Plan will gather donors’ monthly contribution to implement lasting and sustainable development programmes in the community of the sponsored children so that the children, their families and their communities are benefited. The programmes mainly cover six main areas including education, early childhood development, protection from violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, skills and decent work and young people driving change. Read more from About Child Sponsorship Programme

Yes. When you sign-up for child sponsorship you will be connected to a specific child. This allows you to build a relationship with your sponsored child and improving his or her life.

Yes. Each sponsored child will only be sponsored by one donor at the same time. Donors can be individuals, couples, families, companies or organizations.

The sponsored child will be assigned to another donor if the existing one terminated the donation.

To effect lasting change, a child cannot be isolated from a family, or a family from a community. By improving the facilities and resources in the communities where children live, Plan projects help give children their best chance of fulfilling their potential in the long-term future

As long as necessary, but not after they reach 18. We will contact sponsor by phone to explain the situation. However, if we cannot reach the sponsor, we will reassign a new sponsored child and send a written notification. This is to ensure the uninterrupted support for the educational, hygienic, nutritional projects, etc.

If the family still needs our help then we often register a younger brother or sister. On average, children are enrolled with us for 7 years.

Communities in need are chosen by Plan through detailed research, which identifies the degree of poverty as part of the assessment. After the assessment, we will start the development projects in the selected communities for about 10-15 years long.

● First 3-6 months: consulting with the community. Youths, women, leaders and of course, children are approached individually and in groups to gain a sense of the challenges and priorities of the community.

● Next 6-12 months: work on a small test project that has a short timeframe to see how Plan and the community can work together.

After almost a year of community consultation and building relationships, trust and confidence, Plan and the community undertake a child sponsorship programme where projects are chosen by the community and facilitated through Plan, which provides specialist training as well as the various resources required to complete the project successfully.

Once the community is considered to have the skills, knowledge and resources to be able to sustain themselves and build a better life for their children – sometimes after as long as 10 years or more, Plan withdraws and moves to a new area.

Yes. Extra contributions are always welcome, and are used to provide additional funding to many vital projects. You can, of course, sponsor more than one child.

After you become a child sponsor with Plan International, you will receive the personal information introduction of the sponsored child, together with two photos (including a personal photo and a group photo with family members or friends).

Under normal circumstances, Plan International staff or community volunteers will visit the sponsored children every year to follow up on their latest situation and learn about their needs and prepare the latest report and two recent photos of the sponsored children for sponsors. All photos and information are taken and recorded by our local staff or community volunteers and printed and posted by our staff or volunteers from Hong Kong Office. There are 1.2 million sponsored children located in various developing countries supported by Plan International. Our staff and volunteers need to process a large amount of information about the sponsored children. During the process, we will endeavor to ensure the accuracy of the information. If you have any concerns or enquiries about the information received, please contact us at 3405 5305 or email [email protected].

*Based on our Child Safeguarding Policy, sponsors should protect the personal information and photos of the sponsored children, and especially avoid posting them online, to prevent unscrupulous persons from collecting children’s personal information online for illegal purposes, causing threats to children’s safety.

Write to your sponsored child

We believe that the notes and photographs sponsors send have an important role to play in the development process. They keep the focus of our work firmly on children, they encourage parents and communities as a whole to engage more deeply with the initiatives we encourage, and they help build self-esteem and confidence.

Plan will bridge communication between you and your sponsored child. You may click here to send a message through e-letter so your sponsored child will get your message more quickly, or use any nice letter paper of your own choice to write a letter to your sponsored child. Together with stickers and your photos, please mail it to Plan International Hong Kong Office.

Visit your sponsored child

Visiting your sponsored child is another way to learn more about your sponsored child’s community. Many of our supporters take the opportunity to visit and see at first-hand how their support is making a real difference. This can be a truly memorable experience for you – many supporters find it has a profound impact on them and reaffirms their belief in how child sponsorship makes a difference.

In addition to providing various support for children in need, building relationship between sponsors and sponsored children is also an important part of the programme. We encourage sponsors to write to their sponsored children to establish a continuous and sustainable relationship with their sponsored children and give them care and support along the way.

However, some of the sponsored children are not proficient to express their thoughts due to age or education level. When necessary, our frontline staff or community volunteers will help write the letter and deliver what children want to express to their sponsors. Children are also encouraged to attach pictures drawn by themselves. Serving as a bridge to facilitate communication between sponsors and children, Plan International will also translate the children’s letters into English or Chinese (depending on the needs of the donor).

Generally, the identity and name of our frontline staff and community volunteers who write or translate the letter will be indicated at the bottom of the letter.

• ‘Child Sponsorship Programme’ Welcome Kit includes:
– Child sponsorship manual, introducing the “Child Sponsorship Programme”
– Sponsored child information, details about your sponsored child including his/her photo, area overview, detailed information about the area your sponsored child is living in

• Sponsored child update report
Every year, Country Offices will provide an information update on your sponsored child and family including any new photographs and a report on progress made in the community’s region.

• E-news & newsletter of Plan International
We will send bi-annually newsletters and regular e-news on Plan’s latest news in Hong Kong and around the world by mail or email.

• Annual report / Financial statements of Plan International
We release comprehensive financial statements, which are audited by chartered accountants, every year. In our annual report, you will see our yearly work report, annual account and review. You may click here to download our annual report.

• Tax deduction
Plan Hong Kong is registered as a charitable organization with the Hong Kong government under charitable registration number 91/9789. Every April or May you will receive an annual tax receipt outlining your tax deductible contributions for the preceding financial year.