Letter Writing Ideas for Sponsors

A longtime sponsor shared her letter writing tips and recommendations for not missing an opportunity to write to your sponsored child. Pam Mateo sponsors three children in Uganda and keeps in touch with them on a regular basis.

"I save my letters, so I know what I've written to them," Pam said, "I review mine, review their last letter and update them on family events. I send a couple of pictures from my phone to the local drugstore, they have a convenient app. I type my letter, one page, and usually buy a card and put everything in it."

"One time I sent my pictures, dropped my mom off for a perm, picked up the pictures, dropped the letters off at the [CARITAS] office and picked up my mom," she said with a smile.

[UPDATE: Communicating with your sponsored child just got a lot more streamlined. With our new website, all correspondence between sponsors and children can now be handled online! Please see our FAQs section for how to write to your child or contact us if you have questions.]

Regarding the content of her letters, Pam said she addresses what her sponsored children have said in their letters and encourages them to keep working hard in their studies. Suggesting that children probably have other things on their mind rather than writing a letter, Pam said of Martin, an eleven-year-old boy whom she sponsors, "I understand that he may want to be out playing football."

Pam traveled to Uganda and was able to meet Martin, the boy she and her family support through CARITAS child sponsorship programs. Martin, in the green t-shirt, is standing with Richard, who is sponsored by Pam's sister-in-law, Rosana.

The letters she receives tend to follow a certain rhythm, with gratitude an ever-present mention. Pam noted that as the children grow older, the detail and length of their letters grows as she has seen with the teen girl her mother sponsors.

Pam and her family have been fortunate to travel to Uganda and meet the children they sponsor. Although this is not a possibility for everyone, the electronic age we live in has made our world so much smaller! The ability to Skype and talk to your sponsored child over the internet has become a reality for some of the CARITAS sponsors. With instant news and video feed we can be so much more aware of the struggles and joys of our brothers and sisters half a world away.

Pam with Vanessa and Agnes, two of the girls in Uganda whom she and her family support through CARITAS child sponsorship programs.

Some sponsors have developed close connections with their sponsored child through letter writing alone, and then had that relationship sweetened with a Skype or in-person visit. Whatever way you choose to keep in touch with your sponsored child, there is one thing you can be certain of: you will be making a life-changing difference for a child in need through the knowledge that someone cares a great deal about them.

   Have some great letter-writing ideas? Share them with us!