Philanthropy   and   the   essence   of   “giving   back”   is   a   key   component   of   who   we   are   and   what   we   do.   We   have   an   ethos,   as   do   the   families   we   work   with,   to make a positive impact upon the world whilst simultaneously shaping and protecting the way they are perceived.

In    1984    the    YMCA    National    Councils    of England,      Wales,      Scotland      and      Ireland realised    that    they    needed    to    coordinate their      international      humanitarian      relief efforts    better.    Consequently,    Terry    Waite CBE,     along     with     two     members     of     the National    Council    of    England,    John    Naylor and   David   Bedford,   officially   founded   Y   Care International.

In    1984,    famine    in    Ethiopia    left    over    one million    people    dead    and    a    further    eight million   at   risk   of   starvation.   As   governments and    individuals    concentrated    their    efforts on    emergency    relief,    a    group    of    friends from    Buckinghamshire    got    together    who were   determined   to   provide   the   long-term practical     assistance     the     people     of     East Africa   needed   to   escape   the   cycle   of   poverty and rebuild their lives.

When    co-founders    Percy    Barnevik    and    Dr Kalpana    Sankar    launched    Hand    in    Hand back   in   2003   their   original   goal   was   to   get children   in   India   out   of   factories   and   into schools.      However,      it      quickly      became apparent   that   in   order   to   fix   the   problem they   would   have   to   attack   the   root   cause   of child labour, namely poverty.