Child Sponsorship

The child is selected by the program coordinator based on information from the questionnaire you fill out. We do this mainly to protect the children. However, if for some reason you are not satisfied with our choice, we will assign you another child.

The Integra Foundation works with several local schools in Kenya and Ethiopia.

Kenya:

St. Anna’s School, TAPA School, Beacon of Hope School, Youth for Hope Children’s Home (SPK – Kenya Scholarship Program) and Praise Gate Children’s Home.

Ethiopia:

Bishoftu School, Shalom Kindergarten and Ambo School.

You can find out more HERE.

It’s very simple:

1. Fill out the questionnaire on our website.
2. We will send you an email with all the information about our program and a child who needs help.
3. Over the next 14 days, you can decide whether you want to support the child or not. You can inform us by email or phone. Your sponsorship actively begins with the transfer of the first donation in the amount of EUR 25 to our bank account:

Bank: Tatra banka

Account name: Nadácia Integra

Account number: IBAN SK 90 1100 000 0026 2547 5865 / 1100

Swift code: TATRSKBX

We will send you the variable symbol by e-mail.

The sponsor’s monthly donations are used to cover school expenses, food, uniforms and basic health care. If the child lives in a children’s home or dormitory, your donations may be used to cover the needs connected with this. The Integra Foundation uses 20% of the donations sent by sponsors for purposes related to the management of the program.

No. We do not give the money directly to the children or to their families, for a number of reasons. Children don’t know how to handle money, and owning money in a poor community can cause a lot of problems. We could also not guarantee that your money was used correctly. We send the total of all received donations in a given month to our partner organizations in Africa, which will use them for the needs of the child.

We normally assign only one Slovak sponsor to one child. We assign two sponsors to one child in some schools that also include a dormitory and in children’s homes. We also assign a third sponsor to some students after they enter university.

We thoroughly check how the funds that we send to our local partners are used. We visit all our projects several times a year. During each visit, we verify that the rules set out in the contract are kept. We check the accounting and implementation of the project to make sure it fulfills its purpose and the children are well cared for. All projects must regularly send us financial reports, photos and news about the project. These we verify during our visits to Africa.

We cooperate with schools in Kenya and Ethiopia, and two children’s homes in Kenya, with which we have many years of good cooperation and good relations. We undergo monitoring trips, during which we check that the children have what they need.

In Kenya we cooperate with: Praise Gate Children’s Home, St. Anna’s School, TAPA School, Beacon of Hope, and Youth for Hope Children’s Home (SPK – Kenya Scholarship Program).

In Ethiopia we cooperate with: Bishoftu Centre, Shalom Kindergarten, and Ambo School.

You can read more about the schools and children’s homes HERE.

You will receive information about your child mainly from letters that the child will write to you. In some schools, we also have access to school results, which we send to sponsors. We try to inform the sponsors about news that is happening in the child’s life. It is important to remember that the lives of poor children are often very simple and their days look the same. In any case, if you would like to inquire about your sponsored child, you can send an email to Lucia, the program coordinator, at lucia.pagacova@integra.sk.

Sponsors have the option to send letters to Africa usually 3 times a year. The sponsor will also receive letters from their child, usually 2-3 times a year. You can read what a letter you send the child can look like here. The letters can include photos, postcards or drawings. Of course, the pandemic or other serious situations can change our plans. However, we are constantly looking for new ways for you to find out about the children.

Based on our experience, at the Integra Foundation we have established a rule that we do not give any individual gifts to the children. The main reason is that rivalry and jealousy develop between children. If you send us a gift for one child, we will not be able to deliver it to them. If it is school supplies, we will give your gift to a class at the school that does not have enough supplies. We ask you to please understand and follow this rule.

Sometimes we try to provide presents and clothes for the children. Should we launch a collection specifically for this purpose in a project where your child is included, we will inform you about it.

Despite modern times and the existence of social networks, we have agreed with our African partners that all correspondence should go through the Integra staff. We do not give the children in Africa the sponsor’s personal information, email, phone number or address. We do this primarily to protect donors. We know from experience that if the children have direct contact their sponsors, they may ask for money or other gifts from them. Even if they wouldn’t resort to something like that, it is likely that their family members would.

In general, we ask sponsors to consider supporting a child for at least three years. We hope, however, that they will receive support until they finish school. Sometimes this means completing elementary school, other times the support also continues during higher education or vocational training. However, the sponsor is not obliged to support a child for any predetermined period. Sometimes sponsors terminate their support due to a change in their financial situation. In such a case, we ask you to let us know that you can no longer continue sponsoring a child.

If you decide to stop supporting the child, you can do so at any time without giving a reason by sending us an email informing us of the termination. We will then start looking for a new sponsor for the child, who will continue in the support.

In rare cases, yes. Sometimes a child unexpectedly leaves the project, usually because they change their place of residence. We are not able to continue supporting the child in such a case, so we remove them from the program. We will inform you of any such changes. You can, however, continue supporting another child in need.

Yes. Visiting your sponsored child is possible. However, it must be organized through an employee of the Integra Foundation who will communicate with the local project. All travel and accommodation expenses are covered by the sponsor. Contact us and read our rules for visiting our local projects by supporters for more information.

Occasionally, sponsors ask if they can pay for a child’s trip to Slovakia. Normally this is not possible, and sponsors should not suggest something like this to the children. It is not good for children from poor countries to visit rich countries, as this can lead to dissatisfaction and unfulfilled expectations. Integra therefore does not recommend or facilitate these visits.

You can also support the education of children by sending any one-time or regular donation to the Child Sponsorship program. You can also donate to a specific school or children’s home. These donations will be used to cover the current needs of the children, minor repairs, or the purchase of books or toys.

If you’ve read this far, you already have a clear idea about how the Child Sponsorship program works. You can find even more detailed information in this infomaterial. Do you have further questions? Feel free to reach out to us with them.