ActionAid UK to rethink child sponsorship as part of decolonisation plan

ActionAid UK’s newly appointed co-chief executives, Taahra Ghazi and Hannah Bond, said they will rethink the charity’s child sponsorship model as part of a broader effort to “decolonise” its work. They launched their co-leadership this month with the stated aim of shifting narratives around aid “from sympathy towards solidarity and partnership with global movements.” ActionAid began in 1972 by finding sponsors for schoolchildren in India and Kenya; supporters currently sponsor children in 30 countries and that income provides 34% of the charity’s global funds, according to Ghazi.

Ghazi said: “Most of our supporters are relatively well-off people and many of them are white, so if you’re asking them to choose a picture of a brown or black child and choose the country they come from – effectively, that’s a very transactional relationship and quite a paternalistic one.

We recognise that the current child sponsorship model reflects a different time.” Ghazi said the charity is undergoing a transformation “until 2028” that includes its systems, what money it gives and how it procures services, and that the model will be shaped by community voices working with teams in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Key Topics

World, Actionaid, Child Sponsorship, Taahra Ghazi, Hannah Bond, India