“I and the one who looks after an orphan and provides for him, will be in Paradise like these two” – and he gestured with his forefinger and middle finger, holding them close together.’’ (Bukhari)
When you sponsor an orphan with Human Appeal, you enable a child to go to school, eat well, and stay safe, warm, and healthy, providing the foundations needed for a brighter future. Adopting an orphan in our sponsorship program provides a child with some of the life supporting benefits of being in a family, however far away.
You can give monthly for $50, or annually for $600 – that’s 12 months of blessings packed into a single donation. Plus, our orphan sponsorship programme is Zakat-eligible, so you can fulfill this pillar of Islam whilst helping a vulnerable child.
The worldwide orphan crisis
It is estimated that there are over 100 million orphans worldwide, with 5,700 children becoming orphans every day due to war, natural disaster, poverty, disease, and lack of access to medical care.
Although 250,000 children are adopted every year, 14,050,000 orphans will grow up without ever having been part of a loving family. Every day, 38,493 children age out of an orphanage. Every 2.2 seconds a child leaves an orphanage or foster care with no family to belong to and no place to call home.
With less than 1% of all orphan children adopted into loving families, our support is needed to care for the rest of the world’s millions of orphaned, abandoned, and homeless children.
How sponsorship honors a Prophetic tradition
In his lifetime, the Messenger of Allah (PBUH) - himself an orphan - emphasized caring for orphans and promised those who did so a special place in Jannah. It's a testament to the beauty of supporting the world’s most vulnerable - the children who have lost their caregivers.
Our sponsorship is one-to-one, meaning that you individually support a single, specified child. When you adopt an orphan in our sponsorship program, you’ll receive two reports each year (we’re the only charity to do this) advising you how your orphan child is doing. You’ll learn about their housing, education, favourite subjects, and hobbies. You’ll even receive a drawing or letter from them.
Trust our experience and child-focused care
Trust Human Appeal’s 32 years of expertise in nurturing orphaned children. Across all 14 countries where we sponsor orphans, we have a dedicated child safeguarding officer in place. All staff working with children receive comprehensive training in child protection. Our local staff check in on all sponsored orphans to make sure they are well, in school, and receiving the care you intended, and we transparently report back to you how the child is in your biannual reports.
We also train mothers and caregivers on child protection, helping them to protect these orphans from common risks. We also work to help families with orphans in other ways, such as training widowed mothers to create a livelihood to support her orphaned children.
Today, our adopters sponsor 23,000 orphans in 14 countries, including Albania, Iraq, Lebanon, Morocco, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen.
Orphan sponsorship is a way to provide ongoing financial support to the mother of caregiver of an orphan who has lost their father or both parents. They receive a stipend every three months that covers the cost of their food, clothes, healthcare, and school supplies. It allows a child to stay in school – which is a condition of the sponsorship - helping them to break the cycle of poverty and have the skills for a brighter future.
When you sponsor an orphan, the funds go to the orphan child’s caregiver, usually the child’s mother, grandparent or family guardian.
Every family has different needs and we understand that the mother or caregiver is the best judge of how to help each child. We empower this person to spend the funds in a way that best helps the child in the way that they most need, usually through providing food, education, shelter or clothes. We continue to offer safeguarding and in-person checks with each family to ensure that the child is benefiting from your sponsorship.
Yes. A condition of our sponsorship is that the child you sponsor must attend school if they are old enough and have no physical condition that prevents them from attending.
Child protection is of utmost importance in this program, so we don’t allow sponsors to contact the sponsored child via any means, including letters, email or video calls. You’ll receive updates on the child’s development and progress every six months, providing you with information on their education, living situation, and well-being.
We provide you with reports twice a year, which include photographs and drawings, as well as information about the child’s family, school, performance at school and well-being.
You can sponsor an orphan by visiting our website and setting up a Direct Debit or making an annual donation. You can also call us and our donor care team will assist you in sponsoring a child.
When you sponsor a child, you’ll help to cover the cost of their:
No. By sponsoring a child, you provide financial support to allow them to have access to a quality education and a better quality of life. This is not considered adopting a child, which would be a legal guardianship and daily care in the same home. Nevertheless, the child is aware of your sponsorship and the help you provide.
An orphaned child is a child whose father or both parents have passed away.
Yes, you can sponsor as many children as you like.
We only sponsor orphans in developing countries.
Yes, however you must specify this when setting up your donation so we can ensure that we abide by the stringent conditions of Zakat.
Yes. Through our website, you can sponsor an orphan from wherever in the world you are based.
We apply strict program criteria for orphan sponsorship programs. Every child must meet our minimum requirements for the orphan sponsorship program – including having lost their father - so that we can ensure we are reaching orphans most in need.
The child you sponsor will no longer need to worry about the daily cost of living, allowing them to attend school where they can gain the knowledge, skills and personal development for a better future. Sponsorship safeguards and protects the child through regular monitoring by our child welfare officers, while ensuring they have a reasonable standard of living, a caring home, as well access to healthcare, clothing, and school supplies.
You can send additional financial support to the child by contacting our Donor Care Team, or by setting up a second sponsorship fund for them if you wish. You can also send Eid or Ramadan gifts by donating to this program and inputting the ID number of the orphan you sponsor. We don’t accept non-financial gifts as we know the guardian of the child is best placed to decide what they need, and we cannot give out children’s addresses for their own safety.
The Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) said: “I and the one who sponsors an orphan will be in Paradise like these two” – and he gestured with his forefinger and middle finger, holding them close together.
In Islam, sponsoring an orphaned child is one of the most righteous deeds a Muslim can perform.
Human Appeal is committed to providing aid in the country or program that you select. In the event we complete the program, exceed the required funds, or are denied access to a particular country for reasons beyond our control, Human Appeal reserves the right to reallocate your donation to another program where it is needed most.
