Through the Children's Postage Stamp Campaign, children have been actively involved in helping their peers for years. They enjoy getting involved and understand how important this is: children for each other. Children's participation is of great importance within our organization. We are therefore always looking for ways to involve children even more in everything we do.

That is why the Children's Wallet was established: a special fund of Children's Postage Stamps for which children can choose a destination themselves. With this innovative and unique approach, children not only think along, but they actually decide where the money from Kinderposttempels goes! The Children's Wallet has started in the Netherlands but will also be rolled out internationally in the short term.

The money from the Children's Wallet is used to contribute to themes that children find important to support other children. The first was in 2023. With the question “what would you do with half a million?” more than 450 children from groups 7 and 8 from various primary schools throughout the Netherlands, according to a proven methodology, thought about a good destination for the money from the first Children's Wallet. With more than 85 percent, they opted for two major themes: poverty and problems at home. They believe that children in particular who cannot participate because there is little money in their family or other major problems should receive extra help. They also asked for extra attention for children whose parents are divorcing.

Sofie Vriends, director of Children's Postage Stamps: “We certainly support this choice. In the Netherlands, 1 in 12 children grows up in poverty and 1 in 4 children in the Netherlands has a parent with an addiction or psychological problems. Together with our partners, we can spend the money from the Children's Wallet on these important themes.”

Unique children's participation

This way of allowing children to think and participate in decision-making on such a scale is unique. “The voice of children is extremely important to us,” says Sofie Vriends. “We are the charity organization with and for children. We know that children really want to help other children. These are not just principles on paper. We also act accordingly. We let children think about which topics are important to other children. We see that participating in the Children's Wallet contributes to children's empathy and self-esteem. And they really determine where the money goes. This form of child participation has never been seen before on this scale. It enables children to help each other in a very concrete way.”

Let every child participate

Kinderposttempels stands for equal development opportunities for children. Due to poverty or problems at home, many children are unable to participate. Friends: “We of course hope that we can fill the Children's Wallet even further this year with the help of the Dutch public. We will take action to achieve this in the near future. Our goal is to fill children's wallets with 1 million euros and involve many more children. So that it becomes a permanent part of our working method. So: do you support the goals that children have chosen themselves? And do you also believe that every child should be able to participate, despite poverty or problems at home? Then join us and give!”

We will also collaborate with other financiers for the Children's Wallet, so that we can help even more children on the themes selected by children!