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Every child deserves the best start in life: a happy home, a safe place to play and access to quality education, medical care and nutrition.
Thanks to your donations, our teams around the world are able to help save and transform the lives of orphans and vulnerable children. In rural parts of Mali, we’re helping children into education, in Yemen children living in conflict, and in Bosnia our teams are supporting children into higher education–and these are just some of the incredible ways your donations are transforming lives. Right now, we’re helping over 85,000 orphans worldwide, providing food, shelter, health care and education to children in need. And this is all thanks to you
However, for the 1 in 5 children worldwide living in extreme poverty, many of these simple necessities and rights are out of reach. Instead, their life is incredibly challenging, with the risk of illiteracy, disease, child labour, lifelong poverty and even death. Donate to orphans and children today and help save lives.
Around the globe, Islamic Relief aims to combat the main issues faced by children across the globe. With your donations to our orphans fund, we provide child-friendly safe spaces, provide essential healthcare, water and food aid, as well as a quality education.
We also empower communities, provide family livelihood support, and develop long-term solutions to poverty and critical issues such as human trafficking (child labour) and child marriage.
In Gaza, poverty and trauma prevent some from going to school, whilst soaring youth employment leaves many young people unable to earn a reliable living. Islamic Relief is by their side, improving access to high-quality education and nurturing livelihoods. Islamic
In Yemen, 12 million children are considered vulnerable, and malnutrition is rife-leading to severe health complications, and in some cases, death. Islamic Relief is working to help combat the issue. Working in communities and health facilities, we provide life-saving preventative care and treatment to children under five, as well as essential food aid.
In Syria, Almost six million children have been born since the crisis in Syria began, according to the United Nations (UN). They have been denied a happy, safe and secure childhood. Instead, fear, displacement and hardship have been their constant companions. Islamic Relief has been working to support children throughout the crisis with projects focused on psycho-social support and education. Our aim is to help ensure that children are protected and able to enjoy their childhood in safety.
In Bangladesh, we are working to improve children’s access to education. Part of our work involves providing bicycles to girls. This makes it safer and easier for girls living in poor, rural areas, to get to school and encourages them to continue their education. The same project also provided 4,000 children with education materials including school bags, umbrellas and stationery.
This is just a snapshot of our life-changing development work for vulnerable children worldwide.
Living under blockade, hope is essential to the people of Gaza. Hamsa’s home floods in the winter and is too hot to stay inside during the summer. Thanks to Islamic Relief, not only is Hamsa provided for, but she is now receiving an education in the hope that one day, she can help rebuild her country.
“I try not to miss a single day of school. I have a big hope that education can change Gaza for the better.” – Hamsa
Alhamdulillah, Hamsa loves her studies, especially technology which is her favourite subject. You can give hope to a child like Hamsa.
The Qur’an emphasises the importance and reward of caring for orphans, as well as fulfilling their rights, and protecting their dignity.
This is stated in the following Ayah’s of the Holy Qur’an:
“They ask you, [O Muhammad], what they should spend [in charity]. Say, ‘Whatever you spend of good is [to be] for parents and relatives and orphans and the needy and the traveller. And whatever you do of good – indeed, Allah is Knowing of it.’”
Qur’an | 2:215
By providing nutritional services, health care, water solutions, education and family livelihood support, as well as striving to tackle critical issues including gender-based violence, child labour and climate change with affect local communities and in particular young girls, we’re not only transforming futures; we’re saving lives.
Save a life today, help orphans and needy children today.
Your vital donations are put towards schooling, regular meals and financial support for carers and families for orphans in need. Your donations are also providing:
Islamic Relief are currently supporting Orphan Medical Care and Higher Education Scholarship as part of our Orphan Sponsorship Programme.
No, it is not. The child you sponsor will have a family of their own, but sponsors play an important role in the eyes of the child and their family by providing funding so that their basic needs are met.
According to Islamic tradition, an orphan is usually a child who has no father. The child will remain an orphan until the age of maturity/understanding.
Due to Islamic Relief’s humanitarian mandate and based on our extensive experience with the communities with which we work, we include children who have a father whose whereabouts has been unknown for two years or more, or one year for refugees and internally displaced people.
In line with the UN Convention for the Rights of the Child (CRC) of which nearly all countries are signatories, Islamic Relief has extended this classification to define a child as any human being under the age of 18. However, it is still possible to continue to sponsor a child beyond the age of 18 in order to support the education of an existing orphan.
