Question 1

How does sponsorship work?

Accepted Answer

Your donation will go towards the training costs of a student health worker in Africa. We support a range of heath professionals including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, nurse/midwives, audiologists, optometrists, clinical officers, radiographers and mental health workers (to name just a few).

If you would like to support a specific type of health worker, please email us on info@medictomedic.org.uk to let us know. We will send you a welcome pack with details of your sponsored student. Note that although you will be sponsoring a specific student, all our donations are pooled so that no one student is disadvantaged if their donor has a change in circumstance.

Question 2

What will I receive?

Accepted Answer

When you first sign up as a sponsor, you will receive a welcome email which will contain your allocated student's profile, their latest student update and our latest newsletter. You will receive two updates from your sponsored student a year. Your student will usually update you on how their course is going, recent examination marks, what they’ve been up to outside of studying and their home life. We will also send out 2 newsletters a year and our annual report to keep you updated on our fundraising and charity news. You may receive additional charity emails to alert you of specific emergency appeals when we run them; e.g. Cyclone Freddy appeal.

Question 3

How long does the sponsorship last?

Accepted Answer

This depends on which course the sponsored student is taking, as these can vary in length. It also depends on what year of study we start supporting them. Typically, student sponsorship lasts for between two - seven years. Please note that if you want to stop your donation, you can do so at any time. All donations are pooled so that no student is disadvantaged if their sponsor has a change in circumstance.

Question 4

How much does sponsorship cost?

Accepted Answer

We appreciate any amount that you can give, but regular donations from £5 a month are the most useful. All donations are pooled so that we can cover all students’ costs and most students will have more than one sponsor supporting them. There are occasions where donors have requested to be the sole sponsor for a student and make a larger financial contribution towards their training. If you would like to do this, please let us know. With one off items (such as books and equipment) averaged out over the duration of the student scholarship, it costs approximately £1000 a year to sponsor a student with tuition fees, allowances and equipment. This can of course vary according to the college the student is training at and exchange rate fluctuations.

Question 5

Can I send gifts or equipment to my sponsored student?

Accepted Answer

Yes. If you’d like to send your student or their university a gift, do let us know. We will always try to facilitate this wherever possible and can offer advice where required.

Question 6

What happens if I can’t continue as a sponsor?

Accepted Answer

We hope you’ll be able to continue, but if your circumstances change and you need to withdraw, please email us to let us know. There are many other ways you can help that don’t involve the same commitment. All sponsorship is pooled therefore no student will be disadvantaged from the loss of a donor.

Question 7

Can I write to my sponsored student?

Accepted Answer

Please do write to your sponsored student. We know just how much it means to the students to get messages from overseas. They’re often just as keen to hear about you as you are about them. Most students have WhatsApp by having a simple smart phone or borrow a phone. We can facilitate sharing of messages where required.

Question 8

How are we funded?

Accepted Answer

We are funded by a range of sources: grants, donations and fundraising events. The money is divided between student tuition fees, allowances, books and equipment and programme coordination. We make every effort to keep running costs as low as possible.

Question 9

How is Medic to Medic different from other medical charities working in Africa?

Accepted Answer

Africa receives plenty of humanitarian attention due to its vast morbidity and mortality rates. We believe in tackling one of the causes of this problem by increasing the chances of prevention and early detection of disease. We aim to do this by helping to counter the huge lack of healthcare workers in these regions. We work directly with universities so we know exactly where the money is going.

We support students who are socially and economically disadvantaged. This means that your donation has the potential to really make a lasting difference, not only to the students but to all the patients that they will encounter over the course of their careers. We try to sponsor students from rural areas as they’ve been shown as more likely to return back to serve in rural communities. By supporting poorer students, we are helping break the chain of poverty by enabling talented students to gain a profession and stable employment as well as helping reduce the human resource crisis in Africa.

FAQ