keep quiet and stay attentive with a very high expectation to receive a letter from their sponsor. The joy, happiness and the glow evident in the children’s faces is a clear indication that sponsor letters play a significant part in their lives.

— from Kenya

11. Expression of Love

Children take your letters as a sign of your concern and an expression of your love. Parents are amazed that somebody is taking time to think of them, as poor as they are. Sponsor letters are making church leaders and child development center staff renew their concern and love for the children and families they serve.

— from Ethiopia

10. Gifts for Children

The letters are like gifts for children. When they receive them, it makes them feel that they are worth it, that they are taken into account, that someone loves, remembers and cares for them and asks God for their lives.

— from Ecuador

9. Shoulders to Lean On

When sponsors share their feelings and prayer requests, the children feel more wanted and cared for. Some children who are orphaned feel so loved that they refer to their sponsors as Mom or Dad. This helps boost the emotional status of these children. They have a shoulder to lean on.

— from Kenya

A boy in Burkina Faso opening a letter from his sponsor with pictures inside

8. Most Important Friends

For many children who do not have a dad or a mom at home, who have not received love and affection, their sponsors are their most important friends. There are many children who share needs or secrets only with their sponsors.

— from Nicaragua

7. Live With Confidence

When sponsor letters tell children that they are the best and God loves them, the children’s self-worth is lifted forever and they live with confidence.

Children gladly share with their friends the information, the stickers, the verses, Christmas/Easter wishes and all the other gifts they receive from sponsors.

Children are also deeply moved by the love expressed for them in these letters. One letter read, “We have hung your photo on the wall and we ask God to bless you every time we see you.”

The children cannot hide their emotions when they receive such messages. They are moved to tears, and they bless God for giving them such wonderful friends to walk closely with through the journey of life. They forget the weary burdens that sometimes pull them down. The children are compelled to keep these letters; they read them time and again.

Optimism and hope are reflected on the faces of children as they read and meditate on the encouraging messages.

— from Kenya

6. Expressing Affection

It is wonderful to see the children’s smiles when they receive letters from their sponsors, as they feel the love and care from people who, without knowing them, express how important and valuable the children are. Most of the children do not receive such affection in their homes from their parents or caregivers.

— from El Salvador

5. Receiving Assurance

One time I went for facilitation, and I saw an appreciation card written by a child to the sponsor and the child kept carrying her sponsor’s letters to school. She said when there is no one near her to encourage her through difficulties, she reads her sponsor’s letter and she feels assured to be a winner.

— from Kenya

4. Motivation

When a child receives a letter it is like a little message of love that moves him or her to do extraordinary things and to dream.

— from Nicaragua

3. Accepting Jesus

There are children who accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior due to sponsor letters’ impact and prayers.

— from Ethiopia

A boy in Ghana climbing over a wall

2. Healing

Once, a child’s parent told me that when my assistant brought a letter to her sick child, the child got up immediately from the sick bed. After the letter was read to him, he embraced the photo contained in the letter for a long time. And that marked the sudden end of that sickness.

— from Togo

1. Love

Every Saturday we pray for the sponsors. The other day I took a giant world map and a 9-year-old girl stood up, pointed to the country where her sponsor lives, and said: “How is it that someone who lives so far away can love me? Maybe it is like God, that even when we are far away and don’t know Him, He still loves us.”

I cried. I cried a lot.

— from Ecuador

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Children from Kenya laughing together

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