We believe that child and adult education is the key to break the vicious circle of illiteracy, poverty, bad health and social exclusion.

This is also reported in numerous studies that confirm that education is one of the key factors in the development of an individual country: it has an impact on reducing child mortality, it positively contributes to better health and nutrition, enables better family planning and true realisation of every individual’s potential. With their knowledge, educated people contribute to the development of their families and communities. Finally, education enables individuals to know their rights and responsibilities and to participate actively in society.

Our programme is community oriented in comparison with other similar initiatives. This means that sponsors not only support an individual child with their monthly contributions, but the entire local community. This ensures that a safe and child-friendly community is built in which children can grow and develop their talents. In all places where we run the sponsorship programme, we have a local representative who ensures that your financial contributions go to the neediest children and families. Besides, we allocate some funds to community projects, which are beneficial for all members of the community, especially children.

We have introduced this division of support based on many years of experience in African countries, where community is still very important and where supporting individuals can evoke feelings of resentment in children and adults who are left empty-handed.

We respect and follow initiatives that come from the community itself, as we believe that the local community can and should make its own decisions and carry the responsibility. We avoid any kind of patronizing attitude towards the local population.

We have a local coordinator in all locations where our sponsorship programme takes place. In cooperation and partnership with community members, local partners lead the implementation of the projects and propose new initiatives. These local representatives also know the local culture and traditions best. Therefore, we plan and develop project activities together.

We know that economic criteria is not the only indicator of success. Many countries in the global South have experienced fast economic growth in recent decades and reduced their poverty levels. But the price people have paid for this progress is high. In many places, economic development went hand in hand with the degradation of the environment and the disappearance of local traditions and customs. We are therefore looking for alternatives and more environmentally and socially sustainable development, together with the local population. We support the “Green Village” project Near the Ghanian capital Accra, which is an ecological garden, where recycled and reused materials are used, and organic vegetables and fruits are grown. The village also offers space for socializing, learning about organic production of vegetables and fruits, and gives some children the opportunity to earn money after they finish school.

We believe in the proverb “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

We therefore encourage people to take responsibility for themselves. The sponsorship programme for children and local communities is not about unconditional aid in the form of financial or material support. It is about support, which enables young people to take responsibility for their own future and encourage them to have confidence in their own abilities.

Humanitas is a small organization with a small team, so our administrative costs are also small and they don’t exceed 20%.

In addition, our programme invests directly in the development of the local community and its members. We provide them with support without lengthy administrative procedures typical of bigger national or international organizations. Our sponsors receive a newsletter three times per year, which provides them with news, information and reports about achievements and results in each location where the programme takes place.

Humanitas was founded in March 2000 as an independent and not for profit association of volunteers and activists working for the benefit of children and adults. We are a non-governmental organization working for the public good through our global education programme and provision of support to children and local communities.

Humanitas aims at the protection and support of underprivileged groups in Slovenia and around the world, promoting of their interests, especially the interests of the children. In addition, we work towards the promotion and protection of fundamental human rights.

Humanitas has been present in Africa for more than 20 years. In 2001, we started with a child support initiative, which eventually developed into a much broader support programme for children and local communities. We started in Burkina Faso and northern Ghana and then expanded to Kenya and southern Ghana, and today we work with local organizations in four locations on the African continent. Many supporters have been with us from the very beginning.

Initially, the support program was called “foster-parenting”. We were the first organisation to offer Slovenians the opportunity to become sponsors of an individual child in Africa. We also regularly sent reports and photos to sponsors who wanted to be in touch with the children they supported – many of them even travelled to Africa to meet the children.

After years of experience and lessons learnt, we decided to change our policy of child support, as many shortcomings became apparent. Namely, many sponsors left the programme due to the economic crisis, leaving children that they sponsored without financial means to cover the rest of their education. This meant that many children, who were left without a sponsor, had to leave school at least temporarily. We tried to find solutions, but unfortunately they did not always work out. As a result, we have transformed the programme from individual child sponsorship to a community support programme, meaning that every sponsor’s financial support can be used for any of the children in the programme in addition to the community projects. In this way we ensure that no child is left behind, that the whole community benefits and that local traditions and customs are respected.

In all communities, Humanitas has its local representatives, with whom we have been cooperating for many years and with whom we have developed mutual trust. The programme coordinator is in regular contact with them, while they also send us news for the website and newsletters. Together, we also prepare an annual report every year. They occasionally visit Slovenia, and the programme coordinator also occasionally visits locations. Sometimes volunteers from Slovenia are hosted in the communities (especially in the north of Ghana) within the GLEN volunteer programme, which is coordinated by our partner organization Voluntariat.

