FAQs

The Arabic word “Hafiz” means “guardian”. The female equivalent is “Hafiza” and the plural is “Huffaz”. According to tradition, when the Prophet Muhammad (saw) proclaimed the verses that were later collected as the Holy Qur’an, his followers preserved the words by memorising them.

Today, anyone who becomes a Hafiz can use the title “Hafiz” before their name and is highly respected within the Muslim community. It is an honour to become a keeper of this sacred text and the opportunity is held in high regard. It gives a vulnerable orphan the chance to become a respected member of society, and in turn they can go on to influence and inspire younger generations in future.

Our Hifz Orphan programme is a wonderful opportunity to help a child turn their life around.

There is immeasurable reward to be gained from helping a child become a Hafiz of the Holy Qur’an - both of you benefit every time they read or recite for the rest of your lives. There is a lot of reward in Islam in caring for an orphan and becoming Hafiz of the Holy Qur’an, so a combination of both can bring immeasurable and ongoing reward.

Your sponsored child benefits in many ways and for many years. Our project-based sponsorship scheme ensures that all of the needs of our orphans are met by bringing together the support of several sponsors. This means the donor community can share the collective reward of giving orphans quality care.

Your sponsorship helps provide not only the Hifz classes, but a safe, loving home with a caring guardian, uniform, nutritious meals and healthcare. Learning how to read, memorise and recite with beautiful tajweed (rules of pronunciation) has many benefits in other areas of life as well, particularly in education. Children develop advanced memorisation skills which can help them become high achievers in other academic studies.

The commitment and patience required to become Hafiz are also positive qualities the children can take with them throughout life, and they are sure to gain a lot of respect for being Hafiz. At the end of the programme, they get additional support to continue in education or begin an apprenticeship. All of this adds up to a happy, healthy childhood, a route out of poverty and a much brighter future.

Hifz classes for our orphans are small in size, held in a clean, well-equipped environment and are led by experienced teachers using modern techniques with a child-centric approach that focuses on the individual child’s progress and unique rate of learning, because every child is different and every child matters.

By the end of year three, children will have typically completed their phase one Hifz programme and can recite with beautiful tajweed alongside age-appropriate tutoring in maths and English. Phase two focuses on ensuring retention and mastery, character building, tarbeeyah, and continued development of learning, to ensure the nurturing of leaders in communities.
 

You can sponsor a Hifz Orphan in Asia or Africa – simply select from the drop-down box online or tell us when you call us or write to us. You may also choose whether to sponsor a boy or a girl. If you do not specify, we will select an orphan on your behalf depending on where there is the most desperate need currently. We try our best to meet your requests, but occasionally it's not possible however. 

You will receive a welcome pack, which includes a profile of your sponsored child and a photo. You will also receive information about the country in which they live. Every year, you will receive an update on your sponsored child’s progress in the form of a school report and a personal progress report, as well as a recent photograph and a drawing or personal message from your child (depending on their age and writing ability).

Over the course of the programme, you will see how your child is progressing with their studies and in their personal development.

If you haven’t received your orphan welcome pack within four weeks of signing up to sponsor an orphan, please call us on 03000 11 11 11 or email us at [email protected]. Sometimes things can go missing in the post so we will re-send it as quickly as possible.

It is possible to write a letter to your sponsored orphan, although it’s not always the best thing to do. Your orphan will be part of a class/orphan home, and if one child is showered with letters, it can be quite unsettling for the other children. Writing an open letter to the class/orphan home, which can be read out to everyone, is preferable as it ensures that all of the children feel included. Letters can be forwarded via our UK headquarters. If you would like to send an Eid gift to your orphan or send something to all of the children in the school or orphanage at any time of the year, please call us on 03000 11 11 11.

Our Hifz Orphan scheme is set up as a three-to-six year programme to enable us to give orphans a comprehensive Islamic education and a strong chance of building a brighter future. New students will begin the scheme periodically, which means their education may have already begun when you enter their lives. Your sponsorship will support them for most of their journey, typically three-to-six years.

We urge our Hifz sponsors to keep to this timeframe as this brings the biggest benefit to them and their orphan. Upon the graduation of one child, having seen the improvements to their life and their achievements, we are sure you’ll want to repeat this wonderful deed with another orphan.

Of course! You can set up a regular and affordable monthly payment towards the general Hifz Orphan fund. This will support all of the work we do as part of the scheme.

Please get in touch with us before cancelling your monthly payment as we could reduce the amount so that you can still help us provide life-saving aid. It also helps if you tell us first so that we can update our records.

It really helps us if you can Gift Aid your sponsorship or donation – it increases the value of your donation by 25%. If you are a UK taxpayer, selecting to 'Gift Aid' your donation (either by checking the box online or ticking the box on a paper donation form) will make it worth more to us at no extra cost to you. In order for Penny Appeal to reclaim the tax you have paid on your donations, you must have paid income or capital gains tax (in the UK) equal to the tax that will be claimed by all of the charities that you donate to (currently 25p for every £1 you give) in the same tax year.

The tax reclaimed will be used to help fund the administration costs of the charity so that more of your actual donation can go directly to those in need. Gift Aid can be added to your donation if you are donating your own money.

We regret that Gift Aid cannot be reclaimed if you are paying donations that you collected from others, even if everyone was a UK taxpayer. Neither can it be reclaimed on donations made by companies. Other taxes such as VAT and Council Tax do not qualify. Gift Aid can not be claimed on payments for any ticketed events.

Please notify us if you are no longer eligible, wish to cancel this declaration, change your name or home address, or if you no longer pay sufficient tax on your income and / or capital gains.

By ticking the box, you agree that you are eligible to claim Gift Aid as explained above and that we can treat this donation, any donations made in the last 4 years and future donations as Gift Aid, and that you understand that if you pay less Income Tax and / or Capital Gains Tax than the amount of Gift Aid claimed on all your donations in that tax year, it is your responsibility to pay any difference.

We only use secure systems with banking standard safety features to make sure that your payment and financial data cannot be compromised. All online payments are securely processed via KeyIVR Ltd, PayPal or SmartDebit, and no financial data is retained on our servers.

Occasionally, circumstances may lead to a sponsored child leaving the programme. This could stem from opportunities such as relocating to live with relatives in another region or pursuing education in a school not affiliated with Penny Appeal. In such an instance, your donations will continue to serve the broader orphan community, ensuring sustained assistance for those in need. Your sponsorship would then be transitioned to another child within the programme, of whom you will receive further updates while perpetuating the cycle of compassion and care. You will be informed of this change; it is then up to you to decide if you’d like to continue with the sponsorship or cancel it.

We always do our best to meet your requests! Penny Appeal will endeavour to use your gift as requested, wherever possible. If for any reason we cannot use your donation as you have indicated, we will use it to fund similar projects in other countries or other projects in the relevant country or where it’s most needed. Penny Appeal’s strategic overview and on the ground experience means it is in the best position to decide how to meet need as it arises.

Once your sponsored child graduates from the programme, Penny Appeal will automatically reallocate your sponsorship to another orphan child in need. Rest assured that you will be notified of this in the graduation letter we send you, giving you the option to stop your sponsorship should you wish to. We will also contact you via telephone to find out how you'd like to proceed.