Sponsor a Child in Africa Today

Across the massive continent of Africa, children are suffering. 

In sub-Saharan Africa, COVID-19 and measures to control its spread have heightened the threats that the 550 million children growing up in crisis already face. Violence against children is on the rise due to school closures, and the economic fallout has impacted families’ ability to put food on the table. 

Acute levels of child malnutrition in the Sahel in West and Central Africa (especially Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Senegal), and Ethiopia and Madagascar in Eastern and Southern Africa are signs of the pandemic's potentially fatal threat to children who were already vulnerable. Sponsoring children is more crucial than ever, as conflict, food insecurity and displacement threaten children in Nigeria, Somalia, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, too. 

In Sudan, economic hardship, communal conflict and disease epidemics have left over 7 million children in need of humanitarian assistance. In South Sudan, chronic flooding has displaced tens of thousands of families, disrupting children’s lives and exposing them to dangerous waterborne diseases. 

Other challenges include ongoing COVID-19 surges, the emerging Omicron variant and low COVID-19 vaccination rates. Africa’s fragile economic growth and the stability of basic health and education services hang in the balance threatening the present and future prospects of the continent’s children. 

Why support UNICEF's program work in Africa?

Every child, no matter who they are or where they are born, has a right to be safe and healthy, to be educated, to be adequately fed, to have safe drinking water and to receive needed medical care. This is what UNICEF USA and its supporters and donors make possible: We advocate for children’s right to survive and thrive and raise funds to support UNICEF programs that provide all those services, child by child, community by community. 

But today, children around the world need more help than ever. Did you know:

Over the past five years, The West and Central Africa region has consistently recorded some of the highest numbers of UN-verified grave violations against children in armed conflict. 

• In the Central African Republic, only 6 percent of the total population have access to safely managed drinking water, free from fecal and/or amoebic contamination
• In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 9 out of 10 children suffer from stunted growth and/or wasting due to malnutrition
• Hundreds of millions of children in Africa have seen their education disrupted or put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 89 percent of new HIV pediatric infections and 88 percent of children and adolescents living with HIV worldwide. Some 88 percent of children who died of AIDS-related causes lived in sub-Saharan Africa

How to help children in Africa with UNICEF USA

If you are passionate about supporting every child’s right to safe water, health care, education, protection, nutrition and lifesaving immunizations, UNICEF is the best charity to donate to. UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to serve the most vulnerable communities and children impacted by war, famine, child sex trafficking and natural disasters, including those caused by climate change. 

After working for over 75 years to save and protect children around the world, UNICEF has found that the most effective way to help one child in a community is through sustainable solutions designed to help them all.

That approach has enabled UNICEF to help save more children's lives than any other humanitarian organization, address inequity at its root and deliver what all children need to survive and thrive.

Your donations to UNICEF USA support that important work to save children's lives, defend their rights and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.

There are various pathways to helping a child in Africa. One, and probably the most familiar, is by contributing monthly. By committing to give monthly, donors automatically become members of UNICEF USA’s Guardian Circle, a select group that ensures the steady stream of funding UNICEF requires to respond quickly when an emergency or natural disaster endangers children. Monthly contributions also ensure the funding UNICEF needs to deliver long-term sustainable solutions that change children’s lives.

So, whether you give $10 a month or much more, every gift you make to UNICEF USA counts. Guardian Circle members receive a quarterly newsletter with updates on children their gifts help, access to a user-friendly donor portal, an annual giving statement and monthly statements with giving amounts to date.

Another way to support a child in Africa is by making a one-time donation. If your gift is $1,000 or above, you’ll automatically join the Leadership Circle, which affords members exclusive benefits, including a copy of UNICEF USA’s Annual Report, access to exclusive crowdfunding projects and personal updates about the children who benefit from your contributions. Most rewarding of all, of course, is knowing that UNICEF will put your gift to maximum use to help children in need. 

Remember: less than 3 percent of UNICEF USA’s budget goes to administrative expenses, and UNICEF USA has been awarded GuideStar’s Gold Seal of Transparency for 2020. Give with confidence today.

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