Sponsor a Child

Helpful Information For Child Sponsors

Sponsor and Sponsor Child Relationships

Child sponsorship is a very personal way to support and learn about the lives of those impacted by your financial contribution to an ICC Australia funded project.

Twice each year you will receive a report from the project with a photo of your sponsor child as well as a letter or card from the child. 

Sponsors who wish to do so, may write back to the child. Some children are involved in projects for a short time, perhaps two or three years, others will be involved for a longer time. Sometimes parents of young children will choose to sponsor a child of similar gender or age to their own child who might become friends through their letters.

Some sponsors also send gifts to their sponsor child. We advise caution around gifts as they can create issues in communities if some children get gifts and others don't. The best way to do gifts is to contribute to our gift fund which is used to help celebrate birthdays and Christmas.

Visits to meet a sponsor child are possible for some projects although others are not accessible due to their remote or unsafe location or for political reasons. For example, it is not possible to visit children who live in unidentified countries or in refugee camps. You will receive more information about this in your welcome letter if you become a sponsor.

How Sponsorship Funds Are Used

Sponsorship funds are naturally not given directly to each child but they are used to fund programs that are of benefit to your sponsor child and other child protection programs. The children who are available for sponsorship generally have been through, or are judged to be at risk of, abuse and neglect, malnutrition, or other treatable health problems. Some have no family. Many have not been able to attend school regularly because they are required to work to support their family. Others have been caught up in civil war or have been at risk of child trafficking.

ICC Australia uses your sponsorship contributions to address these issues. We fund programs that enable more children and communities where poverty is extreme, to have access to:

• Basic housing in a safe environment
• Food security through agriculture projects and other livelihoods projects
• Healthcare and medical facilities
• Microfinance for small business initiatives
• School education facilities
• Vocational training
• Child protection and advocacy

These programs involve direct life-saving support and longer term programs aimed at effecting social and economic change in communities.

Sponsorship Details

ICC child sponsorship contributions are just $43 per month.  

This can be paid monthly, quarterly, six-monthly or once each year.

To provide sufficient funds for the programs, a sponsored child will generally have more than one sponsor. One sponsorship is a little more than $1 per day which is the level of extreme poverty in which a child would be fortunate to survive to 5 years of age. ICC is fully committed to helping children and their community to lift themselves above this level of extreme poverty, hence funding above this level is required. 

Sponsorship funds are pooled and shared equitably. Having more than one sponsor doesn't mean that a child receives favoured treatment. Nor does it diminish the significance of the gift you give or detract from the specialness of the sponsor and sponsor child relationship. In fact many sponsors are relieved to know this because the child will still have access to essential services if for some reason they are no longer able to make payments. 

How To Make A Payment

Online:

Simply click on the Sponsor Today button, select a child and proceed to the payment page. Your first receipt will be emailed within a few minutes. Payments will be set up on a monthly recurring basis, unless you request otherwise, and a receipt will be emailed each time a payment is made.

Direct:

Email or call our office and talk about sponsoring a child: Email: info@iccaustralia,org.au or phone 02 9987 1136.

We thank you so much for taking the time to understand our sponsorship program better.

We sincerely hope that you will partner with ICC Australia in brightening the future for destitute children - one child - one family - one community at a time!