Our history with Children in Crisis
Children in Crisis was founded by Sarah, Duchess of York, in 1993 to provide education for forgotten children in some of the most inaccessible and dangerous places in the world. Over the years, CiC has operated in Afghanistan, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and Sierra Leone to fund projects such as:
Building, refurbishing and equipping schools.
Training teachers and head teachers so that children are given a good quality education.
Providing access to education for disabled children in places where disability is misunderstood.
Delivering community education and adult literacy programmes, so that parents can gain news skills and support their families.
Providing women and girls with education and training – usually the first they will have ever been offered.
Over the years, the charity has educated 1.4 million children, trained over 20,000 teachers, built 62 schools and enabled over 10,000 parents to be given vocational or literacy training. The charity’s work encompassed every aspect of education and child protection, including support for minority groups, orphans, children with disabilities and refugees.
As one of Unicef’s oldest partners, the charity became their ‘go to’ organisation for support with child protection projects in Afghanistan.
The Duchess was a passionate advocate and fundraiser throughout the 25 years that the charity was in operation and regularly visited the charity’s projects overseas, active in the mission to provide education to forgotten children around the world.
In 2018 Children in Crisis merged with Street Child. The trustees of both charities agreed that there was an outstanding opportunity to increase “overall impact for children” by the two charities merging. Children in Crisis become part of Street Child, a charity that also works to provide education for children living in some of the world’s toughest places. The charity is best known for its work in the 2014/15 Ebola crisis when it helped over 12,000 Ebola orphans.
The combined charity now operates under the name of Street Child.