Lifestyle

There are four places to go where you can sponsor a child online:

1. Sponsor a child with World Vision

2. Sponsor a child with Plan UK

3. Sponsor a child with Action Aid

4. Sponsor a child with Everychild

Nigeria, one of Africa's most populous nations, has suffered for many years from government corruption, which has compromised measures taken to eradicate poverty. The recently elected democratic government has failed to capitalise responsibly on Nigeria's significant oil revenues. Consequently, the growth of Nigeria's economy is not what it could have been.

70% of Nigerians live on a meagre 55p a day, 3.6 million people live with HIV/AIDS and 310,000 people die from AIDS each year. 33% of Nigeria's population are illiterate, and 1 in 5 children will die before their fifth birthday. Unfortunately, government policy and the scourge poverty have all served to aggravate religious and ethnic tensions.

ActionAid is a development charity with a strong commitment to working alongside local people and organisations in order to establish better rights for the world's poorest people, and the provision of basic needs that most in the developed world take for granted. More than that, ActionAid are committed to tackling the root causes of poverty and have made education, HIV and AIDS, food, emergencies, women and girls their main priorities.

The people of Nigeria are in great need of the life-changing hope that child sponsorship can bring to their families and communities. There has never been a better time to sponsor a child in Nigeria. ActionAid – one of the world's leading relief and development agencies – has developed a child sponsorship scheme that links people in more affluent countries with individual children in developing countries around the world, including Nigeria.

Working alongside individual communities, ActionAid helps local people develop better farming techniques that improve their ability to grow enough crops to survive the harsh conditions. They seek to educate people about HIV/AIDS, and to improve health care and washing facilities. ActionAid has also pioneered adult learning techniques that combine education with brainstorming and drawing up plans for community initiatives.

In the 37 years since it's inception, ActionAid has reached many millions people in Africa, Asia and the Americas, and it has developed a wealth of expertise in fighting poverty. ActionAid partners with local organisations and recognises the need to work with communities on their own terms, and not impose solutions. By getting to know the culture intimately ActionAid workers have the best possible opportunity to effect a lasting end to poverty.

Sponsoring a child in Nigeria today will cost you just 50 pence per day. Your money will also go towards development efforts in the town in which the child you sponsor lives. This will ensure the most efficient and effective use of your money.

As a child sponsor you will be able to communicate with your child, and you can look forward to receiving special letters and drawings from the child you sponsor. Additionally, you get to see where and how your money is being spent through regular editions of Common Cause, ActionAid's newsletter. You can keep in touch with your child's local ActionAid office, and even get the chance to visit your child if you wish.

Sponsor a child in Nigeria here

You may also like to consider sponsoring a child through the following trusted agencies:

Sponsor a child with World Vision

Sponsor a child with Plan UK

Sponsor a child with Everychild