Every day, thousands of children and young people call ChildLine to talk about a problem they face. Hundreds of caring adults also call the NSPCC Helpline because they are worried about a child’s safety. With the help of people like you, ChildLine and the NSPCC Helpline are already there for thousands of children and young people, but many more need your help. We can only ensure we have the right amount of trained volunteers and professional counsellors to answer these calls with the right funding. We’ve calculated that answering one such call to ChildLine costs £4. Because it is run by qualified counsellors who are trained child protection officers, calls to the NSPCC Helpline are more expensive and add up to £10 per call . The reality behind these costs is quite mundane; we need to provide training to our staff and volunteers who answer these calls. We need buildings, phone lines, computers and supervisors, etc... At present and with current funding we can only answer two thirds of the 2.3 million calls we receive from children each year and three quarters of the calls we receive from adults concerned about the welfare of a child. With your help, we can transform both helplines by 2011 so that we are able to answer more calls for help. Additionally we want to expand and give children a wider range of choices and options to contact us, for example online and we want to roll out these much needed service so they are available throughout the UK. Our goal is to answer 90 per cent of all calls to ChildLine by 2011; this means provide counselling support for 1.2 million calls and 380,000 online and SMS contacts per year. The Government is providing £30 million but we need to raise a further £50 million over three years. This is a huge challenge but it has to be done if we want to increase our answer rate and expand our services to reach out to children using the technology they are familiar with and comfortable using. Our helplines are a lifeline for many vulnerable children. We need your help to ensure we are there to support all children when they need someone to turn to.