It has been one year since we first became aware of allegations regarding projects we funded in The Gambia.
These allegations violated our most fundamental values as a charity that exists to better the lives of children and vulnerable people at home and abroad.
We welcome today’s statement by Penny Appeal UK to provide an update on The Gambia, and also on some of the measures they have taken over the past twelve months to ensure more robust oversight of programs and stronger infrastructure.
You can read their full statement here:
https://pennyappeal.org/news/gambia-statement-children-safe-and-case-has-been-suspended
While we no longer support an orphan program in The Gambia, we do continue to support over 850 orphaned children all over the world. The safety and security of the children we support are our number one priority. We have therefore taken a number of measures to put safeguarding at the heart of everything we do:
- We have transitioned our orphan-support program away from residential care towards a community-focused approach, where we only support orphans who live with their extended family members.
- We have revamped our partner due diligence and vetting process, as well as our policies and procedures based on the advice of world-leading safeguarding experts.
We are committed to helping people fight the injustice of poverty here in the US and globally, and will continue to invest in our internal capacity to ensure we are a best-practice organization.
