How does sponsoring a child with Our Bridge work?
Thank you for your interest in the Our Bridge programme.
Our Bridge supports children in need, orphans and widows who are registered and interviewed in person by our staff on site. Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, we can provide food, education and other forms of help to those in need and support them through difficult times.
What kinds of sponsorship can I take on?
We currently offer two different sponsorships at Our Bridge.
With a Harman sponsorship, you support our Our Bridge programme with a contribution of €21 per month.
With an Our Bridge sponsorship of €30 per month, you support one child registered in the programme. In addition to a sponsorship certificate, you receive a profile and further information about your sponsored child.
How do I become a sponsor?
Thank you for being willing to support our mission. Sponsorships are enormously important to us, because we can only get the necessary help to those in need with the help of our sponsors. Without you, this would not be possible.
You can take on a sponsorship in our sponsorship portal, which you can reach at portal.ourbridge.de. When you register, we ask for some personal details, such as your address, so that we can send you your sponsorship certificate as well as cards or thank-you letters by post.
What can I do if I run into problems when signing up as a sponsor?
Thank you very much for wanting to become a sponsor. If unexpected problems come up during registration, here are some common issues and how to solve them.
We send you a confirmation email for your registration. Haven’t received our email? Sometimes it ends up in the spam or junk folder of your email program. If you can’t find it there either, please make sure you entered your email address and all other details correctly. When registering, also make sure to choose a secure password for the sponsorship portal.
If you have further questions, our team will gladly help you by email at info@ourbridge.de.
What happens if I can no longer afford my sponsorship?
Our sponsorships are voluntary and non-binding, so we never send payment reminders. You can end your sponsorship at any time with effect from the next month, or take it up again later. If it is only a one-time missed payment, the missing amount is covered from our donation fund.
If you would like to end your sponsorship, please let us know by email at info@ourbridge.de. In that case, we thank you for your support so far.
Can I make additional donations to Our Bridge or to my sponsored child?
Thank you for your generosity and for being willing to donate to Our Bridge. Because we want to ensure fair support for all children, we generally distribute additional donations equally among all children in the programme. If you have a specific wish for how your donation is used, for example toys, hygiene items or clothing, we will gladly honour it.
We only accept donations in kind in exceptional cases, because shipping goods to Iraq is very expensive. If we do have goods delivered to Iraq by truck for other reasons, we will put out a call so that interested people know about this option.
Can I take on more than one sponsorship?
Thank you for your support so far, and we are glad you are interested in taking on further sponsorships. You can increase or reduce the number of your sponsorships at any time. In addition to a Harman sponsorship, you can therefore also take on several Our Bridge sponsorships for several sponsored children.
Can I choose which child I sponsor?
To give all children in our programme the same chances and the same support, sponsorships are assigned anonymously by our system. Children with acute needs are given priority. For this reason, unfortunately, sponsors cannot choose a particular child themselves.
Why have I been assigned a new sponsored child?
Sometimes you may be assigned a new sponsored child without having done anything. This is no cause for concern: children can leave our programme because of a move, their age or because their need no longer exists. In that case, a child registered in the programme who has no sponsor moves up and takes over your sponsorship. We will of course inform you, and you can find out more about your new sponsored child in the sponsorship portal.
Can I adopt my sponsored child?
Adoptions are not part of our work at Our Bridge. Many of the children we support are not orphans but have relatives they live with. They would not agree to an adoption or a move to Germany, for example.
How can I get in touch with my sponsored child?
Our team is always in direct contact with the staff at our orphanage. For this purpose, the staff on site have their own phone. Via WhatsApp you can send personal messages to your sponsored child or make video calls. For more information, please contact us by email at info@ourbridge.de.
May I visit my sponsored child on site?
We are happy that you would like to get to know your sponsored child in person. You are welcome to visit our facilities and meet your sponsored child. We ask that you tell us the date of your trip before you travel, so that we can support and advise you with your travel planning, finding accommodation and any other questions, and plan your visit. You are welcome to discuss the details with our team by email at info@ourbridge.de.
When will I receive information about my sponsored child?
For every child in the Our Bridge programme, our team writes an individual profile containing personal information and an interview with the child. Once you have taken on a sponsorship and a child has been assigned to you, you can view your sponsored child’s profile in our sponsorship portal at portal.ourbridge.de.
If there are children in the programme waiting for a sponsor at the time of your registration, a child is assigned to your sponsorship automatically and you can see the information right away.
Sometimes a sponsored child cannot be assigned immediately because all children in the programme already have a sponsor. In that case, a new child must first be registered in the programme or an existing sponsorship must be ended. It can therefore take a few days before you can find out more about your sponsored child.
Which refugee camp does my sponsored child live in?
Most of our sponsored children live in a camp in the area around Khanke in northern Iraq. The nearest larger city you will find on a map is Duhuk. In your sponsored child’s individual profile you can read which camp your sponsored child lives in.
This information is available to you at any time in our sponsorship portal at portal.ourbridge.de.