Pakistan

When you sponsor a child with ActionAid, you'll get two handwritten messages from them every year. Our staff collect these messages regularly from the children in their communities.​We make every message collection a special event for the children, and the whole community gets involved. For many children, it's the only opportunity they get to draw, paint, play and be creative.

Time and time again children from around the world tell us how much they love to receive letters from you - their sponsors, their overseas friends. Children's laughter rings out as they look at the letters and photos delivered by our local staff. It takes just a few minutes to write a letter - but the effect is everlasting. The friendship formed through child sponsorship is a powerful thing, and one of the reasons why I wanted to share with you the happiness your letters bring and encourage you to write.    

The story of Pakistani schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai, struck a chord with the world when she was attacked by the Taliban in 2009 for simply speaking out on girls’ right to education. Today the film He named me Malala will be screened across cinemas in the UK. It looks at Malala's life, her relationship with her father and what drove her courage to fight for an issue she so deeply believed in.

Award-winning parenting blogger and mother of two, Penny Alexander, supports ActionAid by championing our work. Here she shares her experience of sponsoring a child in Pakistan and describes why sponsorship matters to her whole family.

Look at this photo of smiling girls. They are all nine years old. They live in Ethiopia, and thanks to an ActionAid project they are at school rather than being forced to drop out to get married.

With the rights of women and girls at the very heart of what we do at ActionAid, we’re celebrating with our colleagues in ActionAid Pakistan today as the Sindh province declares child marriage illegal - the first province in Pakistan to pass such a law.The Sindh Child Marriages Restraint Act 2013 has been passed unanimously by the Sindh Assembly. It is now against the law and seen as a violation of the rights of children to marry a girl under the age of 18.