I'm heading to India in November to volunteer with El Shaddai Charity and would love to raise some money for them, to support the invaluable work they are doing to protect children and give them hope for the future.

Every child has the right to grow up in a safe, secure, loving environment with access to food, healthcare and education. Many children are deprived of these rights, particularly in less developed countries. El Shaddai charity is working to change this, to give childhood back to underprivileged children in India.

El Shaddai began their work in 1997, the charity supports the most vulnerable children who have been living in the most unimaginable situations on the streets. Some children are orphans, some have been abandoned because their families can't afford to care for them. Some have run away from an abusive parent. Children living on the streets are neglected and are at risk of being abused; sexually, emotionally and physically. They don't know where their next meal is coming from and are left to beg for food to try to survive. El Shaddai provides homes, protection, food, clothing, education, love and hope for these children.

El Shaddai Charitable Trust also provides outreach support for children, and their families, living in slums and in underprivileged communities. Many of these children are left alone daily as their parents have to go out to work to try to provide for their families. Left without appropriate adult supervision during the day, the children beg for their meals and work for a pittance for unscrupulous business owners, placing them at risk of abuse and exploitation. El Shaddai supports these children to access their Day Care shelters and community centres where they are provided a safe place to have a hot meal, a shower, receive counselling and skill building classes. El Shaddai supports these children to enrol at local government school's. With the help of donations the children receive free books, uniforms and other essentials to make attending school possible. The charity also run slum schools for children unable to attend local government school.

The community centres support parents to care for their children as best as possible and to develop skills to help them seek employment. Integrating underprivileged families into society and helping them break out of the cycle of poverty.

El Shaddai work with the local state governments to help implement childrens' rights. They work with child victims of abuse to bring perpetrators to justice. They also work with young offenders, these children, shunned by society, are forced to commit crimes such as steeling as a means to survive, and often because they have been born into a cycle of violence and crime. El Shaddai offer these children a way out of this cycle.

It's difficult to summarise the amazing work this charity does, so if you would like to find out more have a look on their website: https://childrescue.net/our-story/

To give you an idea of how far your money could go; £8 could educate a child for a month, £16 could feed 6 underprivledged children for a month, £156 could help support a community centre for a month.

Thanks in advanced for any donations, it means so much <3