Our sponsorship ethics
Why we never name the children in our care, and why our university students, by contrast, are sponsored by name. This choice shapes everything we do.
The debate is real. We take a stand.
A genuine question runs through the humanitarian sector
Should you show a child’s face and first name to raise funds in their name, or not? The child protection sector has not settled the matter. Some NGOs refuse individual sponsorship on principle. Others make it their main tool for keeping donors, with a photograph, correspondence and visits. Between the two, intermediate positions exist.
AVEC has chosen a path that is neither one nor the other. A path built on a simple distinction, though one few organisations dare to state publicly: most of the people we support are vulnerable minors. A minority are consenting adults. These two situations do not call for the same treatment.
Two principles, two practices
Principle 1
The children in our care are never named
The children we welcome at the Battambang shelter, those at the kindergarten, the schoolchildren we follow and the underage learners at the training centre are never identified by name in our communications. No first name in our fundraising appeals. No recognisable face in a photograph. No individual story that trades on their personal history. You sponsor a programme, a place, a team. You do not sponsor a case file.
Principle 2
Consenting adult students may be
Our university students are at least eighteen years old. They have passed their school-leaving exams, chosen their field of study and personally signed the agreement that binds them to their sponsor. They can decide to be named, to be photographed, to tell their own story, to exchange letters. This sponsorship is by name because the person who benefits from it has, through her age and her consent, the legal and moral capacity to decide.
Three reasons this choice is non-negotiable
Because a vulnerable child should not pay in images for the protection they receive
Many of the children we take in arrive after abuse, neglect or trafficking. Their recovery begins with one thing: being allowed to forget. The right to move forward without outsiders looking in on what they have been through. The right, later, at eighteen, at twenty-five, at forty, to tell their story, or not, to whomever they choose. Putting their face on a sponsorship card sent to hundreds of strangers is the exact opposite of what they need. In some cases, it is even a risk to their safety.
Because dependence on a single sponsor weakens an entire programme
When a child is tied by name to one sponsor, their schooling, their housing and their care depend on the goodwill of a single person. If that sponsor stops, what happens then? The programme has to handle an emergency. The child feels abandoned. By sponsoring a project, you support a team and an operational commitment that hold steady whatever individual donors do. The programme holds firm. The child never even knows. That is precisely what we want.
Because every child deserves the same care, not only those who have a sponsor
Sponsorship by name mechanically creates two categories of children: those whose photograph appeals and who quickly find a sponsor, and those who wait. Those brought to the fore in the communications and those kept in the background. This inequality is invisible to donors but very real for the children concerned. With project sponsorship, every child at the shelter, every schoolchild we follow, every learner at the centre receives the same attention, the same budget, the same care. The allocation is not dictated by humanitarian marketing. It is dictated by need.
In practice, what this changes for you
A real bond, yet collective and protective
Many prospective sponsors hesitate to commit without knowing a child’s face. That hesitation is human and understandable. Here is what we offer instead, and it creates a bond every bit as strong.
- A quarterly journal from the sponsored programme. Four times a year, you receive concrete news: what has been done, the budgets committed, the collective progress, group photographs or anonymised scenes, and accounts from educators and trainers.
- A physical welcome pack. Within ten days of your commitment, an envelope arrives at your door. A card signed by Patrik Roux and Theavy Bun, a photograph of the sponsored programme, a detailed sheet of the work funded, and a small object made by the learners at the training centre.
- A real person as your point of contact. Instead of a bond with a child, you follow a team: Theavy Bun for the shelter, the trainers for the centre, the Sentinelles for the students’ support. The face that recurs in the news is that of the adults who do the work, not that of the children who receive it.
- A possible visit to the field. Once or twice a year, AVEC arranges trips for sponsors who wish to see the shelter, the training centre and the schools we support. Supervised, respectful of the children’s daily life, with no individual contact imposed. It is the chance for a bond that grows from meeting the place and the team, not from putting a child on display.
For student sponsorship, which is by name, the arrangement is different: a personal introduction to the student, a photograph, her background, exchanges of letters and possible meetings, always overseen by AVEC in line with our Sponsorship Charter.
The Sponsorship Charter, our commitment in writing
This ethic is not a good intention. It is a written commitment we sign with every sponsor. In four pages, the AVEC Sponsorship Charter sets out what we forbid ourselves, what we guarantee and what we expect in return. It can be read before any commitment. It protects the child. It protects the student. It protects the sponsor by setting out clearly what they can expect.
The key commitments we sign in black and white:
- We never use the identity of a child in our care for communications or fundraising.
- We never facilitate direct private contact between a sponsor and their sponsored child, whether a minor or an adult, without AVEC’s supervision.
- We share news from the field on a guaranteed schedule: a quarterly journal and an annual report.
- Each year we publish a detailed breakdown of how sponsorship funds are used, programme by programme.
- We guarantee the absolute confidentiality of all the sponsor’s data and never pass it on to third parties.
Frequently asked questions about our ethics
If I don’t know the child I sponsor, what binds me to the project?
The quarterly journal, the physical welcome pack, the field team who embody the work, and the chance to visit the shelter. Many of our sponsors tell us that this collective bond is in fact more lasting than a bond with an individual case file: it does not collapse if a child’s situation changes, and it lets you discover a whole programme rather than a single, isolated story.
Why, then, do you accept sponsorship by name for students?
Because the situation is fundamentally different. Our students are over eighteen, they have the legal capacity to consent, and they know what they accept and what they refuse. Many actively choose to have a personal sponsor because it gives them one more adult point of reference during a period of transition. For them, sponsorship by name is a choice, not something imposed.
Other NGOs show children’s faces. Are they wrong?
It is not for us to judge their practices. Every organisation strikes its own balance between fundraising effectiveness and the protection of those it serves. We respect those that stand behind their model. We ask only the same respect for ours, and we explain it publicly so that every donor can make an informed choice of the NGO that matches their values.
Can I still meet the children if I come to Battambang?
Yes, during the supervised visits AVEC arranges once or twice a year. You discover the shelter, you share a meal, you talk with the team. No individual appointment imposed, no photo session, no relationship built on your arrival and dismantled on your departure. It is a visit that respects the children’s daily life. Those who want to say hello do so naturally. The others keep their distance, and that too is respected.
Does this ethic cost AVEC donors?
Yes. Some donors want an individual bond and will choose other organisations that offer it. We accept that. Our conviction is that an ethic held to over time builds deeper loyalty than the usual emotional levers. Our sponsors stay, year after year, and they tell those around them about us.
Do you share this ethic? Explore the five sponsorship formats we offer.