Sponsor A Child with World Vision Child Sponsorship Programme

When I was a kid, I always looked up at all the 姐姐s aged 25 and above; I had the perception that by age 25, one would qualify as a lady and should be financially independent. Besides that, one should be able to present herself well and is in a stable relationship.

I feel like a sakai at 25. I feel like I’m still stuck in high school, doing nonsense and not anywhere close to being lady-like.

That aside, when the new year came (I consider myself 25 on 1 Jan itself), I did feel the significance of turning a quarter century old (or as I blurted out mindlessly to a friend, I’m at my quarter life). I felt the urge to take care of myself, which I have shared in Starting 2016 with Big-C.

Before all these Big-C fiasco, I told myself that I’m gonna upgrade myself to become a sponsor mother to a World Vision child when I turn 25. I’ve always aspired to sponsor a child when I’m financially stable.

And that’s what I did! I signed up to sponsor a child via World Vision website this month to commemorate my 25th birthday.

I have a sponsored son now who lives in Sri Lanka and speaks Tamil! His name is Kirushanthan and he’s 5 this year.

world vision sponsored child
Screen grabbed this when I was selecting a child to sponsor. He’s Kiru’s simple profile.

I will get to send letter to Kiru to introduce myself and I’d get to know him better when he writes me a letter too. So far, I’ve received a welcome kit from World Vision Child Sponsorship Programme to get me inducted into the programme.

Welcome kit from World Vision Malaysia
The welcome kit I received from World Vision Malaysia. Mind you. Just the folder ya. The rest are there to fill up the frame. Hahaha. #flatlaywannabe
child sponsorship kit world vision malaysia
And here are the contents. There’s a car sticker, letter & gift guide, 2015 annual review, child picture folder, Child Sponsorship Programme guide, social media guideline and intro postcard for my sponsored child.

Grabbing some stats from the World Vision Malaysia 2015 Annual Review given, World Vision Malaysia:

  1. Engaged 43,539 child sponsors for 58,479 children.
  2. Recruited 33,000 participants and raised RM2.2mil in the 30-Hour Famine campaign (I was part of this!)
  3. Involved 3,014 volunteers in administration, roadshows, fund-raising and campaigns
  4. Raised a total of RM51.7mil in 2015.

And World Vision Malaysia achieved this while keeping to their promise of having administration cost under 20%. In fact, they only spent 14% on donor care and administration, and fundraising cost last year.

Child Sponsorship Programme actually contributed bulk of the financial source for World Vision Malaysia (83% in 2015). How it works is that you’re assigned a sponsored child who is part of the Area Development Programme (ADP) at his/her village. You contribute RM65/month for Asian countries and RM80/month for non-Asian countries to the ADP fund. Sponsorship goes on for as long as you want or as long as the community is still under the care of World Vision (normally 15-20 years). World Vision uses the fund to develop the area, to benefit the participating families and communities that your sponsored child is a part of.

I chose to sponsor a child from Sri Lanka because RK has spoken fondly of Sri Lanka based on sharing from his Sri Lankan friend. I did not pick the gender of the child I wanted to sponsor but I  definitely handpicked Kiru based on the 12 options given for children under the age of 5 — I’m only 25; any older would be my sponsored sibling rather than my sponsored child. I picked Kiru because he was the only one with a glimpse of smile. I assume he’s bubbly like me ^^

sponsor a child via world vision
You can pick the country, gender and age range to handpick a child. Or you can choose from longest-waiting child or leave it to World Vision to pick. It’s a personal choice.

Signing up as a sponsor is very convenient. Everything can be done online, like how I contributed to Gifts of Hope. I signed up for monthly credit card auto debit so I don’t have to worry about forgetting to feed my sponsored child. Oops.

If you’re interested to learn more about World Vision Malaysia’s Child Sponsorship Programmes, here are some links:

  1. https://www.worldvision.com.my/
  2. https://www.worldvision.com.my/sponsor-a-child
  3. https://www.facebook.com/WorldVisionMalaysia/

Wee~~~ I’m a mama now. Haha.

2 thoughts on “Sponsor A Child with World Vision Child Sponsorship Programme”

  1. Hi Staci, I m Ben From Shelter Home. came across your interest on sponsor a child. We Shelter home shelterhome.org been here since 1981 . We currently work on Sponsor a children program by Charity climb in Mount KInabalu. Would you be interested? I will explain to you when me meet. Also we are looking for volunteers to give fliers to hikers from Kota Damansara Forest reserve.

    Reply

    1. Hi, Ben. Thanks for reaching out. I went through your website and am absolutely intrigued. I’d drop you an email so that we can take this conversation further =)

      Reply

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