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Youth is just a state of being and not necessarily a criterion to determine an individual’s capacity to help others. Indeed, many organizations implement programs to support child welfare, but there are also others that help young people develop leadership and management skills that they can use to help their fellow individuals whenever possible.
Compassion International, a child sponsorship organization based in Colorado, provides service opportunities to poor communities through its Leadership Development Program (LDP). This initiative sponsors groups of students to spend a few days in far-flung villages to serve the local people. The students participate in projects such as home shelter construction for parents and caregivers. They also help in building churches and latrines, rehabilitating roads, and cleaning village water sources.
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Taught to become leaders at a young age, these volunteers also visit schools to inspire other young people by educating them about some common but deadly diseases and helping them in their academic performance.
Child Aid, the child development program supported by Planet Aid, focuses on child nutrition and education. The program aims to help children grow, learn, and live in safe and healthy conditions. It has extensive outreach programs that provide “information and lessons on health, nutrition, hygiene, environment, and other issues, and with practical actions to improve conditions where needed.”
Child Aid’s programs were particularly successful in rural populations, but similar concepts were also proven efficient in the slum peripheries of some big cities, such as in the townships of Soweto in South Africa.
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Hundreds of charities worldwide organize causes that gear toward welfare and skills development in children and other marginalized sectors of the society. This website provides more information about how these organizations fulfill their mission.
