Friday 21st May 2010 was National Letter Writing Day, and according to a survey by World Vision UK, exchanging handwritten letters can have a really positive impact on child development. In today’s technological age, children spend more time on computers and text messages than they do actually writing out letters, but this is a great way for adults in the UK to connect with the children they sponsor all over the world to help in their learning process. In fact, as many as one in five UK children surveyed had never received a handwritten letter!
Results from the World Vision UK survey revealed in the last 12 months –
- 26% of children have not written a letter
- 43% of children have not received one
- 5% of children received letters from pen pals abroad.
- 90% of those that received a handwritten letter felt excitement and happy
During the survey, 49% of children had either written or received an email in the last week, so it’s not as if the downturn is anything to do with a lack of communication. The ease with which information is now passed around the globe has taken over from the joy a written letter can give to the recipient, something World Vision are championing through their Sponsor a Child programme.
Child education expert, Sue Palmer, said –
If children do not write or receive letters they miss out on key developmental benefits. Handwritten letters are much more personal than electronic communication. By going to the trouble of physically committing words to paper, the writer shows their investment of time and effort in a relationship. That’s why we tend to hang on to personal letters as keep-sakes. The effort of writing is a very real one for a child. Painstakingly manoeuvring the pencil across the page, thinking of the best words to convey a message, struggling with spelling and punctuation. It is, however, an effort worth making, because it’s only through practice that we become truly literate – and literacy is the hallmark of human civilisation. If we care about real relationships, we should invest in real communication, not just the quick fix of a greetings card, text or email. What’s more, if we care about civilised human thought, we should encourage our children to invest time and energy in sitting down to write.
World Vision commissioned this survey to help show the power of letter writing. Hand written letters are a key feature of their Child Sponsorship programme, which helps to connect families in the UK with children in the developing world.
Associate Director at World Vision, Kate Nicholas, said –
We know that literacy is one of the main ways to fight poverty in the developing world, but it’s also a key concern for the parents and teachers, up and down the UK, who sponsor with World Vision. Many of them see Child Sponsorship as a win-win situation. It allows children to improve their literacy and build a personal relationship through letter-writing, while understanding more about the world and giving children living in poverty the chance to access education themselves.
Help World Vision by sponsoring a child
The World Vision Sponsor a Child programme is a great way to give a needy child a real chance of escaping poverty. As part of a long-term program, your continued support enables World Vision to use your donations to build sustainable communities in partnership with the people who live there.
You can provide a child with a better future for just 60p a day – giving them a real chance of escaping poverty. You get to see and feel the difference your support makes directly, through the eyes of your sponsored child and their regular letters and photographs.
