We believe the smartest path out of poverty is a self-directed one. Our team listens to the children, elders and families we serve, helping them develop personalized plans based on their unique challenges, needs and skill sets. We partner with sponsored friends as they set and achieve their own goals. Learn more about our approach, where we work and the positive impact we have.
No one understands what a family needs to overcome their challenges better than that family. That’s why your sponsorship helps them set personal goals.
With social workers' support, sponsored friends and their families determine how to use their sponsorship funds to achieve those goals.
Parent groups work to foster leadership skills, learn new trades and start businesses. Over time, families become agents of change in their local communities.
We’re dedicated to ending human poverty in all its forms. That’s why more than 92 percent of our expenses support our programs. We keep our costs low, so we can devote the maximum amount of support to our sponsorship, scholarship and other programs. And guess what? It’s working!
See more results and learn how we measure our impact.
Educational Attainment and Community Participation and Empowerment statistics are from 2013.
Ninety-three percent of sponsored friends participate in Unbound programs that utilize cash transfers as the primary way to deliver benefits.
Cash transfers give sponsored friends and their families the most flexibility in how and when to use their benefits. They promote dignity, leverage the ingenuity of mothers in stretching their family budgets and create greater economic stability for families.
We work in three main regions around the world: Africa, Asia and Latin America. Political climate, exchange rates, poverty levels and economic activity are key factors that influence where we choose to focus our efforts. It’s our goal to provide support in areas where children, elders and families need it most. Click on the map to learn about the countries where we work.
From Mexico through Central America to the Caribbean and South America,
we work with more than 190,000 sponsored friends and their families.