About us

We are Students for Children: Destiny, Aleksandra, Martina, Rashi, Maya & Amanda!

Together, as a charity, we aspire to make education accessible to underprivileged children in developing regions around the world. We believe that education is crucial for every child, especially to break through the ongoing cycle of poverty. This means a child who has had sufficient education consequently has the ability to earn more money and live a higher quality of life later on. For this reason, we think that it is important to support projects that can provide a better future for children around the world. The projects we support are small and local initiatives in order to enable sustainable change.

Want to know more about our projects and the procedures? Check out our projects page. On this page, you can also find all the projects that we have supported in the past.

Global education

We strive for access to education for as many children as possible in developing regions.

Locally focused

We value co-operations with the local population in the projects we support.

Students

Students for Children is unique as its entire board is made up of students.

Overhead costs

We work with overhead costs that are lower than 10%: almost all of our revenue goes directly to the projects that we support.

How do we get support?

Our NGO raises money in The Netherlands to provide support to our projects in developing countries. This is done by organizing several activities with schools and other companies throughout the year. Through the activities, we aim to fundraise money and spread awareness of unequal education around the world. Besides that, we have a number of fixed donors who support us monthly for whom we are very grateful for their steady contribution.

Students for Children has been organized by the tax authorities as an ANBI foundation (the Dutch hallmark for charities) under RSIN number 34257673. Click here for more information about our ANBI status.

Are you interested in our plans for this year?
Check out our Policy Plan for 2024!

The Board
2023/2024

Students for Children is a unique organization with a multicultural group of students who work voluntarily for the NGO to spread equal access to education. This means that none of the board members receive any compensation whatsoever for their work. At the moment the board has six wonderful team members and all of them have diverse educational backgrounds. Our tasks are divided amongst us and mainly include organizing activities, staying in constant touch with the projects and sharing our actions with the communities and the public. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions, concerns or ideas!

Chairwoman
Destiny Longsworth, board member 2023-2024
Education: PPLE
E-mail: voorzitter@studentsforchildren.nl

Secretary
Aleksandra Ivanova, board member 2023-2024
Education: PPLE
E-mail: secretaris@studentsforchildren.nl

Marketing Coordinator
Amanda Borchies, board member 2023-2024
Education: Political Science
Email: marketing@studentsforchildren.nl

Event Coordinator
Maya Baumann, board member 2023-2024
Education: PPLE
E-mail: events@studentsforchildren.nl

Project Coordinator
Martina Semino, board member 2023-2024
Education: PPLE
E-mail: projects@studentsforchildren.nl

Treasurer
Rashi Maheshwari, board member 2023-2024
Education: PPLE
E-mail: penningmeester@studentsforchildren.nl

Advisory Council

The board can always obtain advice from the advisory council, which exists of former board members who like to remain involved with Students for Children. The advice of the advisory council is non-binding; however, it is highly valued by the board members. Because of their experience and understanding of the organization, the advisory council is an important part of the functioning structure of Students for Children.

Sharon Grundmann (Chair)
Marketing Coordinator from September 2020 till September 2021

Lynn Bijlsma
Event Coordinator from August 2019 till February 2021

Pip Graatsma
Secretary from September 2019 till September 2020
Chair from September 2020 till September 2021

Ilja Dotinga
Project Coordinator from September 2019 till September 2021

Lilli Stahmer
Marketing Coordinator from September 2019 till September 2020

History

In 2003, Ralph Bronsema went to Brazil for a volunteering project which helped kids living on the streets. When he returned to the Netherlands he wanted to keep making an impact for underprivileged children in developing countries. Students for Children was founded when Ralph realized that there were other students who were interested in supporting his cause. He collected several enthusiastic students and started his organization. Together these students ensured that Students for Children was officially founded on October 10 2006. Since then, many students have volunteered with Students for Children. Thanks to their dedication, the foundation has grown and developed over the years and will keep on doing so.

Finances

We think that it is very important that the majority of our revenue goes to the projects that we support. Therefore, less than 10% of our revenues is spent on marketing, organizational and administration costs. However, often we spend even less on these costs and for the past years we have been able to spend 95% of our revenue on our projects. As we value transparency and honesty, you can find our year reports on our website. If any questions remain after reading them, please let us know. We are happy to answer them.