communicating with your sponsored child

We will encourage your sponsored child to write to you and we hope that you will feel the same way because correspondence can be one of the greatest joys of sponsorship. The children really enjoy reading letters from their sponsors and will love to learn all about you.

We have seen the joy on the faces of our sponsored children when they receive a letter from their sponsor. Many of the sponsored children tell us that their letters were treasured and that they kept them and read them time and time again, even when they grew older.

Your sponsored child will definitely write to you once a year, usually after the end of the school year in April or May when they have their school reports - but they can write more often if they wish.

We encourage you to correspond with your sponsored child as often as you like, however, we do not send them by post because the Nepali postal system is not reliable.

How to send a letter to your sponsored child

Send it as an attachment in an email to our overseas business partner, ChEd Nepal, (enquiries@chednepal.org) and they will forward it to us within 24 hours.

Clearly write your sponsored child’s name at the start of your letter then write your short letter, keeping in mind our suggested letter writing tips below.

Letter writing tips

Your messages don’t need to be long. Short and thoughtful messages are easiest for children to understand, especially when they are just learning to read and write English.

Here are some topics you might like to consider:

How happy you are to be your child’s sponsor
Questions about their daily life, interests, school, favourite foods or hobbies
Your age, and the names and ages of your family and friends
Descriptions of your community - location, climate, games and activities of local children, etc.
Brief information about your job and hobbies

Sending photographs is also a wonderful way to connect. Children love to receive photos of you doing something you enjoy and they are a great way to bond and strengthen your relationship.

Sending Gifts

Modest gifts that fit into a small envelope may be sent to your sponsored child.

Recommended gifts include hair ribbons, combs, postcards, stickers, stationery and photos. However, please be aware that an individual gift to a sponsored child sometimes upsets the other children. Gifts we deem inappropriate will not be forwarded to your sponsored child. You can mail your gifts to our overseas business partner, ChEd Nepal, at the following address:

ChEd Nepal

14/29 Waine Street

Freshwater NSW 2096

Australia

Please don’t send any cash, cheques or money orders. If you wish to give an additional gift to help your sponsored child’s family or community, please contact us and we will tell you how you can go about it.

Cultural sensitivity

When you communicate with your sponsored child, please be culturally sensitive and do not reference religion, politics or other subjects that may be sensitive or inappropriate.

When sending photos, please ensure that every person in each image is fully and conservatively dressed. Please do not display or write about your material possessions.

Unauthorised contact between sponsors and children

We take child protection very seriously and, in our efforts to keep our children and their families safe, we monitor the letters and gifts sent to sponsored children.

All correspondence between a sponsor and a sponsored child must be through our Child Sponsorship Coordinator in Australia.

To protect the privacy of all parties, we do not allow children and sponsors to exchange contact information (phone number, email addresses, addresses etc.), nor do we allow contact on social media. Unfortunately, these days, children are quite media savvy and, despite warnings, may try to contact you using one of the various social media outlets.

If this occurs, you must immediately notify us.

Please visit our Child Protection Policy page for further information.

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