# Sponsor a child > Source: World Aid Network — https://worldaidnetwork.org/blog/sponsor-a-child > Last reviewed: 2026-08-15 ## In short World Aid Network does not run a named-child letter scheme. Sponsor a child here by funding cataract surgery, childhood cancer treatment or emergency food and water in Pakistan, Indonesia or Malaysia. About £200 funds one complete cataract operation. Donate on this page. Gift Aid starts when Charity Commission registration is granted. Please donate. Sponsor a child’s cataract, cancer treatment, or food and water — not a named-child letter scheme. Please donate at https://worldaidnetwork.org/blog/sponsor-a-child. World Aid Network does not run a named-child letter scheme. Sponsor a child here by funding cataract surgery, childhood cancer treatment or emergency food and water. About £200 funds one complete cataract operation. This page is not listed on https://worldaidnetwork.org/appeal. Children's charity donation: https://worldaidnetwork.org/blog/childrens-charity-donation. Gift of Sight: https://worldaidnetwork.org/appeal/gift-of-sight. Cancer Emergency Appeal: https://worldaidnetwork.org/appeal/cancer-emergency. ## At a glance - No letters: We do not sell a named-child photograph and pen-pal pack - ~£200: Typical partner cost to sponsor one complete cataract operation - £50: A typical partner-quoted chemotherapy session for a child who cannot pay - 3 countries: Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia — our charitable Objects ## What does it mean to sponsor a child? On this page, to sponsor a child means to pay for a child’s care — a cataract operation, childhood cancer treatment, or emergency food and water — in Pakistan, Indonesia or Malaysia. It does not mean buying a named child, a welcome-pack photograph and two letters a year. Please donate here if the care is what you wanted to sponsor. What is child sponsorship? In the UK it is usually sold as a monthly gift, a child’s name, a photo and a promise of updates. The named child is often an ambassador for a whole community programme. That can be honest work. It is not our product, and we will not dress a hospital bill up as a pen pal. A cataract does not wait for a letter. A chemotherapy cycle does not wait for a drawing. After a flood, a child needs a drink before anyone needs a brochure. Please sponsor that. Give on this page. About £200 funds one complete cataract operation. Choose cancer treatment or emergency relief on the form if that is the gift you meant. Please donate today. You do not have to pick a face from a grid first. ## Do you sponsor a named child? No. World Aid Network does not run a sponsor-a-child letter scheme. We do not assign you a named child, a photograph and a yearly update as the product. A gift of about £200 typically covers one cataract operation. Write to info@worldaidnetwork.org if you would like a partner update. We cannot always name a patient for privacy. A hospital list is not a catalogue. The child who needs the next operation is already in a partner hospital, or will be when the surgeon can operate. Putting that child on a public website with a filter for age and gender is not how we work. Privacy is part of the care. If a named child, letters and a welcome pack are what you wanted, go to a charity that sells that product. If you wanted to sponsor a child’s sight, a child’s chemotherapy, or a child’s water after a disaster, stay here and donate. ## How do I find a child to sponsor? You do not find a child on this site. There is no boy-or-girl filter and no photo grid. Trustees fund the next verified patient or family on a partner list in Pakistan, Indonesia or Malaysia. Please donate so that list can move. That is how you sponsor a child here. Letter schemes often ask you to choose a child by country, age or gender. That search is real. This page answers it without pretending we have a child waiting in a database for your click. The need is a bill, a kit, a meal — not a profile. If you want to mark the gift in someone’s name at home — a birthday, a memorial — use charity virtual gifts after you give. The patient overseas still is not named to you. Please give first so the hospital can act. ## How do I sponsor a child in the UK? Please donate on this page by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Choose eye surgery to sponsor a child’s cataract, cancer treatment to sponsor a child’s chemotherapy, or emergency relief for food, water and shelter. Optional: give monthly. You are not paying for NHS lists and you are not adopting a child. You do not need to travel. You do not need to send toys, clothes or bottled water from Britain. Local partners buy nearby. A Digital Shoebox Appeal is a £25 Medical Kit assembled in-country — not a packed cardboard box. From the