You can sponsor a child in 26 countries across Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Eastern Europe. These countries are:
Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Chechnya, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan (mainly Palestinian refugees living in camps), Kenya, Kosovo, Lebanon (mainly Palestinian and Syrian refugees living in camps), Malawi, Mali, Niger, Pakistan, Palestine (Gaza & West Bank), Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkiye (Syrian refugees in Turkiye). Yemen
The sponsorship programme is for the most disadvantaged families in a target area. We must identify first those orphans who are living in a family with the lowest income. Limited resources mean that we must priortise when selecting beneficiaries. We use an open and transparent process to do so. Selection for the Orphan Sponsorship Programme means choosing beneficiaries eligible for the programme based on agreed criteria, usually after a target area or community has been identified. The standard scoring criteria covers the following points: – Income – Prioritise those with the least income. Income relates to any money coming into the household (i.e. salaries, pension, other sponsorship money, money from relatives etc) – Size of family and age of children, as well as disability. Prioritise families with a high dependency ratio (i.e. # dependents vs # breadwinners) and families with children and caregivers who are persons with disabilities – Housing conditions – Prioritise those living in the poorest conditions, especially those with families who do not own their home – Health – Prioritise children with the poorest health status, including those who are malnourished – Double orphans are scored more highly than single – Families living in hazardous conditions (near wastewater drainage, unhygienic areas etc) – Unemployed mothers are prioritised over working mothers
Once your sponsorship begins, you will receive a Welcome Pack that includes a profile of the child/family including a photo.
This is usually 3 months after you create your contract. We aim to send you a report on your sponsored orphan every year – this annual progress report is written by the field officers who are responsible for visiting the orphans and contain information about the child and the progress that they are making at school etc.
Inflation and the dramatic increase in the cost of living over the past few years has caused a major impact on people in many parts of the world. This has had a substantial effect on orphan families and their ability to cover even essential needs. To accommodate a higher cost of living globally while remaining true to our values of excellence and sincerity, Islamic Relief has to increase pricing and to ultimately make a greater impact for orphan families.
In addition to the increased cost of living, we consult regularly with our frontline orphans teams; these case workers are in regular contact with sponsored orphan families and the need for a price increase was a primary concern.
Our previous prices are no longer enough to sustain the orphans we support. They are struggling now more than ever to afford the essentials. For the sponsorship to truly support the child with their basic necessities, such as food, health, and education — the amount being provided to the family needs to increase. This helps to better account for their unmet needs, ensuring your sponsored orphans can attain quality food, continue their education and afford rent.
Based on needs assessments conducted on the ground across regions and thorough research conducted by our programmes team, the new price was determined to be sufficient to give orphan families the supplemental income required to cover essential needs while remaining affordable to our donors.
To our knowledge, Islamic Relief is perhaps the only charity to offer a true one-to-one orphan sponsorship program, where the donation continuously goes to the same orphan. This allows for the life of the same orphan to be continuously transformed long term, which means that the change isn’t short term but they are able to truly rise above their circumstances, gain the opportunities they deserve, and build a better life for themselves and their families.
It is a common practice of some charities to direct orphan sponsorship funds to support groups of orphans as a whole through communal programming. This allows for lower prices that help supplement the needs of orphans and provide uplifting programming, but do not offer the opportunity for transformative change for individuals.
The three-tier system was first rolled out over 20 years ago, and was based on the cost of living at the time. Over the years, it became clear that there was a preference to sponsor orphans in the lower tier, leaving many orphans in the higher tier unsponsored. To correct this, we have introduced a fixed rate for orphan sponsorships across all available country options.
Furthermore, the cost of living has increased across the globe, and therefore, the costs that were relevant at the time of inception are no longer applicable. More and more, what we have seen is that orphans across all regions will benefit from the increased support. Developing a unified price handle allows us to support the most needy orphans, and uplift them with a value that can truly cover their basic necessities, and more.
Yes, please contact our team at info@islamic-relief.sg to arrange this.
You can send letters and photographs to your orphan by sending them to: info@islamic-relief.sg. We will check the letters are suitable, remove contact details and forward to the relevant field office. Responses depend on your sponsored child. In some cases, the child or guardian may respond straight away; others may take several months to respond or may choose not to respond at all.
We also recommend that you keep your sentences relatively short and simple. Please bear in mind that only a few sponsored children speak English, so your messages will need to be translated into their local language by our field staff. Children like to know more about you, your family and friends, where you live, what the country is like, what pets you have, what animals are in the country, what sports you like – anything that makes the connection more personal.
It is possible to do this, but there are strict parameters: the guardian needs to give their consent; then the child and their guardian need to come to the local Islamic Relief office – and the donor must cover the transport costs of getting them to the office. The call must be made to the office; it can last a maximum of one hour; and it can only take place once a year.
If a child wants to send the sponsor any correspondence, this is sent to us electronically via the field office. We then forward it on, but the child is not obliged to do this. There may also be comments from the orphan directed to the sponsor in the annual progress report. We are working to make improvements to what we can offer to sponsors.
It may be possible to organise supervised visits after gaining agreement from the local Islamic Relief office, the child, and their guardian. Please note that visits cannot be made directly to the orphan’s home in line with our Child Protection Policy, so the meeting is likely to be held in the local Islamic Relief office. You may only visit your sponsored child and their guardian once a year.
You would be responsible for your own travel arrangements at your own expense and risk. You would also need to pay for the travel, accommodation, and food costs of the child and guardian if they had to travel a long distance and stay overnight in the location of the Islamic Relief office.
Yes, you may wish to increase the amount of funds your Orphan receives, especially during celebrations like Eid. This can be a continuous extra cash gift if you would like to set up an additional monthly contract, or it can also be a one-off extra cash gift. All you need to do is email us at orphansponsorships@irworldwide.org to arrange this.