Child and Adult Safeguarding

Keeping children safe: Our policies and practices

At World Vision the care and protection of children and vulnerable adult beneficiaries is our top priority. It is the focus of both our work in communities around the world and our advocacy on behalf of all children, especially the most vulnerable.

We take our responsibility to protect those we work with seriously. We have extensive Child Protection policies and protocols in place to safeguard children and communities. We condemn all forms of exploitation or abuse of children or adults, and have a zero-tolerance policy of incidents of violence, especially against children.

World Vision complies with the mandatory reporting required by the Australian Government. All World Vision staff and partners must by law report any alleged child protection breaches.

Our humanitarian work is carried out in accordance with the humanitarian principles – humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence. This includes avoiding exposing people to harm through humanitarian assistance.

World Vision has comprehensive policies and practices in place to protect recipients when local partners deliver aid. Our standard practice is to obtain police checks for all staff and volunteers before they distribute aid. In situations where police checks can’t be obtained, volunteers or new staff follow the World Vision International exemption process to comply with best practice.

New World Vision Australia staff and volunteers undertake orientation in World Vision’s policies and protocols, as well as a National Police Check and a Working with Children Check (or State equivalent). All staff and volunteers must agree to observe those policies and understand the disciplinary actions for any policy violations.

Key policies and protocols include the World Vision Child & Adult Safeguarding Policy, humanitarian charters and child protection. Extra screening measures, such as behavioural-based interview questions, are used when hiring for positions that involve working directly with children.

Strict safeguards around our Child Sponsorship program are in place to protect sponsored children. Sponsors must obtain a National Police Check through us before visiting their sponsored child. All visits are organised and chaperoned by local World Vision staff. Protocols manage how photos and video recordings of sponsored children are used, and letters are opened and vetted. Read our FAQs for more information on sponsor visits. Or you can read our full Child and Adult Safeguarding Policy

World Vision has a confidential Whistleblower Hotline through Your-Call, an independent and external service. Your-Call enables reports to be made anonymously and confidentially. All reports are investigated. Visit www.yourcall.com.au/report (you will be required to enter World Vision Australia’s unique identifier code WVA) or call 1300 790 228.

If you have any further questions you can email us at safeguarding@worldvision.com.au or call us on 13 32 40 within Australia. Or you can submit an enquiry if you're overseas.

Statement of responsibility

World Vision Australia is committed to the welfare of children and their protection from abuse and exploitation. This commitment is spelled out in our Child Protection Policy. We also uphold the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989), Article 19.

Every person who shares in the work of World Vision Australia - including staff, volunteers, contractors, and supporters - also shares in the responsibility to take every precaution to protect the children and families we serve.

Sponsoring a child is a wonderful experience and one we encourage you to share with friends and loved ones. You might inspire someone else to change a child’s life!

In most cases you are welcome to share updates, photos and videos of your sponsored child and their community via social media. But we do ask you to make sure that the information you share respects your sponsored child, protects their privacy and keeps them safe.

Follow these simple steps before you get started.

Step 1: Check if your sponsored child lives in a restricted country

Some countries prefer that you don’t share your sponsored child’s photos and videos online for child protection purposes. If your sponsored child lives in one of these areas, it will be noted under their photo on your My World Vision page. Even though you can’t share photos and videos of your sponsored child, you can still share community photos and videos.

Step 2: Check what you can share online

If your sponsored child does not live in a restricted country, you are free to share this information online:

child and community photos and videos, as long as they don’t contain landmarks that reveal your sponsored child’s location
excerpts of letters and cards from your sponsored child that don’t include their last name or address
your sponsored child’s first name, age and country
your sponsored child's language, hobbies, chores and grade level at school
your sponsored child’s general health status (excluding sensitive details)

Sharing some types of personal information can threaten the privacy and safety of your sponsored child and their community. For this reason we don’t include last names, community names or locations or any other information that might identify the location of sponsored children on our website. We ask you to do the same when you are sharing your sponsorship story online.

Please don’t share this information online:

your sponsored child’s surname and sponsorship ID number
first names, surnames and occupations of your sponsored child’s parents
your sponsored child’s address or school name and address
community village/name
your sponsored child’s height and weight, specific medical conditions or disabilities
your sponsored child’s religion
images that are geotagged to your sponsored child's location

These things all reveal too much about your sponsored child’s identity and location and could place them at risk.

Step 3: Start sharing your sponsorship story

Do you have a question or need more information? Send our team a message or call 13 32 40.

Child protection on the World Vision Website

World Vision is committed to protecting the security, privacy, and dignity of the children whose parents, guardians and community leaders have graciously allowed to be a part of our child sponsorship programs.

The policies below describe how we protect children in relation to the web sponsorship process.

Child security

Children have the right to be completely secure from the fear or reality of any potential abuse (either physical or emotional) resulting from an inappropriate contact by a sponsor or any other person.

You will notice as you proceed through our sponsorship site that we release only limited information about the children. We don't include last names, community names or locations, or any other information that might identify the location of the child. We intentionally withhold this information until after the identity of the sponsor is verified.

By agreeing to become a child sponsor, you also agree not to attempt to contact a sponsored child, his or her family or community members, in any manner other than that prescribed and permitted in advance in writing by World Vision. Telephone calls, emails or unplanned visits to the child's residence and community are not allowable without the written permission and oversight of World Vision. Letters and packages can be sent by post, and you can read instructions on what you can send in the material mailed to you after you become a sponsor.

Child privacy

We take potential misuse of child photographs on the web very seriously. Children and their families must be assured that World Vision is protecting the integrity of the information about themselves that they've given us, including photographs. Privacy also demands that children, their families and communities be shielded from any potential inappropriate contact from sponsors or others.

That's why we don't allow downloading, copying, or replicating photos or other information relating to children and their communities on this website without our prior written permission. Child profiles are presented for the purpose of conveying appropriate information about the sponsorship relationship, and are not to be distributed.

Our photos of children are encoded with a digital watermark. They can't be downloaded and unauthorised access to the source data has been blocked. World Vision monitors the web for inappropriate use of these images and we're committed to pursuing every available legal recourse to stopping their misuse. For more information on our content policy, please refer to our Assets for Web page.

Child dignity

The lives of children, their families, and members of their community should be represented with accuracy and dignity. We consider the children we work with as our partners, working with us to help bring holistic transformation to communities living in poverty. We seek the full, informed consent of parents, guardians, and/or community leaders for a child's participation in our child sponsorship programs.

If you have any questions about any of these policies, please email us.