FAQs

The concept of a “village” for our children came from Father Al, the founder of the Sisters of Mary programmes. We see the programmes as more than just schools, but rather communities where children learn and grow with a family-like structure. This is the village that cares for the children and nurtures their personal growth and development. We have 13 secondary schools, 1 elementary (primary) school, 5 day-care centres, 3 medical centres, and 1 training centre for out of school young women. These are the the villages our children and young women live in while they receive an education (the elementary school and day care centres are day programmes where children return home at the end of the day)

The Sisters of Mary are a Catholic order of nuns who deliver humanitarian education programmes to serve the poorest of the poor. The Sisters of Mary provide care and education to the world’s poorest children in their schools around the world, and have been doing so since 1964. Their work is funded by World Villages for Children, who act as a link between the Sisters and supporters in the UK. See The Sisters of Mary page for more information

Venerable Father Aloysius “Al” Schwartz was a missionary priest from the United States who worked in South Korea supporting orphans and the poor devastated by the Korean War. Father Al started the Sisters of Mary in 1964 and pioneered the first education programmes in The Philippines and Mexico before his death from ALS in 1992.

No, we do not provide specific disaster relief. We are an international development children’s charity focused on long-term poverty relief through providing education to the poorest children. Providing access to free education equips and trains children to live independent lives where they have the skills and education to find work and support themselves and their families.

When natural disasters affect our schools, such as a hurricane in The Philippines, we may specifically appeal for support to repair damage to our schools or provide emergency aid such as food depending on the severity of the impact of the disaster in our programmes.

We work in six countries worldwide: The Philippines, Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil, and Tanzania. You can see details about each country in the “Where we work” page.

The Sisters have a limited capacity to start new programmes and will only go into a new country by invitation of the government. This is done with a thorough analysis of the environment and employment opportunities for children after finishing school to ensure that the programmes can deliver the best possible poverty relief impact to local communities.

There is some government provision for education in the countries where we work, but there is not enough to meet the high demand or the severe deprivation many children face. Government education can be limited and poor quality and children still need to pay for travel to school, uniforms, and books all of which are barriers for the poorest children.

Lack of government funding means public schools are under-resourced with overcrowded classrooms, inadequate teaching materials and learning equipment. Poorer quality education in these countries leads to poor educational outcomes.

All of our secondary schools are either boys’ schools or girls’ schools. Our nursery programmes in Tanzania, Guatemala, Brazil, Mexico, and our elementary school in Brazil are mixed and have both boys and girls. In Tanzania, the Kiluvya Training Centre for out of school young women specifically caters to young women between the ages of 18 – 25 years old who have not completed secondary school.

World Villages for Children is not a faith-based charity. Our primary mission is raising funds from all sectors to support the humanitarian education provided by the Sisters.

The Sisters of Mary are a Catholic order of nuns and their values and motivation to help the world’s poorest children of any faith or none, comes from their Christian faith. 

No. We accept children on the basis of need and there is no requirement to be of a particular faith to join the programmes. Many of our children practice another faith or are not of any particular faith. For example, in Tanzania, 30% of the children in our schools are Muslim. Some of our children come from Catholic families and practise the Catholic faith.

Most of the teachers in our programmes are qualified local teachers who are not Sisters of Mary. Some of the Sisters are trained teachers and will teach classes, but their primary role is to care for the children outside of the classroom.

In our secondary schools, children tend to join us from the age of 11 or 12 years old, sometimes older depending on when they were able to complete primary school. In Tanzania, we have examples of children who were already 18 when they joined us because of the large gap in their primary education.

In the nursery programmes, children are 3-5 years old. In Sao Paulo in Brazil, our only elementary school takes children aged 6-11 years old. The nurseries and elementary school are day programmes that serve the immediate local community and children go home to their families at the end of the school day.

The children in the Sisters of Mary programmes have two main streams of education: academic and vocational. Academic subjects include Maths, languages including English, the national language specific to their country, and potentially a third language (for example Japanese in the Philippines), biology, physics, chemistry, IT, accounting, bookkeeping, geography, social studies, and more.

Vocational education subjects are taught depending on the needs of local employers and include practical technical subjects including carpentry, sewing and tailoring, bread and pastry making, hospitality, caring, nursing, dentistry and more.

Vocational education refers to non-academic subjects, usually technical or trade skills in applied and very practical subjects. All of our vocational courses are accredited with the National education authority in each country and the children in our programmes will leave school with accredited certificates that greatly increase their employability. For more details see our blog on What is Vocational Education?

Each year, we release our annual accounts which stipulate how much of every pound goes to the programmes. In 2023, 84p of every £1 donated was sent directly to our programmes to meet the needs of our children. We work hard to ensure that as much of every donation goes directly to the programmes by keeping our overhead costs low and ensuring good fundraising practice at every stage of our work.

Our children live in family groups at school where they do everything together in and out of the classroom. They are cared for by a mother-sister, who looks after all their needs.

In order to sponsor a single child, there is a lot of administration to ensure individual donations are allocated for one child. This is administratively heavy and time consuming for the Sisters and so we offer the opportunity to sponsor a family group (usually 35-40 children). This has proven to be a fair system, where every child has the opportunity for someone to care for their education, and no child is left out.

Sponsoring a group of children’s education is more efficient and means that more of your donation goes directly to the children.

No, we do receive any government funding from the UK government and rely on the generous support of the public and from funding partners to make our work with the Sisters possible.

World Villages for Children provides education for the poorest children as a route out of poverty for themselves and their families.

There are limited places available at our schools and they are allocated to those in the most extreme need with no access to education. If you and your family live in any of the countries where we work and feel you meet this need, you can get in touch with us and we can connect you with the Sisters.

No, unfortunately not. World Villages for Children solely supports the Sisters of Mary programmes through our UK-based fundraising. We do not provide grants to other charities or individuals.

No, we provide places in schools to children from the most extreme poverty. This is not a scholarship programme and is not based on academic performance but rather on need for quality education and poverty relief.

Yes! You absolutely can volunteer with World Villages for Children. Within the UK, we are always in need of volunteers to help with fundraising and raising awareness. You can find out more on our How You Can Help Page.

World Villages for Children is based in the United Kingdom. We have a number of affiliated sister charities that operate in Europe and in the US under similar names, but we are a UK registered charity (Registered Charity No. 1058973).

We work alongside these charities to raise funds for the Sisters of Mary programmes, but we are separate entities and have separate governance policies.

World Villages for Children’s small fundraising team operates out of an office space in Kings Buildings, Smith Square, London, SW1P 3HQ.

We also use a trusted partner to help us manage responses for bigger fundraising appeals. This helps to ensure that all donations are stewarded transparently and in a timely manner.

The address of our response handler is found on response envelopes included in a mailing: World Villages for Children, 126 Fairlie Road, Slough, SL1 4PY