Orphan Sponsorship FAQs

Islamic Relief defines an orphan as: “A child below 18 years of age, without both parents or father, or whose father has abandoned them for a minimum of four years, of any gender, religion or race.”

The orphan receives 80% of the donated amount. The remaining amount is spending on administrative expenses that are used to manage the project. This entails the extensive field office work Islamic Relief conducts to ensure best practices are in place for your sponsored orphan. Our field officers also conduct psychosocial home visits on an annual basis.

The donations are transferred to your orphan’s guardian on a quarterly basis. This allows a consistent income not only for your sponsored orphan but for their entire household. Sponsorship funds are used for basic necessities such as food, shelter, education and health care needs.

The programme aims to meet the needs of each orphan by providing basic necessities to improve their health and nutrition and additionally support them through their education and social development.

We encourage a minimum sponsorship time of one year but you may sponsor an orphan for as long as you wish until they have graduated from our sponsorship program. If you choose to cancel your sponsorship prior to one year, we request that you provide 3 months notice to ensure Islamic Relief is able to allocate a new sponsor to the orphan.

When you start your sponsorship, we will send you a photograph and further details of your orphan. In addition to the initial report, we send one annual report within 12-15 months from the date of sponsorship unless there’s a delay from the field office due to any political conflict, natural disaster, or any other crisis that requires immediate humanitarian aid. If you choose to cancel your sponsorship after 12 months and you haven’t received your annual report yet, you may contact us to receive your report.

You can email any letters and photographs to your orphan via the following email address [email protected]. We will review the letters to ensure they are suitable, and remove any contact details from the letters. We will then forward it to the field office, who will deliver it to your sponsored orphan.

Please note that a confirmation or a response can take months due to various factors including political conflict, orphan location (as most of our orphans live in remote areas), field office workload, natural disasters, and security, among other reasons.

Yes, supervised visits can be organized with the field office through prior arrangement with Islamic Relief Canada. We request at least one month’s notice to coordinate with the field office. Visits cannot be made directly to the orphan’s home due to our Child Protection Policy.

Please note that you would be responsible for your own travel arrangements and you will be travelling at your own expense and risk. You are also requested to cover any associated transportation costs for the orphan and the guardian to come to the main office.

Sponsorship may be cancelled if the orphan is over age, refuses to go to school, gets married, gets a significant increase in income, moves out of the region where Islamic Relief operates, or if the family or the child does not cooperate with our policies. In any of the cases above, we immediately redirect your donations towards a new child and provide the update.

We also experience unfortunate cases where the orphan passes away due to illness or sudden death. In that case, we look to see if the orphan has any siblings eligible for sponsorship to bring into the program and ensure you continue supporting the same family.

If possible, we ask that you give us 3 months notice, so that we can find another donor. If this is not possible the orphan will be supported from the Orphan General Fund until another sponsor is found.

Of course! 100% of your gift goes directly towards the orphan and his/her family with no overhead costs. If you wish to give an extra monetary gift to your sponsored orphan, you can visit bit.ly/orphangift online. Kindly ensure you include the orphan ID if you are sponsoring more than one orphan to ensure we send the gift to the correct orphan.

We transfer the gift donations on a quarterly basis, so these payments are sent every 3 months. Kindly find the quarterly dates below:

• Q1: End of February
• Q2: End of May
• Q3: End of August
• Q4: End of November

One of Islamic Relief’s core values, in line with our Islamic teachings, is to provide assistance to whoever needs us most, regardless of race, religion, or gender. Hence, we sponsor orphans from all faith groups. For those who are interested, our orphan sponsorship program is Zakat eligible. If you would like to designate your orphan sponsorship as part of your Zakat donations, kindly let us know. We can pair you with a Muslim orphan.

Please feel free to contact our donor care department for any further questions or concerns.

phone: 1.855.377.4673
email: [email protected]