Befriend a Child is a Scottish Registered Charity that supports school-aged children who are growing up in difficult life circumstances across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire through 1-1 and group befriending and mentoring programmes and projects. We offer the only dedicated befriending and mentoring service for children in North East Scotland. Each year we support up to 250 youngsters by matching them with a volunteer befriender or mentor. These are children who face extremely difficult circumstances in their everyday lives: growing up in chaotic households, dealing with parental drug and alcohol use; illness and death in the family; poverty; physical, sexual and/or emotional abuse; neglect and trauma. Some will be carers for parents or siblings. One in eight will be in care or living with grandparents or relatives. Having a befriender can transform a child’s life by opening up new opportunities, improving their self-confidence, giving them a good role model and helping them to fit in better to their school and community. For every £1 we receive, we generate £6.13 worth of social benefit for the children we support. We do not receive any local authority funding. Choosing to support Befriend a Child may not change the world, but it will change the world for the children we support.
