This is only mildly frustrating from my perspective, but I *really* hope that the poor little girl I was assigned wasn’t told one day “great news — you’ve been sponsored!” and then soon after “oh sorry, guess not after all.” I would think that might be a little traumatic, or at least discouraging, for a child, and I really hope this kind of thing doesn’t happen again!

If your child has graduated high school but remains in our sponsorship program you can continue your sponsorship until he or she graduates from the program. The blog post, How Long Does My Sponsorship Last?, has more info on this.

If your child has graduated or left our sponsorship program, we do not offer programmatic opportunities for you to continue supporting the child.

Actually in the United States while kids are free to make their own decisions when they turn 18, very few are in a position to go it alone in taking care of themselves. Many do not graduate high school until almost 19. Most have family assistance with technical training or college for many more years. The biggest challenge for US foster children is lack of support during the four years after they turn 18.

Are there any options for continuing to support the sponsored child if they continue on to college or vocational training?

Thank you for your kind response. I realize you cannot customize every response to every sponsor at the point that a child eventually leaves the program. I’m just glad I have learned from this blog to expect this eventuality of having to make the phone call. I wish I had the resources to do all the good that I would like to do. I am glad that there are other people who can take on a subsequent child easily. Perhaps the fact that I specifically picked Chucha off your web site confused me because I feel like I chose to sponsor HER, and not just be a sponsor of a child in general. I just hope the telephone operator does not make discontinuing sponsorship a guilt trip or as difficult as discontinuing a credit card. I think I am going to be grief stricken enough without going through having to explain myself. That is a sales technique used too often. I wish there was an “opt out” option for use to select online so we did not have to deal with telephoning you. It seems like it could be done by email these days.

Thank you for your attention to your sponsors.

The most common reason a child leaves a Compassion program is that they move to a place where Compassion does not have a program. Often in search of better job prospects, the mom or dad will pack up the family and move to a new community, and we may not have a church partner by their new home. I don’t know if this is the situation for your child, but it is the reason we see most often when a child leaves our program. Other reasons kids leave the program include attendance issues or if the family’s situation has change positively to where Compassion assistance is no longer needed.

We visit with the child and the family, to determine the reason for the child’s leaving, if it is the family’s decision. Any questions are addressed that the family may have about Compassion sponsorship. The child and family are reminder of the benefits of Compassion sponsorship. Ultimately, if the family is making the decision to remove their child from the program, we honor that decision.

You can advise in a final letter that the child consider the decision to leave the program, but by the time the letter is received in country, the child may have transitioned in their new life outside of Compassion.

And, yes a child can be re-enrolled in the program after age 10.