Truly caring for each child begins with considering the needs of the child, their family, and their community
Loving care
We get to know each child — their hopes, history, needs and dreams. We delight in our children and want the best for them. We invest our time, love and attention raising them to know that they’re loved and accepted for who they are.
Strong families
Usually the best place for a child to thrive is in their family – that’s why we work hard to help families stay together. In the absence of a stable family, we place children who are at risk into our loving family homes.
Great education
A great quality education is key to escaping poverty. Our education programmes equip our kids with the skills they need to rise above their circumstances and help change their communities.
Access to healthcare
The health of our children is vital to their development and happiness, so we go the extra mile to make sure that they are fit and well, and can enjoy their childhood.
A reason for hope
It’s a privilege to teach our kids of Jesus’ love for them, and to demonstrate this through the quality of our care. As their desire for spiritual answers grows, we encourage them to discover a love, respect and knowledge of God for themselves. Read more.
Caring relationships
It’s incredibly important to each child’s sense of value and stability that they’re raised by parents and teachers who care about them. Child sponsorship supports this further by giving our kids a relationship with a sponsor who loves them and helps them feel part of a wider family.
Our main types of care.
Each child is unique but like all children, the children in our care need unconditional love and acceptance. Because they come from complex backgrounds, we have developed four key care programmes to meet their individual needs.
Children’s Homes
Our children’s homes are just like any family home should be – comfortable, safe and filled with love. Our house parents love our kids like they are their own children, giving them all the support they need to thrive. As they grow, we equip them to become independent young adults. But even when they do grow up and leave our homes, they will always be our kids.
Schools
Our schools provide a quality education for children from our homes and the surrounding communities. Children who once had no educational opportunities are today transforming communities and achieving great things, with many graduating from university.
Care Centres
Our care centres bridge the gap for children who have families but need extra love and care. We provide children with tutoring, meals, clothes, medical care and a safe place to build relationships and have fun. We offer counselling for children with troubled backgrounds and help their parents through parenting courses and life development skills.
Family Support
We know that providing children with an education without tackling social, medical and family needs is futile. To help reduce parents’ dependency on child labour, we provide families with food packs, help with rent, medical care and small business grants, enabling them to stand on their own feet and in time, live above the poverty line.
Where we work.
Choose a country to read more about how it all works in real life.
We’ve been rescuing kids based on a few core principles since 1995.
Questions & Answers
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How do you make sure that children are getting the right care for their particular needs?
The children we rescue have complex backgrounds, so we take time and care in making sure each child’s unique needs are met. We carefully consider how best to help each child, often this involves our staff visiting a child’s home environment, speaking to relatives and, in some countries, working closely with the local authorities. We know that one size does not fit all and that’s why we have a child-centred approach to care. If you need more information, please call us on 01708 442271, we'd love to talk.
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Are all the children in your care orphans?
Some of our children are orphans and have no other means of support so we provide them with a loving family home. We also provide a family home for children who are abandoned or at risk. For children who have a family but are living in extreme poverty, we provide for their education, food and medical needs.
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How do you make sure you provide quality care?
Our child centred approach to care allows us to care for each child’s individual needs. We have standards of care that govern all of our projects. We employ quality staff and provide frequent training. We visit projects regularly to ensure children are cared for according to our policies. All this makes sure our children receive the best care possible. If you need more information, please call us on 01708 442271, we'd love to talk.
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How do you decide which children to help?
We have an intake policy for each of our projects, this takes into full consideration the child’s family status, living conditions and individual needs as well as the resources we have to help them. We also work with local authorities to identify the most vulnerable children.
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When do you decide to take a child into one of your homes?
We accept children into our home when it is the best possible option for them. We do our best to help families stay together because we believe it is in the child’s best interests to stay with their family. However in the absence of a stable family environment we welcome them into one of our homes.
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What are your children’s homes like?
Just like any family home, we want our homes to be comfortable, safe and filled with love. We are passionate about creating family homes where our kids can thrive with their brothers and sisters, cared for by adoptive parents who love them like they are their own children. Our kids grow up in a stable environment with all the attention and care they need and continue to live with us until they are ready to leave.
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What happens to the children in your care when they reach 18?
Our care doesn’t stop at 18. Every child is unique and we’re flexible to allow each child to leave us when they’re ready. Our children leave us when they’ve reached the end of their education, often university, got a job and can stand on their own two feet.
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Are your children brought up in a Christian environment?
As part of growing up with Christian carers, parents or teachers, our kids are impacted by our faith and while we’re happy to see this, we believe that faith is a personal choice. We respect our children's’ identity and choices and will never coerce them to change their beliefs. We take this very seriously. Our mission is to care for children who need our help, no matter what their belief, ethnicity or social status. Read more.
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What's the best way for me to get involved?
The best way to get involved is to sponsor a child. It is a great way for you to directly impact a child’s life. You can encourage and support a child, not only financially, but by sending letters and building a personal relationship with them.
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I don't have time to write to a sponsored child, but I'd love to contribute. How can I help?
If you would like to impact the lives of children but don’t feel that sponsoring a child is for you, then please consider making a regular donation, which enables you to support a children’s home or school. You will have the same impact without sponsoring an individual child. There are also many other ways you can get involved.
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How much of my donation goes directly to caring for the children?
Thanks to gift aid and supporters who donate towards our running costs, we’re able to use 88% of your donation on caring for our children. The remaining 12% allows us to run the charity and raise support for more children.
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How will you use my personal data?
When we contact you it’s because we think you’d be interested to hear how our children are thriving through your support. We never pass your personal information on to any other company or charity and we don’t buy or sell data.
Let us know if you don’t want to hear from us – hi@standby.me or 01708 442271
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Can I visit your projects?
It may be possible for you to join a team to visit one of our projects. Every year we send teams to help with exciting holiday clubs, building projects and to meet our amazing kids. Team trips vary in location, purpose and time of year so if you think you would like to be involved get in touch and we can explain the possible options for you.
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Why support Stand by Me?
We’ve been rescuing and caring for kids based on our core principles for 25 years. Our years of experience have helped us develop a child centred approach to care that’s unique. We do whatever it takes to provide the care, love and attention each child needs to thrive. We provide local solutions to local problems and we’re all about quality over quantity. We’re personal - from sponsoring a child, to the ways you can get involved, to us just being there to answer any questions you may have. We hope you agree that we’re a little different, but in a good way!