Renaming Announcement of Plan International Child Sponsorship Programme

The Child Sponsorship Programme has always been an important part of Plan International’s work. Through the child-centered community development approach, we are currently working in 57 developing countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Oceania, to make lasting improvements to the quality of life of children and their families, so they can move out of poverty and attain self-reliance.  Between 1959 and 1973, Plan International operated a field office in Hong Kong. With the monthly donation of HK$45, we provided nearly 12,000 local children and their families with support in education, food, healthcare, housing and career counselling. In 1973, witnessing the improvements in living standards, Plan International decided to leave Hong Kong in order to divert and focus its resources on other developing countries where new programmes and field offices were set up. It was only until 2009 when Plan International re-opened its Hong Kong office and reintroduced our Child Sponsorship Programme, to accept donations from the Hong Kong community to support the child development programmes in China, Asia, Africa and the Americas.

To keep abreast of the times, the original sponsorship model was transformed into the existing community-based approach. Resources are allocated to support children, their families and communities in 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., helping children and their families move out of poverty and attain self-reliance. Sponsors can still build their relationships with sponsored children via letters and make positive impacts on their lives. This development model benefits both the child and the community. Other than helping only one child and his or her family, we can now make long-lasting and comprehensive improvements in the community so that children’s rights and gender equality can be achieved. This operation model of the programme has been well covered in the “Sponsorship Handbook” that we have shared with every child sponsor once he/she signed up for the programme.

Renaming of the Child Sponsorship Programme

Plan International has been accompanying children’s growth and carrying out lasting and sustainable child development programmes over the years. To enhance the public understanding of the programme, Plan International Hong Kong is now renaming the Chinese name of the Child Sponsorship Programme, from “助養兒童計劃” to “培幼兒童成長計劃”, while all English names remain unchanged. Details are as follows:

Lasting Impacts of Community Development Model

Donor’s continuing support has allowed us to work in over 60,000 communities in the past year. Nomathemba, a girl from Zimbabwe, in which you can see how the community development model is more efficient in making lasting impacts on children’s life.

Zimbabwe is facing more droughts than ever because of climate change. Nomathemba’s family grows maize, sorghum and millet for a living. The droughts have affected their harvests and she has to walk 30 minutes just to fetch water. Plan International carried out a water conservancy project in the community to install a solar-powered pump at Nomathemba’s school. Now, it only takes her five minutes to fetch water and she can spend more time on her studies. Plan International also taught villages to collect rainwater and use water efficiently, as well as skills to tackle climate change for children and families. Facing huge global challenges such as the pandemic and extreme climate events, problems are no longer confined to one family or one social class. Providing community-wide skills training and facilities development can create larger and longer impacts on children than directly donating to one child. And eventually, the child, his or her family and the whole community will be benefitted from the programme.

Continue Building Relationship with Sponsored Child

The renaming of the Child Sponsorship Programme does not affect the current operation model of the programme and sponsor’s connection with his/her sponsored child(ren). Plan International will continue to strive for children’s best interests and use resources prudently so that the maximum amount of funds will be used in the community development projects to help children grow up healthily to reach their potential and enable the whole community to move out of poverty and attain self-reliance.

You can learn more about our programme achievements from our website.

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