Top Sponsorship FAQs
When I sponsor a child it is one year commitment?
No. Sponsoring a child is an ongoing commitment where you’re able to help meet the basic needs of a child by investing in their community, as well as build a relationship and watch them grow up until they, or their community, become independent. Sponsoring a child is like inviting another person into your family.
It is not a real child. Other people are probably sponsoring the same child.
No. Each child in our sponsorship program is matched with one sponsor. You are the only sponsor for your sponsored child. They’re real children with real stories. You can get to know your sponsored child through letters and photos, packages, and email. You can even visit your sponsored child and see how your donation is helping transform their community.
My monthly donation goes straight to the child’s family
No. Your monthly donation is combined with the donations of other sponsors so we can provide long-term resources for lasting change in your child’s community – for sponsored children and other children in need. Giving the child or their family money does not ensure responsible spending or that the community will be able to sustain itself once we’re no longer working in the area. Love in Motion believes true community development is not about providing money or even services. It lies in helping people discover their God-given potential as human beings, and working together to realize that potential.
When my child sponsorship community closes and I’m no longer able to sponsor that child .It is a bad thing.
No. We partner with communities to help them reach their full potential as we address the root causes of poverty together. Once they are self-sufficient and thriving, it’s a time of celebration! The community is no longer in need of assistance and your sponsored child has a bright future ahead. Sometimes individual sponsorships end before our work in the community is finished. This could be for a variety of reasons, like the child reaches the age of independence, finishes school, or moves away from the sponsorship area. If that happens, we will let you know and give you the chance to sponsor another child.
How child sponsorship works
What is Love in Motion USA child sponsorship and how does it work?
Child Sponsorship is an opportunity to personally connect with a child, family, and community in need. You’ll walk alongside them as they work on lasting solutions to fight poverty and help vulnerable children reach their God-given potential.
When you become a child sponsor, you’ll start to build a relationship with one special child. You can connect with your child by writing letters and emails or sending cards and gifts. Knowing that someone far away cares about them and their future will be a great encouragement for a sponsored child.
Experiences have proven that the most effective way to help a child is to strengthen the child’s entire community. Love in Motion USA does this by pooling your monthly sponsorship donations with those of other sponsors in a community to provide the assistance that children and families living in poverty need most. Your generous donations will help the whole community have access to vital resources like clean water, nutritious food, healthcare, education, economic opportunities.
How is Love in Motion USA sponsorship designed to improve the lives of children?
We believe the best way to change the life of a child is to change the community in which he or she lives. The well-being of children is the focus of all Love in Motion USA does, and our work centers on improving the lives of vulnerable children.
Each Love in Motion USA Sponsorship project is designed to meet the most pressing needs in a sponsored child’s community, and all projects are regularly measured against these goals and objectives. Projects are designed to make sure that children are healthy by local standards, are receiving appropriate education and receive spiritual nurture. Other goals are determined by what the children and community need most: clean water and improved sanitation, better income opportunities for parents, improved agricultural production, etc.
Many of our programs are directed towards developing the skills and capabilities of adults, parents, governments and/or communities with the ultimate goal being to improve the well-being of children. Because the well-being of a child is tied to the well-being of their family and the community where they live, the work we do to help improve the life of your sponsored child is based on meeting the challenges that their community has identified.
How long will I be able to sponsor the same child?
Sponsorship is a long-term commitment; however, the length of each sponsorship depends on the needs of the child and their community. Your child’s age of independence or circumstances will vary from country to country. Sponsorship may end for any of the following reasons:
The community has “graduated.” The goal of sponsorship is to help break the cycle of poverty so children and families can step into the future with well-founded hope. When sustainability goals are met, projects are phased out and we move on to serve children in great need in other communities.
Your child becomes self-sufficient. In many cases, children are sponsored until they finish school, reach the age of independence in their community, are able to support themselves, or marry.
The family has moved to a different community. For example, a child’s family may move out of the community to an area where Love in Motion USA Child Sponsorship is not working.
If circumstances change and your child is no longer available for sponsorship, we’ll notify you and send you a new child in need to begin sponsoring.
Do sponsored children receive more help than other children living in the same community?
Love in Motion USA’s Sponsorship program is a demonstration of God’s love for all children in a community not just those fortunate to be sponsored. The children who are registered into our Sponsorship program are the most vulnerable children in the community and are considered representatives of all children in the broader community.
