“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)
In this holy month of mercy, perform the ultimate act of mercy, charity, and selflessness. Care for a child who has been left all alone, who urgently needs a sponsor from among the ummah.
Become the caring sponsor of an orphan this Ramadan, when blessings are multiplied. You can give monthly for £35, or annually for £420 – that’s 12 months of blessings packed into a single donation. Our orphan sponsorship programme is Zakat-eligible, so you can fulfil this pillar of Islam while helping a vulnerable child.
Every single day of Ramadan, 5,700 children are orphaned. In Gaza alone, at least 17,000 children are orphaned or unaccompanied.
In his lifetime, the Messenger (PBUH) cared for orphans, and promised great reward for those who did the same. This Ramadan, entrust your sponsorship to our 32 years of experience in caring for orphaned children.
Globally, an estimated 143 to 210 million children are orphaned, each bearing the traumatic loss of one or both parents, often in the harshest circumstances. It is not just the loss of their parents, but they suddenly have to think about how they will eat, how they will afford to survive.
This Ramadan, sponsor an orphan and ease their hardship as they try to survive unimaginable loss. Reap the blessings of the holy month through this beautiful act of Sunnah.
Sponsor an orphan in Palestine
Few of us envisioned the devastating violence in Gaza continuing until Ramadan. But for children in Palestine, there is no pause in the horrors they witness, in the uncertainty if they or their parents will survive. Those who do will face trauma, hunger, and thirst. For orphans, there is nobody to help to provide for them, and often older orphans are left to care for their younger siblings.
The ongoing bombardment, the deadliest violence Gaza has ever witnessed, has torn families apart, killing thousands of children, mothers, and fathers. Currently, 6,432 orphans are registered with Human Appeal.
Every orphaned child deserves a caring sponsor to ensure their education, safe housing, and access to essentials like food and healthcare. Become a sponsor for a child in Palestine today. Your support will provide them with security and the chance for a better future.
Honouring 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 most vulnerable within our ummah - the children who have lost their caregivers.
Sponsoring an orphan isn't just following the legacy of the Messenger (PBUH); it also assists the child's mother or caregiver with the expenses for:
Food
Clothing
Healthcare
Housing
School supplies
Become a sponsor and help reintegrate a child into school, providing them with a safer today and a brighter tomorrow.
Our sponsorship is one-to-one, meaning that you individually support a single, specified child. When you become a sponsor, you’ll received two reports each year (we’re the only charity to do this) telling you how the child you sponsor is doing. You’ll learn about their housing, education, favourite subjects, and hobbies. You’ll even receive a drawing or letter from them.
Restoring hope: Sponsor a child today
Imagine a child, once surrounded by loving parents, providing them with food, shelter, clothes, and toys. Now, they stand alone, often forced to leave school to support themselves, facing the harsh realities of sickness, malnutrition, exploitation, and abuse.
This is why we urgently seek sponsors for the countless children in our care, to restore their sense of safety and routine, and to reintroduce them to school promptly. In order to qualify for sponsorship, all of the orphans we sponsor must remain in school.
You have the power to break the cycle before it's too late, offering them a chance at health, protection, and education. Importantly, sponsorship ensures they can continue their education, sparing them from the burden of work to support themselves and their families.
Safety, experience, and child-focused care
This Ramadan, rely on our 32 years of expertise in nurturing orphaned children. Across all 14 countries where we sponsor orphans, we have a dedicated child safeguarding officer is 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 by training widowed mothers to have a livelihood to support her orphaned children.
Currently, our sponsors are transforming the lives of over 20,000 orphans in 12 countries. Over 6,000 more are registered and urgently awaiting a sponsor to help them with the cost of food, clothing, and healthcare.
Protecting the Ummah's Children
By sponsoring an orphan, you provide them with the opportunities that every child deserves – health, protection, and education. We extend our protective arm to the mothers and caregivers, guiding them to safeguard the children from common risks and hazards.
Orphan sponsorship is tailored to your preferences. Choose a specific child, age, or location to sponsor, or trust our Orphan and Child Welfare team to identify the child most in need of support. Registration is quick and easy, making it effortless to transform a child's life.
Reap the multiplied blessings of Ramadan. Care for an orphan child today.
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 wellbeing.
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 wellbeing.
When you sponsor a child, you’ll help to cover the cost of their:
• Food
• Housing
• Clothes
• Healthcare
• School supplies.
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.
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.
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 programme that you select. In the event we complete the programme, 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 programme where it is needed most.