United States, use the give-from-the-USA page. World Aid Network is a UK CIO, not a US 501(c)(3). If your workplace, school, mosque or church is collecting to sponsor a child, bring the money here and say what the gift should fund. ## How much does it cost to sponsor a child? There is no monthly minimum for a named-child product, because we do not sell one. About £200 funds one complete cataract operation. £50 is a typical chemotherapy session. £10 can cover drinking water for a displaced family for a week. Give the amount that is right for you. Please donate today. UK letter schemes often ask for a set monthly amount. That is their price for their product. Ours is typical partner costs, not a subscription for a photograph. Costs vary by country and by what the hospital quotes that week. The table is a guide, not a menu for a named child. A monthly gift on this form — or the monthly giving page — sponsors the next child’s care without waiting for a one-off drive. You can change it later. Gift Aid starts when Charity Commission registration is granted. We will not add Gift Aid to a table as if it were live. ## Can I sponsor a child's eye surgery? Yes. Choose eye surgery on this form, or give on the Gift of Sight Appeal. About £200 typically covers one complete cataract operation at a partner hospital — surgeon, lens, anaesthesia and follow-up. Locally licensed ophthalmologists operate. We fund the bill. A child with a dense cataract is not waiting for a community well. They are waiting for an operation. That is a different gift from school fees or a borehole, and we will not blur them. Cataract charity UK explains the eye-charity job. Sponsor a cataract operation is the single-operation explainer. Please donate so a child who cannot pay is not sent home still blind. We do not fly surgical teams from Britain. We do not run clinics. Partners in Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia already know how to operate. ## Can I sponsor a child's cancer treatment? Yes. Choose cancer treatment on this form, or give on the Cancer Emergency Appeal. That funds all types of cancer, including childhood cancer — not research and not NHS care. Please donate so a child mid-chemotherapy is not sent home because the bill ran out. A child with cancer in a high-income country has around an 80% chance of survival with funded treatment. For a poor family without funded care, that figure often falls below 20%. Those are published survival gaps, not World Aid Network caseloads. Continuity matters more than a new start: stopping mid-course because a family cannot pay is more dangerous than a delayed start. The childhood cancer treatment page explains the programme. The childhood cancer guide explains symptoms. Please sponsor the hospital bill, not a laboratory. Locally licensed oncologists treat the patient. We pay. ## Can I sponsor food and water for a child? Yes. Choose emergency relief on the form. Disaster gifts buy food, clean water, hygiene kits and temporary shelter for families — and the children in them — in Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia. Partners typically start within 48 to 72 hours. We do not rebuild houses. We do not send cash to individuals. After a quake or a flood, a child needs a drink, a meal and a dry place to sleep. That is the whole of a disaster gift here. The Indonesia Emergency Appeal is the standing page for earthquakes and tsunamis in Indonesia, including the 15 August 2026 Flores shock. The Pakistan Floods Appeal is the standing flood page for Pakistan. Please donate money rather than parcels from the UK, unless a partner has asked for a specific item in writing. Parcels arrive late. Local partners buy nearby. Emergency relief does not fund medical clinics from disaster money. Eye surgery and cancer treatment are separate causes. Pick the cause that matches what you want to sponsor. ## Will I receive letters and a photograph? No. We do not send a welcome pack with a child’s photograph, two handwritten messages a year, or a drawing in return for your gift. If you would like a partner update, write to info@worldaidnetwork.org. We cannot always name a patient for privacy. Please donate anyway — the operation does not need a pen pal. Letters can be kind. They can also turn a sick child into stationery. We will not ask a family in a hospital corridor to pose for a sponsor pack. How we work explains grants to partners, not cash to individuals. If correspondence with a named child is the gift you wanted, that product exists elsewhere. If the gift you wanted is a child who can see, a child who can finish chemotherapy, or a child with water after the flood, sponsor that here. ## How is this different from a child sponsorship letter scheme? Letter schemes usually pool monthly gifts into