Be The Change - Sponsor a Child

When you sponsor a child with Be The Change you are not just helping that child, but a whole community in one of the poorest countries in the world.

For many of these children the reality is that they will miss their education and go into work at a very early age. This creates the obvious immediate problems, but also long-lasting ones as they miss out on the chance of education, but more importantly they miss out on their childhood.

Sponsorship provides education, a meal every day, school equipment such as uniform, books and pens, and gives them their childhood back; all essential things for a child to be able to reach their potential.

With your help, Be The Change also supports care-givers and teachers, this furthers the benefit to the children and young people, but also changes the lives of all those involved in our programmes. We want to see communities thriving and people loving life, instead of constantly living in a place of fear and poverty. When you see this bigger, more sustainable picture, you place the power in their hands to change their world...and watching them blossom so far has been one of our greatest joys.

Prices

A: £144 a year* - Full Primary School package = same as above PLUS a hot lunch is included every day; a vital need as most students may not have food at home to bring to school for lunch and so won’t eat all day!

B: £350 a year* - Former child-soldier support package = same as above but for former abductees who are now high school students. Many students after finishing primary school may not be able to afford to pay for senior school fees as there is a big jump in price, and so they have to stop their education very young and go out to work. This means they then don’t unlock their potential and won’t have the opportunities in jobs that they could have.

*These 2 options can be broken down into quarterly installments.

Be The Change is a small charity, which means we know exactly where the money goes. This also means that we need to be efficient and as helpful to the communities that we are supporting as possible. For this reason, we put the students into small sponsorship groups of three, so although you are sponsoring one child, three will have the benefit of your support. This ensures each child gets all that they need each term, and that the higher costs at the beginning of each school year are covered e.g. uniform, that some may not be able to afford.

Does sponsoring a child really work?

When you sign up to sponsor a child we do the choosing for you, this is because as a smaller charity we are right there on the ground and are in touch with all of the children, therefore we are able to identify who is in the most need of support at that time. This means your help goes to the child that needs it the most.

You will then be sent a welcome pack, which includes, amongst other things, a short background about the child you are supporting.

Live reactions #sharethelove

In the welcome pack, we also include a name card of your sponsored child for one epic reason - we would love to show the children in Uganda who is sponsoring them, and what better way than with a photo or video of YOU. We ask you to take a photo, a video is even better, of yourselves (including family and friends if you like) holding their name card.

When you’re done, go to our Share The Love page on our website, upload your photo or video, with a message, and don’t forget to share on your social media too and tag us:

#bethechange

@bethechange_international

...so we can all #sharethelove together.

We will then show the children these and film their reaction for you, so not only do they get to see you, but you get to see them too, and you can feel how big a difference sponsoring a child really makes!

For more ideas on what to include in your photo or video, see our blog post “Live reactions: #sharethelove” blog post for inspiration,

How does the money help?

Being a small charity means we are able to allocate more money towards the people who need it and currently ALL of the sponsorship money goes directly to the child’s school to pay school fees. It’s that simple.

If you choose to also provide the child with lunches, this also goes straight to the school to cover the costs of a daily hot meal.

Sponsoring a child for schools (if you want to do it for schools you should briefly explain the process here, then do a full blog explaining in detail how schools can get involved and link to it here, then you could do a guide for the school children with tips for writing letters and everything they would need to make it work in that school guide)

Are you a school, or know a school that would be interested in supporting vulnerable children in Uganda? By joining up as a school or a class, you could help show many children that they are not alone and open up their lives to opportunity. We partner struggling schools in Uganda with schools that can help support and engage with them, at whatever level suits both parties. This can be anything from sponsoring a whole class’ school fees; individual sponsorships for children at your school to choose; to getting involved in curriculum development; or even joining in our christmas shoebox appeal. For more information please get in touch.

A Gift

Sponsoring a child as a gift (would it be appropriate as a gift for Christmas? If so how? Can you add anything extra like a friendship bracelet for both you and your sponsor or gift wrapping for £5 or something)