Y Care Sponsorship

Become a Y Care Sponsor today and start an amazing journey. You’ll help a child or young person and their community in Casamance, Senegal, move towards a better future. And you’ll be on the journey too – learning what life is like in Casamance, and seeing how you’re making a difference.

Sponsor a young person like Marietou

Marietou is one of the ambassadors in our sponsorship programme chosen by her community to represent them and show you what it is like to live in Casamance. Her father died during the civil war, and her mother is unable to look after her. Today Marietou lives with her uncle and aunt, who lost everything in the civil war, and struggle to earn enough money to buy food. Marietou often gets stomach aches, and she’s at risk of malaria too – her family only has one mosquito net.

As you can see Casamance is a tough place to grow up. Years of conflict have caused terrible hardship. Many children have lost their parents. Even more have been denied the opportunity to realise their potential.

As a Y Care sponsor, you’ll help empower them to bring about change in their lives – and their communities.

How it works

Your Y Care sponsorship will cost you £15 a month, just 50p a day. Your money will go far. You’ll help someone learn, develop and move towards adulthood – and towards a better future. And you’ll be alongside them. Letters, reports and drawings from Casamance will take you to the heart of their community, and show you everyone’s progress.

Questions you might have

Will I be sponsoring a child or young person individually?
No, sponsoring an ambassador for a community is a much fairer way to help. One-to-one sponsorship programmes can put heavy demands on the time and resources of local staff. Our ambassadorial sponsorship programme ensures that we spend as much of the money and our time as possible where it is needed – including in poor rural communities in Casamance.

How will my money be spent?
Working in partnership with local YMCAs is tried and tested, efficient and effective. So the money will go a long way. 82% of our expenditure is spent directly on our international programmes and global youth work, including our project in Casamance. The remaining 18% is spent on governance and raising more funds. A third will go directly to the project in Casamance.

What will I receive from my sponsored child or young person?
Twice a year, you’ll be sent feedback including letters and drawings directly from their community. You’ll also receive reports from our project workers in Casamance.

Can I send letters or presents?
We want to spend the money and time as efficiently as possible, and we must ensure that no one is ‘singled out’ for special treatment amongst their peers. So we ask that you don’t send letters too frequently, and you don’t send gifts. If you would like to give a gift, we encourage you to send a donation – that way, your generosity will benefit the whole community.

Can I visit the child or young person I sponsor?
No, because we work with young people in extremely vulnerable and often dangerous situations. We need to protect them and safeguard their privacy, and we want to spend the money and time helping them. For these reasons, we won’t be able to arrange visits.

What next? 

To become a Y Care Sponsor or for more information please contact us on 020 7549 3175 or fill in the below form and we will be in touch with you shortly.

Alternatively, to become a Y Care Sponsor you can complete our Y Care Sponsorship form and return it us.

Thank you very much!

Yes, I would like to find out more about sponsoring a young person like Marietou!