FAQs

Protecting those on the front lines: A note on why we don’t name our partners.

One of the greatest joys of our WorldShare community is the beautiful and personal connection that all of us have with our partners overseas. We love sharing stories from the mission field of how God is moving through their hands and feet, in transformation.

Recently, a few of you have noticed that we no longer explicitly name our local partners or their specific organisations in our newsletters, magazines and website updates. We completely understand why this raises questions, and we want to share our heart behind this decision.

Being Christ-centred, our highest priority – beyond running effective programs – is the protection and safeguarding of the local heroes faithfully serving on the frontlines. Transparency matters deeply to us, as does the safety and dignity of our partners.

A Changing Digital World

There was a time when a newsletter article or a field report printed in Australia stayed relatively local. But today, the internet has made our global village incredibly small. A simple, routine search online instantly pulls up articles from anywhere in the world.

In several regions where we serve, openly identifying local Christian ministries, churches, or specific aid workers, runs the risk of putting a massive target on their backs. Tragically, we have already seen how quickly things can go horribly wrong. It’s best to take precautions, as it could just be a matter of time before local leaders receive threats, or teams face persecution along with a backlash, simply because their Christian affiliation was exposed online.

This shield of digital protection extends just as fiercely to the precious children and vulnerable families in our care. When we share their stories of transformation, we gently protect their privacy by omitting full names, exact locations, or specific schools. In a world where people can use the internet to find or exploit the innocent, these simple steps act as a vital safeguard. By using careful photography and pseudonyms, we ensure that a story meant to celebrate God’s goodness never inadvertently opens a door to unwanted contact or risk.

For us, safeguarding isn’t a bureaucratic checkbox. It is our sacred duty of care to protect our brothers and sisters. If an extremist group or a hostile local authority can type a partner’s name into a search engine and find their location, their source of funding, or their connection to a Western organisation, it could place their lives – and the lives of the vulnerable families they protect – in immediate danger.

Wisdom and Humility

By choosing not to publish their names globally, we are wrapping a layer of digital protection around them. This quiet approach also beautifully mirrors the heart of Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 6. We are reminded that acts of service are not meant to draw attention to ourselves or seek earthly recognition, but to honour God. Many of our partners choose to serve quietly and faithfully in some of the hardest places on earth, and explicitly ask us to keep their identities discreet, so that they can continue their work safely.

Please be completely assured that our accountability, our financial transparency, and our rigorous project oversight have not changed one bit. We continue to work intimately with these trusted, Christ-centred partners, who see their work as ministry to God, not a platform for acknowledgement.

While their names are hidden from all of our digital communications and on the WorldShare website to keep them safe, they are deeply known by God – and their impact is powerfully real. Thank you for standing with us in wisdom, for praying for their protection, and for partnering in this quiet, vital work.