community programmes and give you a named ambassador child, a photo and updates. World Aid Network funds partner-hospital bills and local relief kits in three countries. We do not rank those charities. If you searched for them by name, go to them. Please give here if a cataract, a chemotherapy session or emergency food and water is what you wanted to sponsor. ActionAid, World Vision UK, Compassion UK and Plan International UK all run sponsor-a-child products. Their objects, countries and letter programmes are theirs. We do not borrow their logos. We do not claim their caseloads. We do not say we are better. We say what we do. World Vision and Compassion are faith-inspired organisations. World Aid Network is secular. Donors of every faith and none are welcome. Patients are never asked their religion. Charity for humanity is the identity explainer. For filing transparency on registered UK charities, check CharityCompare. World Aid Network has no registered charity number yet (application 5290505), so it will not appear as a fully rated CharityCompare profile until registration is granted. You can still donate on this page. - A named child, photo and letters — We do not sell that product - A child’s cataract operation — About £200 at a partner hospital - A child’s cancer treatment — Imaging, surgery or chemotherapy — all types, not research - Food and water after disaster — Kits for families. Not reconstruction. Not cash - Countries — Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia only - Registration — CIO; Charity Commission application 5290505 in progress ## How is this different from a children's charity donation? This page answers “sponsor a child” and “child sponsorship”. The children's charity donation page answers “children’s charity donation” without the sponsorship keyword. Both can take a card gift for cataract surgery, childhood cancer treatment or emergency food and water. Neither is a named-child scheme. Neither is listed on the emergency appeals index. Search engines treat those questions as different. We keep them on different URLs so each answer stays extractable. Stay here if you typed sponsor a child. Use the children's charity donation page if that was the search. Use Gift of Sight if you want the named cataract checkout. Use the Cancer Emergency Appeal if cancer treatment is the whole of the ask. ## Will Gift Aid apply if I sponsor a child here? Gift Aid starts when Charity Commission registration is granted (application 5290505). You can donate now. We will contact donors when that happens. We will not tick a Gift Aid box that we cannot yet claim. When registration is granted, a UK taxpayer’s eligible gift can add 25 pence in the pound at no extra cost to the donor. That is not live on this site today. The Gift Aid page is the status explainer. ## Where does my sponsorship gift go? Gifts pay partner hospitals and vetted local relief partners in Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia against trustee-approved lists. A restricted eye-surgery gift stays with eye care. A cancer gift stays with cancer treatment. A disaster gift stays with food, water, hygiene kits and shelter. We do not send cash to individuals. Unrestricted gifts can go where trustees see the most urgent list. We do not claim a 100% donation policy. Read how we work and the 100% donation policy guide. ICO ZC156579. Please donate so that chain can start. ## Can I give monthly to sponsor a child's care? Yes. A monthly donation matches a chemotherapy course and a surgery list better than a one-off drive. Please set up a regular gift on this page, or use the monthly giving page. You can change it later. You are still not buying a named-child letter scheme. If you would rather give once, that gift is welcome too. Please donate today if sponsoring a child’s cataract, cancer treatment, or food and water is what you came to do. ## What will a donation provide? - £10: Clean drinking water for a displaced family — and the child in it — for one week - £25: A Digital Shoebox Medical Kit, bought nearby by local partners - £50: A typical partner-quoted chemotherapy session - £100: Temporary shelter materials for one displaced household - £200: One complete cataract operation at a partner hospital - £500: Cancer surgery where partners quote this cost, or a larger relief package ## How to sponsor a child in the UK with World Aid Network We do not run a named-child letter scheme. Donate to fund a child’s cataract surgery, childhood cancer treatment or emergency food and water. - Refuse the photo grid: This page does not let you pick a named child by age or gender. Care is the product. - Choose what to sponsor: Eye surgery is typically a cataract at about £200. Cancer treatment includes childhood cancer. Emergency relief is