Family Sponsorships
By sponsoring a family, you support one of our sponsored children living in extreme poverty with a monthly contribution of €20. Your annual contribution of €240 significantly improves the family's living situation. Most of our sponsored children are orphans, either half-orphans living with their surviving parent or full orphans living with other relatives – usually their grandparents.
Family in front of their house
The extreme poverty of these families can have many causes; here are some typical examples:
The remaining parent is ill and can only perform the strenuous fieldwork to a limited extent or not at all (permanently or temporarily). As a result, not enough can be harvested from the fields to ensure the family's livelihood.
The grandparents are getting too old to continue working in the fields and providing for the family.
A family (father, mother, three children) takes in more orphans from their relatives; however, the yield of their land is not enough to feed the larger family.
All close relatives have passed away, leaving the children to fend for themselves. The eldest child takes on the responsibility but has not yet finished school, facing a choice between family and school.
Our goal is to support these families and thus preserve the children's right to their land and, consequently, their homeland; because if families can no longer support themselves on their own land, they must leave and move to relatives. However, by leaving the land or moving, the children lose their inheritance rights, which at least guarantee them a place in the future where they can build a hut for their family.
The monthly support enables these particularly poor families to improve their living situation and bridge the time until the first of their children has completed vocational training and can contribute to the family's support.
The families can use the money to buy missing food at the market or pay day laborers to help in the fields. Some families have even managed to create their own small side income within three years with the help of the monthly support, by raising rabbits or ducks and selling them at the market.
Families receiving support through a family sponsorship program are visited regularly to review their living situation. In some cases, we have observed such positive developments after three years that, in cooperation with our local partners, we have decided to discontinue the family support program after giving sufficient notice.
If you are interested, you can obtain information about your sponsor family.