Our goal is to help all children in a community, sponsored children can significantly benefit from the personal relationship they build with their sponsors. The cards, letters, and prayers they receive from their sponsors are a great source of encouragement and help children build self-esteem and realize their self-worth in a world where poverty tells them that they don’t matter.
How long does Love in Motion USA work in the community?
Love in Motion USA helps children, families and their communities by supporting sustainable, long-term development projects. Sustainable development work takes time approximately 15 years. Love in Motion USA may stay in a community for less than 15 years, or longer, depending on when the development goals we set out to achieve have been completed. However, at times we may have to leave a community or country because local conditions often involving political issues or stability have changed.
Because we want to ensure that children continue to flourish after we leave, our exit is planned from the start. From the very beginning of our sponsorship projects, we work with the community to build lasting systems that will enable them to maintain and build on what has been achieved so their children can continue to thrive after the Love in Motion USA project has ended.
Love in Motion USA works with communities to establish priorities and the time it will take to achieve the goals. Addressing the root causes of poverty involves building trusting relationships, breaking mindsets, changing attitudes, and providing tools, skills, and training all of which requires a great investment of time.
The goal of sponsorship in a community is to help break the cycle of poverty so children and families can step into the future with well-founded hope. When these goals are met, Love in Motion USA can move on to serve children with great need in other communities.
How does Love in Motion USA work with the community to plan and implement sponsorship?
Love in Motion USA works in communities where our presence is requested and welcomed. Before a sponsorship project begins, Love in Motion USA workers meet with local community leaders to listen and assess the needs in the community and determine appropriate and effective responses.
Together, we develop a plan for project areas and activities that will address their needs and priorities. A plan of operation with a proposed timeline, budget, specific goals, and objectives is created. This plan includes the number of children and families that will be assisted through the various components of the project.
As we earn trust and credibility within the community, community members participate in and take ownership of the projects. While projects are in progress, the work is evaluated to ensure it is having maximum impact. This can last 10, 15, or even 20 years. Within the last years, the community prepares to carry out the development work after we leave.
By partnering with local people in the project communities, we empower them to bring about change themselves and to sustain progress in their community long after the project goals they have established with Love in Motion USA have been achieved.
How child sponsorship donations are used
How does my sponsored child benefit from my monthly donation?
Your monthly donation is combined with the donations of other sponsors so we can provide long-term resources for lasting change for all the children in your child’s community. Your gift will help provide your sponsored child and other children in desperate need with the basic necessities that can help them reach their God-given potential, including access to resources like clean water, better nutrition, basic healthcare, education, spiritual nurture, and economic opportunities for his or her family, the community, and other children in need. In areas where permitted, a sponsor’s gift will also help provide a Christian education program to give children the chance to learn about Jesus and his love.
Sponsorship also assists the entire community by providing benefits like new or restored water wells, new or renovated schools and health clinics, as well as improved agricultural training. Adults may receive vocational training in areas like tailoring and carpentry or may attend classes in nutrition and hygiene.
Love in Motion USA offers help in these areas and more–according to the needs of the community–because we believe the best way to change the life of a child is to change the community in which he or she lives.
Why doesn’t Love in Motion USA just give the child or family cash?
Giving the family of the child money does not ensure responsible spending or that the community will be able to sustain itself once we’re no longer working in the area.
Love in Motion USA believes true community development is not about providing money or even services. It lies in helping people discover their God-given potential as human beings, and working together to realize that potential. Fundamental to this is spiritual transformation that instills hope and promise for the future.
Technical help and funding in areas like health, agriculture, water resources, sanitation, nutrition, and income generation are important, but the underlying foundation of community development work is motivation and community organization something a simple cash handout can’t provide.
Linking this development philosophy and method to sponsorship requires that children be the focus of the development effort and that the needs of each sponsored child be taken into account. It is crucial that sponsors understand that a child doesn’t receive direct cash benefits, as a welfare system would provide.
Do my sponsorship gifts actually reach the country for which they are intended?
Yes, your sponsorship contributions will be used to benefit your sponsored child and their community. Love in Motion USA combines sponsorship donations to support community-based projects that improve the well-being of all children in need, including your sponsored child. Donations received for sponsorship’s are referred to as restricted (or designated) and therefore earmarked for that need.
Love in Motion USA also leverage funds from Child Sponsorship, one-time donations, goods donated by corporations, and government grants to ensure that all gifts entrusted to us have maximum impact.