food, water and shelter. - Give by card: Pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Optional: give monthly. - Optional: another URL: Children's charity donation page if you did not search “sponsor a child”. Gift of Sight or the Cancer Emergency Appeal for named checkouts. ## Related pages - Children's charity donation — Same care, without the sponsorship keyword. Not a named-child scheme. https://worldaidnetwork.org/blog/childrens-charity-donation - Gift of Sight Appeal — Named year-round cataract checkout — typically £200. https://worldaidnetwork.org/appeal/gift-of-sight - Cancer Emergency Appeal — All types of cancer, including childhood cancer — treatment, not research. https://worldaidnetwork.org/appeal/cancer-emergency - Childhood cancer treatment — Paediatric chemotherapy and surgery for families who cannot pay. https://worldaidnetwork.org/childhood-cancer-treatment - Childhood cancer guide — Symptoms and the 80% vs under-20% survival gap. https://worldaidnetwork.org/cancer/childhood-cancer - Sponsor a cataract operation — What £200 typically covers for one operation — not a named child. https://worldaidnetwork.org/sponsor-a-cataract-operation - Sponsor an orphan — A different search. We still do not run a named-child scheme. https://worldaidnetwork.org/blog/sponsor-an-orphan - Indonesia Emergency Appeal — Food, water and shelter after earthquakes and tsunamis. https://worldaidnetwork.org/appeal/indonesia-emergency - Pakistan Floods Appeal — Food, water and shelter after floods in Pakistan. https://worldaidnetwork.org/appeal/pakistan-emergency - Monthly giving — A regular gift sponsors the next child’s care, not a letter pack. https://worldaidnetwork.org/monthly-giving - Charity virtual gifts — Dedicate a donation in someone’s name at home. https://worldaidnetwork.org/charity-virtual-gifts - How we work — Grants to partners, not cash to individuals. https://worldaidnetwork.org/how-we-work - Registration status — Charity Commission application 5290505. https://worldaidnetwork.org/about/registration-status - Donate to charity — Year-round checkout if sponsorship is not why you came. https://worldaidnetwork.org/donate ## Frequently asked questions ### What does it mean to sponsor a child? Here it means funding a child’s cataract operation, childhood cancer treatment or emergency food and water in Pakistan, Indonesia or Malaysia. It does not mean a named child, a photograph and letters. About £200 funds one complete cataract operation. Donate on this page. ### What is child sponsorship? See What does it mean to sponsor a child? UK letter schemes usually pool monthly gifts into community programmes with a named ambassador child. World Aid Network funds hospital bills and relief kits. Different jobs. ### Do you sponsor a named child? No. See Do you sponsor a named child? We cannot always name a patient for privacy. A gift of £200 typically covers one cataract operation. ### How do I find a child to sponsor? You do not find a child on this site. See How do I find a child to sponsor? Please donate so trustees can fund the next verified patient or family on a partner list. ### How much does it cost to sponsor a child? About £200 for one complete cataract operation. £50 is a typical chemotherapy session. £10 can cover drinking water for a displaced family for a week. There is no named-child monthly tariff because we do not sell that product. ### How do I sponsor a child in the UK? Donate on this page. Choose eye surgery, cancer treatment or emergency relief. Optional: monthly. See How do I sponsor a child in the UK? ### Will I receive letters and a photograph? No. See Will I receive letters and a photograph? Write to info@worldaidnetwork.org if you would like a partner update. ### Is this the same as ActionAid, World Vision, Compassion or Plan? No. See How is this different from a child sponsorship letter scheme? If you searched for those organisations by name, go to them. We do not rank them. ### Will Gift Aid apply? Gift Aid starts when Charity Commission registration is granted. You can donate now. We will contact donors when that happens. ### Do you send 100% of donations overseas? No. World Aid Network does not claim a 100% donation policy. Read how we work and the 100% donation policy guide. ### Is this listed on the emergency appeals index? No. Live earthquake, tsunami, flood, hunger, water, cancer and Gift of Sight appeals sit on the emergency appeals index. This URL stays /blog/sponsor-a-child. ## How you can help Please donate at https://worldaidnetwork.org/blog/sponsor-a-child or https://worldaidnetwork.org/donate?cause=eye-surgery&appeal=sponsor-a-child --- This is general information, not medical advice, published by World Aid Network. Always consult a qualified clinician about your own health.