1. Child/Youth Protection

UPI and participating ministries always commit to making our programs as safe as possible for your child/youth and sponsor. Adherence to the following rules is essential to maintaining child/youth/sponsor safety and protection.

• Personal information about the child’s family may not be shared unless otherwise noted and granted permission by that child and family for certain circumstances.
• The address or exact location of a child/youth/sponsor may not be share with the sponsor or child at any time.
• All visitors to UPI programs and or affiliates must always be accompanied by a designated staff member.
• UPI and participating ministries will cease any visitor interaction with a child/youth if a child/youth asks for the interaction to stop, or if the child/youth appears uncomfortable with the interaction.
• Permission from the child/youth must be granted before a photograph of them is taken for sponsorship purposes.
• Visitors must dress in a culturally appropriate way and must always be in view of another adult when with a child/youth.
• Visitors will be oriented on this when visiting through a UPI planned trip
• Visitors must be sensitive to the unwritten laws of personal familiarity in language, conversation, and physical intimacy.
• Ministry or UPI staff and visitors are expected and required to report any suspicion of child/youth abuse or misconduct immediately to both the ministry director and the UPI sponsorship coordinator.
• A sponsor may only visit with their sponsored child/youth through an organized visit through UPI or the participating ministry director. The visit must be planned through UPI or the ministry director.
• Any visit with the child/youth must be as part of a team, accompanied by a ministry staff person. No sponsor may visit with a child/youth alone, for both the safety of the child/youth and the sponsor.

If child/youth leave a program

• If a sponsored child or youth for some reason leaves the program (afterschool program, summer camp, school, orphanage) their ministry sponsorship coordinator must communicate with the UPI sponsorship coordinator as soon as possible to find a new child/youth for the sponsor. The ministry director must discuss why the child/youth left the program so that UPI can communicate that to the sponsor and offer the sponsor another student/child to sponsor at that time.