At SHIP, we are all about relationships, and our sponsorSHIP program is a big part of building relationships with the children and young people in our neighborhood. To our sponsorSHIP students, their sponsors are heroes. Sponsors are the people who write them letters, pray for them, and encourage them. A sponsor might even be the person who helps a student attend a safe, Christian school or become the first person in a family to attend a university. But, more than that, a sponsor is an example of Christ’s love in action.
The best ways to convey Christ’s love to our students who live 2,000 miles away is through letters and prayer. Those letters and prayers mean so much to our sponsorSHIP students, and that is why sponsors at every donation level can write to and receive letters from their sponsored student. Our goal with sponsorSHIP is not simply to pay for tuition and expenses. It is to ensure that all of our sponsored children—from the four-year-old students in SHIP’s own school to the young men and women starting classes at the university—feel surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses” and encouraged to “run with perseverance the race” God has marked out for them.
Students waiting for SponsorSHIP
The best ways to convey Christ’s love to our students who live 2,000 miles away are through writing letters and praying for them. Those letters and prayers mean so much to our sponsorSHIP students, and that is why sponsors at every donation level can write to and receive letters from their sponsored student.
Lesly H.
- 14 years old
- Female
Camila Z.
- 12 years old
- Female
$50/month
- A chance to exchange letters with your sponsored student
- Tuition at a safe Christian school
$100/month
- A chance to exchange letters with your sponsored student
- Tuition at a safe Christian school
- Registration fees
- Uniforms
- School supplies and books
$150/month
University Students
- A chance to exchange letters with your sponsored student
- Textbooks
- Registration fees and incidental expenses
- Tuition at a University
SponsorSHIP FAQs
A SHIP sponsor is someone like you who has made the decision to personally invest in the life of a child in El Salvador. You can help your sponsored child develop a sense of confidence and self-worth with the love you express through letters and prayers. As a SHIP sponsor, you are assured that there is a real connection between you and the specific child you support. The child you sponsor will know your name, write to you at least twice a year, and benefit directly from your monthly sponsorship.
Not at all. Children in our sponsorSHIP program only know that they have a sponsor, and we really wish you could be there to see their faces light up when they find out someone is sponsoring them. They know that someone is praying for them and cheering them on.
Our sponsorSHIP program offers you the opportunity to stay with a child for a number of years, usually until the child reaches the age of 18 or graduates high school. Some sponsors choose to remain with the same child through the child’s university education, if they’ve sponsored an older child. While we hope that you will be able to continue in your support of your sponsored child until he or she completes high school, we recognize that sponsors’ circumstances sometimes change.
Please understand that a sponsored child’s circumstances may change, too. For example, sometimes families move beyond the reach of SHIP’s program, and children have to leave SHIP sponsorship. We will inform you as quickly as possible if any such circumstance affects the child you sponsor, and we’ll offer you the opportunity to support another child in need of your help.
In addition to letters from your sponsored child, SHIP will send you newsletters and email updates about SHIP’s ministry in El Salvador. You’ll have a better understanding of your sponsored child’s culture and life. It’s quite likely that your vision of God’s kingdom will expand. If you join us on a SHIP mission trip, you may even have the opportunity to visit your child. If you would like to learn more about the opportunity to visit your sponsored child on a mission trip, please check out the Mission Trips section of our website for upcoming mission trip dates and the associated costs.
We encourage you to send your sponsored child a personal or family photograph and a short letter of introduction when you begin your sponsorship. SHIP’s staff and partners will translate your letter and deliver it to the child you support. Please send your letters to us to be translated and delivered to the child. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 3003, Bryan, TX 77805-3003, or you can send your letter via email (click on “Contact us“).
When you write, your sponsored child will benefit from knowing that someone in addition to his or her family really cares. Your words of encouragement will make a big difference to your child, and you have the unique opportunity to instill hope into your child’s life.
Correspondence between sponsors and the children they support is truly developmental. The more you write the child you sponsor, the more he or she will reap the benefits of your relationship.
Your child will write to you at least two times a year. A teacher or staff person will help children who have yet to learn how to read and write.
As you share your own family and stories with the child you support, you may discover that he or she is also praying for you. As your exchange of letters with your sponsored child grows over the years, you can build a scrapbook of letters and photos from your child. Your scrapbook will serve as a constant reminder of the relationship you’ve developed with the child you’re helping and of how you’ve contributed to his or her growth.
Prayer is a critical link between SHIP sponsors and the children they help. Your prayers for the health, safety, education, and spiritual development of your child are extremely valued.
Remember that the child you sponsor may pray for you, too. As you share your own family and stories with the child you support, you’ll probably discover that he or she is also praying for you.
Full sponsorship of children from kindergarten through high school is $100/month and $150/month for university students (or a portion of the $100 or $150/month). We offer the opportunity for you to donate a base amount of $10 per month, with increasing increments up to $150. We want each person to have the opportunity to bless a child and share a relationship with them. If you have questions regarding these options, or if you would like to discuss an amount that more specifically fits your financial ability, then please send us an email at contact@shipinternational.org.