Sponsor a child today with the local charity Amigos International.
Our Mission
To make a real and measurable difference to the lives, and the futures, of the underprivileged in sub-Saharan Africa. To do so by providing the people with the tools, livestock, schooling vocational training with Christian values that will help restore the self-respect, independence, uprightness and integrity which years of poverty and war have eroded.
Our Method
To listen hard to the people we're trying to help and then provide:
- Direct care and support where we can
- Education where it will be most valuable
- Specific vocational training where it will be put to the best use
- A model of parenthood to a generation of orphans
What That Means?
Child sponsorship Our child sponsorship programme has been developed on the ground, by the Ugandan people it's designed to benefit. That has meant addressing cultural issues sensitively - and giving without causing divisions within communities and families.
We see our role as to support, rather than replace, the role of the immediate family or guardian - contributing in a targeted way to the cost of education, school meals, uniforms and basics like school stationery for example. At the moment our efforts are focussed on the North of Uganda, where the devastating impact of the Lord's Resistance Army activities has been at their worst.
There we can do most good in larger communities by choosing several families to receive sponsorship of a child each - rather than one family of all its children. Consultation with the Ugandan people shows this to be not only culturally more acceptable, but more effective. The children pass on the 'gift' of education by teaching and supporting their own family members, who in turn can command a better wage. To date we have not sponsored children in small village communities, where jealousy and division can ensue. Instead our medium term plan for these small communities is to fund teachers for more inclusive rural primary schools or school sessions.
Farm and Vocational TrainingOur farm, 'Kira' has been created by Ugandans with farming experience spanning more than 50 years. In that facility, via a twelve-month residential training course, we will give some of the neediest Ugandans, young and old, an opportunity to learn farming and vocational skills. After the proper training students will be offered their own livestock, tools, trees and seeds - so that they can return to their village with those animals, tools and skills and pass the knowledge on. Kira farm will be run and staffed by skilled Ugandans.
We take the environmental impact of the project seriously: in Kira farm's construction we've used locally sourced materials to deliver environmental benefits that will include: rainwater capture, solar power and energy efficient cooking stoves. The community is paramount and only local labour is used. Our farming training is state of the art - including organic husbandry, the importance of bio-security, recycling irrigation systems, waste to energy via composting and manuring. Finally our vocational training uses donated tools that have been refurbished.
If you are looking for a worthwhile way of helping a parentless child by giving them an education please click here to print off our child sponsorship pack. You will need to complete all the details and return to Amigos address provided within the sponsorship pack.
Tel: 01271 321171
