Browse the site and make a Donation Now!
Whoever caresses the head of an orphan (in affection), solely for the sake of Allah, a good deed will be written to his account for every hair over which he passed his hand, and whoever treated an orphan (boy or girl) with goodness and kindness, he and I will be close to each-other in Heaven as these two fingers.
2026 marks 40 years since Islamic Relief launched our Orphan Sponsorship Programme. We have spent 4 decades building brighter futures for children who have lost one or both parents.
Thanks to the generosity of sponsors and donors, our teams around the world have been able to help save and transform the lives of vulnerable children, supporting them through their childhood and into adulthood.
The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said:
“I and the person who looks after an orphan and provides for him, will be in Paradise like this,” putting his index and middle fingers together
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 empower communities, provide family livelihood support, and develop long-term solutions to poverty and critical issues such as human trafficking, child labour and early/forced marriage.
First launched in 1986, as part of the Muslim Yateem and Widows Fund, what is now the Orphan Sponsorship Programme began by supporting children in Afghanistan. Over the years, the programme has grown and expanded to 85,500 orphans across 27 countries, including Gaza, Sudan, Albania, Kenya and Pakistan.
Between 1993 and 2012, Islamic Relief supported 1,600 orphans in Bosnia & Herzegovina
In October 1997, the programme moved closer to what it is today. Under the title, Orphan Welfare Programme, it helped provide support for children’s basic needs such as food, clothing, as well as long-term support in education, healthcare, and income generation for their guardians.
In 1999, one-to-one sponsorship began in the West Bank and Gaza, where we provided orphaned children and their families with food, housing, clothes, health and education, while sponsored children also received educational support.
In 2003, Islamic Relief was one of the few international aid agencies to deliver aid during the war in Iraq.
Islamic Relief supported more than 1,000 orphaned children in Iraq during the war
Over the years, our Orphan Sponsorship Programme has evolved to what it is today – a major global endeavour supporting more than 85,500 orphans across 27 countries.
We’re not only transforming lives; we’re giving orphans a future.
“Righteousness is not that you turn your faces toward the east or the west, but [true] righteousness is… giving wealth, in spite of love for it, to relatives, orphans…”
Life in Wajir, northeastern Kenya, has never been easy for Saadia. She does everything she can to support her 5 children but following the loss of her husband and the closure of the small shop she depended on, rising expenses left Saadia and her family struggling to survive.
Today, thanks to the support of Islamic Relief donors, 1 of her children is sponsored, easing the heavy burden of rising costs. With this help, Saadia can focus on rebuilding her family’s future.
“I have hope for a brighter future. I want them to continue their education. They are now attending religious school as well as formal schooling” Saadia says.
Saadia is determined to give her children a better life. You can give hope to a family like hers.
Supporting orphaned children has been an integral part of Islamic Relief’s mission to alleviate poverty around the world.
In recent years, we have continued to expand our Orphan Sponsorship Programme in places like Gaza where it is a lifeline for children in need – Islamic Relief now sponsors more than 21,000 orphaned children in Gaza.
With your help, we can do more.
You can send letters and photographs to your orphan by sending them to: orphansponsorship@irworldwide.org. 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The amount directly received by the orphan is typically 80% but can be impacted by fluctuating exchange rates.
The operational expenses entail the extensive field office work Islamic Relief conducts to ensure best practices are in place for your sponsored orphan. Orphans are monitored through both regular home visits conducted by our social workers, and group gatherings, to ensure that they are receiving the full benefits of sponsorship. We are able to use monitoring gatherings for awareness sessions on the sponsorship process, how to maintain good health, the importance of education, and various other topics.
Yes, please contact our team at orphansponsorships@irworldwide.org to arrange this.