Sponsor mail monitoring

In Australia alone Plan has over 40,000 sponsors, many of which correspond and some who actually visit their sponsored child. Sponsorship is a wonderful opportunity to share in our work through the eyes of a particular child and their family, and many strong friendships develop.

To ensure that we do not allow harmful relationships to develop we ensure that correspondence between sponsors and sponsored children comes via Plan rather than direct. Communications from sponsors are screened to intercept inappropriate written or visual material that raises child protection concerns.  As Plan is a non-denominational organisation we also need to check for political or religious comments that could cause offence or be illegal.

We also protect the privacy of our sponsors by checking that letters do not contain their contact details. This could invite begging letters from people unconnected with the sponsored child. If we cannot send it we return the correspondence to sponsors explaining our concerns and actions.

Below is a guide that outlines the type of content that Plan looks for when screening sponsor mail.

• Sexual or sexualised language
  
  
• Excessive use of familiar terminology such as ‘love’ (NOTE:  it is acceptable for a Sponsor to finish their letter ‘Love Kathy’)
  
  
• Adult content/issues such as:
  • Swearing
  • Violence
• Exploitation
• Sex
• Relationship/family/financial problems

• Inappropriate photos and images (containing nudity, images of a sexual/intimate nature, exploitative)
  
  
• Religious content (sponsors mentioning their religion is appropriate - preaching and evangelism, sending bibles or discriminating against another religion is not)
  
  
• Racist language of any sort
  
  
• Political content
  
  
• Requests for gifts from the sponsored child/family other than the usual letter, drawing or handicraft
  
  
• Invitations to come to Australia
  
  
• Offers of direct financial and other assistance
  
  
• Complaints about Plan (NOTE: We accept that sponsors may have complaints about Plan but they should be directed at/to Plan Australia staff NOT to sponsored children)