With these monthly contributions, we cover the cost of school fees, provide children with school uniforms and school supplies. If necessary, we also provide them with medicine, clothes and other necessities of life. 25 Euro is an amount that we set up years ago, together with local representatives, in our African locations. We estimate that with this amount we will be able to cover the monthly costs of one child’s schooling. Of course, we need a little less for the younger ones, but on the other hand high school students’ costs are higher, which balances it out. There are also big differences between the countries – in Kenya, for example, tuition fees are so high that it is very difficult to help children and parents cover anything else related to school apart from the fees themselves. That is why the fund, in which one-time donations are collected, is so important to us. With this fund, we can assist in emergencies and try to balance our support in all four locations.

In Slovenia, many social protection and well-fare mechanisms have been developed in addition to an active civil society, which helps people in need. Let’s not forget that every Slovenian child has access to free education, and this not only at the primary school level: every Slovenian child can attend high school and different vocational schools without paying any tuitions. It is also relatively easy to obtain a diploma and graduate from university.

On the other hand, many children in Africa do not have access to basic health care and primary education. They often live in difficult conditions and are forced to leave school and enter the workforce at a very early age early in order to contribute to the family budget.

As a developed country, Slovenia must take responsibility for ensuring balanced and sustainable development in other parts of the world. At Humanitas, we believe that our future and the future of our children depend on the balanced development of all the countries. We believe that the child and adult education all around the world is a key factor in breaking the vicious circle of illiteracy, poverty, poor health and social exclusion.

In our programme, education comes first. Our support is linked to active participation at school. We believe that education is the key to breaking the vicious circle of poverty and exclusion. Education is the basis and the children who do not have access to at least primary school education are  potentially deprived of important opportunities in the future.

We do not promote dependency. In Humanitas, we believe in the proverb: “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” We believe in the people we support and their capacities and talents, and we encourage them to take responsibility for their own future. It is not about unconditional support, but about encouraging each child’s self-confidence and trust in their own abilities.

We also believe that the key to development is providing support to the community. Compared to other similar programmes, ours is community oriented, with our sponsors supporting the entire local community. Their support goes to those who need it most and to sustainable projects which benefit everyone and create supporting and sound living conditions for children and young people who are not included in the programme as well. We have developed this way of working based on our experiences, which has shown us that collective and community interests prevail over individual ones in most African communities.

We address the problems holistically. Namely, the challenges that children and adults face in our communities are usually intertwined. We respect and follow initiatives coming from the community itself and refuse patronizing attitude towards the locals. We have local coordinators in all locations, who lead the implementation of projects and propose new ones in cooperation with community members. We always make sure that the solutions are friendly to both people and the environment.

Thanks to its supporters, Humanitas makes schooling easier for Slovenian children and their parents as well. The Slovenian sponsorship programme, developed in 2003, is the Slovenian version of the child sponsorship programme in Africa. As in African countries, support in Slovenia is linked to education too. Currently, around 15 children are in Humanitas’ Slovenian support programme.

You can become a sponsor by contributing a certain monthly amount, which is, in the case of a Slovenian child, 34 Euros. This support primarily covers school materials, payment for school excursions, courses, trainings or other goods that children need in the educational process. If you want to join, please contact barbara@humanitas.si.

If you do not want to become a long-term sponsor, you can opt for a one-time donation for the sponsorship programme or donate the amount you want for a specific community-oriented project. In all countries except Kenya, we run community projects together with local partners. In Burkina Faso, we run a library that is still one of the few libraries in the local community. We also run a library in the village of Larabanga, in northern Ghana, and in the village of Busua, in southern Ghana. Near the Ghana’s capital Accra we support the Green Village project, a garden and a fish farm, where children learn organic farming and garden management, so that they can take the crops home or sell them at the local market and thus earn some money to cover part of their tuitions by themselves.

You can support community projects with a one-time donation by filling in an online form, or you can contact the programme coordinator Barbara Vodopivec (barbara@humanitas.si), who will send you all the necessary information and prepare a sponsorship agreement.

Humanitas is a small organization with a small team. We keep costs of administration and logistic as minimal as possible. On average, they do not exceed 20 percent per year, as only one person is regularly employed and works on the programme. This is the project coordinator Barbara Vodopivec, who is always at your disposal, if you have questions or need clarifications. You can contact her through her e-mail address: barbara@humanitas.si.