We want you to have the best relationship possible with your sponsored child, and we recognize that besides visiting your child personally, writing letters is the only way you can develop a relationship. We also understand your desire to avoid using "snail mail" in our ever-increasing, digitally-connected world.
As technology continues to influence and change how we communicate, we regularly look at our communication model with several questions in mind.
- What impact can the technology have on the safety of the children in our programs?
- How can giving a third-party site or application access to our database place your personal information at risk?
- How will our processes be affected (e.g., translation, tracking and training)?
- Can we administer the program efficiently, cost effectively and consistently across cultures, languages and dissimilar rural and urban infrastructures in dissimilar countries?
- Can we deliver what we promise? Can we guarantee integrity?
If you are contacted by your sponsored child outside of Compassion (e.g., by phone, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), please don’t respond, and please let us know about the contact.
It's surprisingly common for someone who knows a sponsored child, even a family member like an uncle or cousin, to create an account on a social network and pretend to be the child, to ask for money and to threaten the child’s well-being if money isn’t provided.
We cannot protect your privacy or your sponsored child if we are not involved in the correspondence. We also have a responsibility to protect the children from sponsors who don’t have the children’s best interest in mind. Sadly this happens occasionally as well.
Being involved in the correspondence process also allows us to help you navigate the ocean of cross-cultural sensitivities and avoid inadvertently writing something inappropriate or offensive to your child.
While it may seem easier to speak with your child directly through Facebook, and we know that writing letters the "old-fashioned" way may not be what you prefer, we appreciate your willingness to respect our communication policies. Thank you.