How we use your donations

The majority of our income goes directly on the delivery of our child and family services. On any one day, we have 135 children in our care living in our 9 homes and being cared for by over 70 staff.

We provide a full programme of care to children which starts with initial assessment in our reception house, Casa Emaus. Each child is an individual with their own needs and their time with Happy Child can be spent in a number of ways to suit their circumstances. Our houses are run on family principles each with a ‘Mum & Dad’ and supported by care assistants, social workers, psychologists and educationalists. Most of our costs are in running the homes to provide every comfort that you might find in any family home. However, we are restricted by the funds that we have available and often our dedicated staff work without days-off or holidays to ensure the children come first. As we are receiving some of the most traumatised children who have experienced severe physical, social and personal abuse and neglect, then the level of staffing and specialist support required is high.

Over the next three years we have ambitious plans to save more children from a life of poverty and neglect. We can only achieve these by working in partnership with our supporters.

Our goals are to:

Replicate our Belo Horizonte self-funding model in Recife
which is 100% UK funded.
Open more houses in Brazil. Our immediate priorities are a
girls’ home for street girls who are pregnant through
prostitution in Recife, and a 24 hour reception centre.

Increase the number of our staff workers.
We urgently require 20 more staff in Recife. We also
want to provide further training courses to mobilise
street workers throughout the world.

Improve our facilities and provide our children with
quality homes, educational services, vocational training
and recreation.

Open our third operational centre in Angola and
provide homes, staff and educational services to needy
children on the African continent.

Increase our participation in the 180 Degree Alliance
and with decision makers to strengthen worldwide
advocacy for the needs of street children.

Build a professional and sustainable charity in Brazil
and the UK, capable of achieving our goals.