Child sponsorship

Child sponsorship allows an individual, typically in a developed country, to sponsor, or fund a child in a developing country until the child becomes self-sufficient. This could mean financially supporting the education, health or security of the sponsored child, or in some cases all of these. This could also mean contributing more widely to the child's community developing without directly helping an individual child. One estimate is that over 9 million sponsors provide over US $5 billion to child sponsorship programs. Other sources state the amount of child sponsorship funding is closer to US $3 billion per year.