Protecting the children in our care
Thailand Kids gathers children in villages, photographs them, and sends those photographs to supporters overseas. That is ordinary in child sponsorship, and it is the single greatest risk this ministry carries. This page sets out, in public, the rules that govern it.
"Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea."
Matthew 18:5–6
A duty we were given, not a policy we adopted
We do not protect children because a regulator asked us to. We were told to, by Jesus himself, in some of the most severe words he ever spoke. To welcome a child in his name is to welcome him. To put one in harm's way is the gravest failure a ministry can commit.
We take him at his word. Everything on this page — the consent forms, the altered photographs, the letters that wait — is simply what that instruction looks like on an ordinary weekday.
A policy nobody can read is not a policy.
Parents in the villages we serve are being asked to trust strangers with pictures of their children. Churches are being asked to send teams and money. Both deserve to see the standard before they commit, rather than after something has gone wrong.
Children stay with their families
Thailand Kids runs no orphanage, no boarding home and no residential program. Every child we serve sleeps in their own home, with their own family. The church comes to the village.
Local leaders, not visitors
Children are taught by trained leaders from their own communities — known to the families, accountable to a local church, and present all year rather than for a week.
Consent is informed and reversible
Consent is given in Thai, explains exactly what will be shared and with whom, and can be withdrawn at any time without any effect on the child's place in the children's church.
When in doubt, the send waits
Any update that cannot clear every condition below is held, not sent. A late letter disappoints a sponsor. A breach can follow a child for life.
Seven conditions, checked before anything about a child leaves Thailand
These are not aspirations. They are the checklist the administrator works through before any child's image or name is sent to a sponsor. Every one of them must pass.
- Signed consent on file. A parent or guardian has signed a consent, written in Thai, explaining what will be shared, with whom, and that it can be withdrawn at any time.
- Consent is current. The consent is no more than twelve months old. Consent is renewed annually, not once and forever.
- No full names. A child's full name is never sent. First name only, or a chosen name.
- Province, never village. Location is given to sponsors at province level. The specific village is not shared.
- Every image is altered. No photograph of a child leaves Thailand in its original form. Each one is processed first so the child in it cannot be identified, searched for, or traced to a place. No exceptions, and no level of consent changes it.
- Dignity in every image. No photograph shows a child undressed, in distress, or in any way that could identify where they live.
- Sponsors are told the rules. Every sponsor is told in writing that images are for their personal encouragement and may not be posted publicly.
What a family or a church may choose to release
The seven conditions above are the floor for every child. A family or a whole congregation may decide to release more than the minimum — in writing, in Thai, and revocable whenever they want. What they cannot do is waive the protection of a child sponsored on their own.
Every condition above applies without exception. Altered image, first name or a chosen name, province only, consent renewed every year.
No one else can waive this. Not a family, not a church, not a leader.
A household may choose to be seen as itself: an unaltered photograph, the family name, their village, and their story in their own words.
It covers the family only. A child sponsored individually keeps the strictest rules inside a family that has waived them.
A partnering congregation may be named and shown in full — the village, the church, its leaders and the building. A church can speak for itself.
Children are never included by default. Every child in a church's photographs is still governed by the conditions above.
If any condition fails, the send waits. A late update is recoverable. A safeguarding breach is not. How this reaches a sponsor in practice is set out on Sponsor a Child.
The same rules govern what we publish
The mark, and what its absence does not mean
An image that has been through the protection process may carry the Thailand Kids shield. Sometimes it sits faintly in a corner, and sometimes it does not appear at all. The mark is a label; the protection is the work. We may use it or leave it off without notice. Never read a missing mark as missing care.
On this site
No child on this website is identified by full name, and no image is captioned with a village. Photographs used in our public material are chosen against the same six conditions as a sponsor letter.
In printed material
Posters, leaflets and presentation kits for partner churches carry the same restrictions. A church presenting our work is presenting it under our safeguarding rules.
What sponsors agree to
Receiving a photograph is not permission to publish it. Sponsors are asked, in writing, to keep a child's picture to their household and their prayers — not their social media.
How to raise a safeguarding concern
Concerns are taken seriously whoever raises them — a parent, a village leader, a sponsor, a visiting team member, or someone who has simply seen something on the internet that should not be there.
Tell us
Email [email protected]. Say what you saw and where. You do not need to be certain, and you do not need to give your name.
We stop the flow
Anything connected to the concern — an image, an update, a listing — is pulled while it is looked at. Nothing waits for a conclusion before it is paused.
We look into it
With the field team and, where a child may be at risk, with the local church leadership and the appropriate authorities in Thailand.
We tell you what happened
If you left contact details, you hear the outcome. If a published item was wrong, it stays down and the process that let it through gets changed.
You can support this work and protect a child at the same time.
These rules are the reason a welcome pack takes a while to arrive, and the reason a photograph sometimes does not come at all. They are not obstacles to the ministry. They are the ministry.