We receive our funding from a variety of sources, including statutory donors – Irish Aid, DFID, US AID and the European Union – from trusts and major donors, and from the general public. Self Help Africa has fundraising personnel in Dublin, Galway and Limerick in the Republic of Ireland, in London and Shrewsbury in the UK and in both Boston and New York in the United States.

To find out more about how we raise and spend our funding click on our annual accounts for more information.

Self Help Africa invests 93% of all funding received in our development work in Africa. The balance – 7% is spent on administration and on the costs of raising funds (see annual accounts).

All of Self Help Africa’s development programmes are implemented by local staff and partner organisations in Africa. This is based upon the ‘self help’ principles of the organisation’s founders.

A range of volunteering opportunities do arise in the West however. Should you be in a position to lend your backing for our fundraising efforts, have a particular expertise which you think may be of assistance, or are a teacher or retired teacher interested in supporting our Development Education programme, we would be happy to speak to you.

Opportunities also arise from time to time for voluntary placements and internships within our offices.

Following our merger with Gorta in July 2014, we now work in 10 core African countries. We also support key initiatives in The Gambia and Rwanda . Our work is guided by our Strategic Plan and by the level of resources available to undertake our programmes.

Self Help Africa has worked for over three decades in rural development programmes that build farm productivity and support communities to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change.

More recently, we have developed a capacity to support communities in urgent need, and have undertaken emergency response projects in Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi.

Self Help Africa is not involved in child sponsorship. We do have a range of popular ‘virtual gifts’ including beehives, livestock and forestry available to buy however, and provide purchasers with attractive certificates with each purchase. We are not in a position to ‘track’ any individual purchase on behalf of a buyer.

Self Help Africa does commit however to use your donation in the appropriate area, and invest the funds received in a manner to ensure that it can have the most impact.

Self Help Africa cannot respond to all inquiries and requests of this kind that it receives. Should your project or group be located in a country where Self Help Africa is operational we will however forward your correspondence to the relevant country team.

Click here for information on governance.

Self Help Africa is the result of a merger in 2008 between two like-minded organisations, Self Help Development International from Ireland and the UK’s Harvest Help. Both organisations were initially founded in the mid-1980s in respond to food security crises in sub-Saharan Africa.

In July 2014, Self Help Africa merged with Gorta, Ireland’s oldest established NGO. Over the next 12 months, we have set a target of working with more than 500,000 rural farming families (3 million people).

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