Our Policy on Child Protection

Displaying photos of your sponsored child

Sponsoring a child is an exhilarating experience and we encourage you to share with your friends and loved ones. You're welcome to display photos of your sponsored child at your home or personal space at work/business to share your experience of helping a child in need, along with basic personal information (first name, age and country only).

The child details are presented to you for conveying appropriate information about the sponsorship relationship, and are not to be distributed.

Online publishing and emailing photos of your sponsored child

Emailing and publishing photos and personal information of your sponsored child online creates risks to the privacy, dignity and personal safety of the child. We ask you not to place your sponsored child's photo and/or personal information (age, last name, geographical location, health, or other) on a website (internet or intranet) or email it to others.

Downloading images

We take potential misuse of child photographs on the web very seriously. Children and their families must be assured that World Vision is protecting the integrity of the information about themselves that they've given us, including photographs. Privacy also demands that children, their families and communities be shielded from any potential inappropriate contact from sponsors or others.

That's why we don't allow downloading, copying, or replicating photos or other information relating to children and their communities from our web site or any social media pages without our prior written permission.

World Vision India monitors the web for inappropriate use of these images and we're committed to pursuing legal action to stopping their misuse.

Children have the right to be completely secure from the fear or reality of any potential abuse (either physical or emotional) resulting from an inappropriate contact by a sponsor or any other person. As you proceed in your sponsorship journey, you will notice that we release only limited information about the sponsored children.

E-mails, Visits and Calls

By agreeing to become a child sponsor, you also agree not to attempt to contact a sponsored child, his or her family or community members, in any manner other than that prescribed and permitted in advance in writing by World Vision. Telephone calls, emails or unplanned visits to the child's residence and community are not allowed without the written permission and oversight of World Vision.

Planned Visits

You are welcome to visit the child you sponsor and meet the whole family. Please send a written request to our email id at indiasponsors@wvi.org at least 10 days in advance and we will be glad to organize a visit on any weekday avoiding weekends and National Holidays. A sponsor will be allowed to meet a child only in the presence of World Vision staff and a parent/guardian of the sponsored child. Please note that World Vision India does not allow unplanned visits to your sponsored child's residence or community, under any circumstance. World Vision India would be more than happy to organise a visit for our sponsors to meet their sponsored children because all such visits must be organised through us.

Letters

You can certainly write to your sponsored child. In fact, we encourage our sponsors to write to their children so as to get to know them and their family better. Your sponsored child can also write to you. Many sponsors and sponsored children find this a rewarding experience. If the child is very young or does not know how to write, someone will probably help him/her to write or the project staff will write on their behalf. However, any communication to your child should be addressed to Donor Relations, World Vision India, at the Chennai Office.

As a child-focused organisation, World Vision India recognises that social media has brought new types and levels of risks to children. While World Vision cannot control the use of technology and social media, at World Vision, we strive to ensure that children and their families are protected from any potential physical or emotional abuse resulting from inappropriate and unsafe internet and social media use, including the sharing of private information about a child and their family.

We encourage you to develop a meaningful relationship with your sponsored child in a way that is safe, secure and fulfilling for both of you. We also want to ensure that the content sent to the child is appropriate and culturally sensitive. Because of this, we ask you, our sponsors, to not engage in direct, unmonitored communication with your sponsored child or family.

This includes direct contact through the internet or social media (e.g. Instant Messaging, Facebook, Skype, etc.). In order to ensure your child's security, we request you to not post your sponsored child's last name or specific location and contact details on the internet or social media sites.For example, it would be nice if you could share the fact you have joined your sponsored child in his/her life journey through World Vision India's child sponsorship programme. But, please refrain from posting personal information or contact details of your sponsored child on your social networks. And because we value your privacy and security as a sponsor, sponsored children and families are discouraged from contacting you without World Vision India's knowledge as well. An important reason why we do not allow direct correspondence despite its seeming benefits is that a family member or someone who knows the child could go online, create an account and pretend to be the child and make demands for money, etc. In light of these concerns, we request you to report any contact initiated by your sponsored child or his/her family, to World Vision for both their security and yours at indiasponsors@wvi.org

The lives of children, their families, and members of their community should be represented with accuracy and dignity. We consider the children we work with as our partners, working with us to help bring holistic transformation to communities living in poverty. We seek the full, informed consent of parents, guardians, and/or community leaders for a child's participation in our child sponsorship programmes.

If you have any questions about any of these policies, please email us to indiasponsors@wvi.org.

If a registered child, family member/legal guardian or donor/sponsor has breached any of the above-mentioned guidelines of child protection, ensure to immediately report such incidences by emailing us at indiasponsors@wvi.org.