International Childcare Trust
 | |
| Founder | David Lamont |
|---|---|
| Type | International Children's Charity |
| Registration no. | 1119939 |
| Focus | Children's rights, education, safety |
| Location |
|
Area served | India, Cambodia, Nepal, Tanzania, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Uganda |
| Mission | To partner directly with local organizations in Africa and Asia to support children's rights to education, healthcare and safety. |
The International Childcare Trust, also known as ICT, is an independent, non-governmental organisation; a children’s charity that exists for the purpose of relieving poverty, relieving sickness and advancing the education of children and young persons anywhere in the world who are in a condition of need, hardship or distress.
The organisation aims to achieve these objectives by designing, implementing and managing projects in conjunction with local people according to their needs and within the culture of the country of operation. Projects are managed and staffed by local people.[1]
Background
For over 30 years, the International Childcare Trust has provided funding and advice to children’s projects in both Asia and Africa. Up until 8 years ago the charity facilitated its work through branch offices in the countries where it works. David Lamont, the founder of The International Childcare Trust, was a true egalitarian and in those early days ICT worked on a cooperative basis; everyone involved had equality of input. The organisation, based in a tiny bedroom in Dave's flat in Covent Garden raised funds to support projects in Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, India, Zambia and Kenya. David believed that people who were actively involved both in fundraising and fieldwork and who had strong links with local communities would have the best insight into needs and the drive to make things work. Those early partners; Pat Patebandagai in Sri Lanka, Phillip Wedell in Zambia and N. Sethu, Steve and Christine King in Tamil Nadu, lived on local wages and David was totally unpaid, between them they made the future ICT a possibility.
In recent years, it has carried out projects through local partner organisations within those countries, such as the Vilpatti Village Project in India.[1]
The charity supports programmes that give deprived children the essentials they need to live their lives. It concentrates on providing the following:
- shelter
- primary health care
- education
Operations
ICT has identified several hundred children in need of immediate assistance in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, India and Cambodia. The charity has numerous projects in these countries, covering primary healthcare, educational and vocational programmes, rehabilitation centers for children displaced by conflict or disease such as HIV/AIDS, mobile support services for street children, income generation schemes for families and communities, and many other aspects of support.
Partner projects
M'lop Tapang
M'lop Tapang is an NGO based in Cambodia. The organisation has set up daily drop in centres, that reach out to over 600 street children in Sihanoukville.[2]
Rural Environment and Empowerment Centre
'Reec' is based in Beni, Nepal and aims to help children who are forced into work at a young age and earn very little.[3]
Western Education Advocacy and Empowerment Programme
WEAEP has been a partner of ICT since June 2006. It is an organisation run by volunteers that focuses on women and children's rights in Western Kenya. Their aim is to re-integrate women and children to society through education, training, psychosocial support and savings activities.[4]
Funding
ICT is funded through events, cycle and treking challenges, individual donations, child sponsoring, corporate partnerships, legacies, share gift, and regular giving opportunities.[5]