About SOS Children: SOS Medical and Social Centres

Volunteering

If you have medical qualifications and are available to volunteer for a reasonable period (say, at least six months) we would be delighted to discuss possible arrangements. In general the ultimate decision is taken in the country where the medical or social centre is located but many locations are short of medical skills.

Fund Raising

If you would like to raise money for the ongoing costs of a medical or social centre, then we would be delighted. If you wish, we can guarantee that 100% of your contribution will be sent to a given centre (our administration costs are more than covered by people who say they are happy paying for these). There is an audit structure to ensure that all the money is wisely spent out there. Please though, remember if you give very detailed restrictions on how money should be spent (e.g. "only on hiv/aids prevention programmes") you make a considerable amount of work for us and our auditors tracking that this request and all other requests happened. Depending on the size of the donation and the instructions we may have to refuse. Obviously this does not mean we do not need moeny for HIV/AIDS prevention programmes! Please also speak to us before collecting anything other than money for us. We get a lot of offers of equipment but these may not match the need or skills in a particular location and import customs/duty can make gifts more expensive than second hand equipment out there.

If you wish to sponsor a centre, that's great. But to keep admin and accounting costs low, essentially you will be sponsoring (and will get information on) all the projects we have at a given location including the medical centres, clinics, social centres, AIDS orphan community programs, schools, Children's Village, vocational training centres etc. We hope you understand this.

If you think this is unimpressive please be practical and think through where to stop. Our admin costs per sponsor are under £1 per sponsor per month, including translating documents where necessary and so on. We do not want this to rise and want people to understand that we would rather be given the freedom to spend the money as needed at any moment and spend our time solving the children's problems!

If you are able to set a sponsorship up from a direct debit then fill in our online sponsorship form and fill in instructions with what you want us to do. If you intend to fundraise in your school to raise the sponsorship then talk to us and we will work some practical arrangement out.