Protecting Dignity in Child Sponsorship. Why Baptist World Aid Australia’s new policy matters.

At certain Christian events, you’ve probably seen aid agencies promoting child sponsorship by displaying cards with the photos of the children awaiting your support. Have you ever cringed a little looking at a table spread with kids’ faces and felt a bit like you were “shopping” for a poor child to help?  

Don’t get me wrong, child sponsorship is an excellent initiative and those Christian agencies running such programs are doing an amazing job of lifting children out of poverty and disadvantage and affording them greater safety, dignity and self-determination. A recent RMIT University study commissioned by Plan International showed that the benefits of child sponsorship included a higher likelihood of birth registrations, school attendance, access to clean water, and general health and social well-being.¹

Over many years, my wife and I have sponsored children from around the world and have found it incredibly heartwarming to watch our sponsorship kids grow up and graduate from the program, knowing they have had a significantly better start in life than they would have had without that support.  

But I always feel awkward every time we sponsor a new child and have to scroll through a webpage looking for the face of a child we wanted to support. It’s personally confronting to find yourself being more drawn to a child with a cute face or a sad face, knowing it really shouldn’t matter what a child in need looks like.

But, in fact, there are real reasons for protecting the identity of children when promoting sponsorship, and not just to ease our sense of awkwardness. Those reasons include the children’s privacy and their dignity.  After all, could you imagine posting photos of your own children on the Internet asking for help? What about pictures of needy children in your town or suburb? How would that fit with their right to privacy and with their sense of dignity? 

But even more concerning is the fact that we could be putting children’s safety at risk by posting their images online. Experts tell us that constantly sharing pictures of your kids can make them vulnerable to identity theft, harassment and even predators. 

To that end, our friends at Baptist World Aid have decided to no longer display the faces of potential child sponsorship recipients online or at events.² They’ve done this because it will help protect children from abuse, as well as ensuring there’s no difference between the children, no matter what they look like. This is especially needed for children with visible disabilities who will now be afforded the same dignity as other children.

When you see a table full of sponsorship cards or visit the BWA site, the faces will be covered by a friendly, yellow ‘sticker’, protecting the identity of the child until after a person signs up to become a sponsor. 

I think it’s a brave decision by BWA that shows their primary concern is for the wellbeing of the children in their programs. 

If you’re interested in child sponsorship through BWA, you can visit their site here: https://baptistworldaid.org.au/sponsorship/

In their book When Helping Hurts, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert write, “The mission of Jesus was and is to preach the good news of the kingdom of God, to say to one and all, ‘I am the King of kings and Lord of lords, and I am using my power to fix everything that sin has ruined.”³  Sometimes, however, in our desire to help we can inadvertently put people at greater, unforeseen risk. And that’s the last thing you want to do, especially when working with vulnerable children.

As Corbett and Fikkert point out, it can be an incredibly difficult balancing act to get international aid right. 

If you’re interested in exploring these complexities, in 2025 Morling College is offering a subject that explores this whole field from a Christian perspective. Aid and Development (EM010) will explore both philosophical and theological perspectives on community development, include biblical perspectives on provision for the poor and needy, and the example and teaching of Jesus. 

You’ll also be guided through an analysis of international aid agencies, Christian and secular, and be given the tools for developing and evaluating community projects, equipping local people for leadership in aid and development projects, and analysing and responding to their problems and needs. Part of the assessment for the unit involves a detailed examination of one aid or development project case study.

You can enrol for academic credit in one of Morling’s various awards, or you can audit the subject at a greatly reduced rate. 

¹ https://plan-international.org/publications/an-analysis-of-child-sponsorship-data/ 

²See the Baptist World Aid explanation of their new policy here: https://baptistworldaid.org.au/changingthefaceofsponsorship/

³Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts (Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2016), 1.