Working in Partnership

ICT's current strategy is to work in partnership with local civil society organisations Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia who build the self-esteem of children and young people living at the margins of society. Although our mandate is international, we currently support 4 small programmes of work in Cambodia, Kenya, India and Sri Lanka. ICT intends to build the capacity of these current partners before developing new partnerships.

ICT supports partners who give some of the world's most vulnerable children back their childhood:

• AIDS orphans
• street and working children (many who would be considered child labourers)
• children and young people displaced by extreme poverty, disease or armed conflict
• children and young people who come from broken homes.

Typically children living at the margins of society grow up too fast. ICT believes that practical solutions such as education and vocational training can prepare them for independent living and reintegration back into society. Informal education is supported to prepare children for school and/or training: sport, theatre, dance and the visual arts make learning fun and help children build their confidence, participate in activities with other children, and take the first steps towards reintegrating themselves back into society.

ICT also works with its partners to tackle the root causes of poverty and displacement by implementing integrated solutions. Although many of the projects that ICT supports target urban slums and street shanties, rural areas, where there is extreme poverty, are also targeted, so that poor families at risk of migrating to urban slums receive help in making their lands more productive and learning how to start small businesses. Also, a global economy means that the world is much more interconnected and that many of the products that we buy in the developed world are partially developed by poor people in the developing world; ICT is, therefore, very actively involved in supporting programmes that teach children and young people about their rights, so that they will not be exploited. Organisational development is also supported, so that solutions are sustainable.

ICT adds value to its partnerships through information sharing, training opportunities, promoting partners' projects through raising their international profiles, offering expert advice and helping to raise much needed funds.

ICT's partners are all registered as local non-profit civil society organisations, which are autonomous from ICT. All of ICT's partners conduct internal fundraising in country and have established their own donor bases. A focal point of ICT's 5-Year strategy is for ICT to help its current partners to establish even more financial independence, so that ICT can reach out to more organisations and children in Africa and Asia.