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The Times Christmas Charity Appeal begins today with a call to our readers to support three good causes that are changing the lives of thousands of people with their work.

In recent weeks concern has grown about the safety of children from abuse or neglect in the home. When children are forced to live away from their families for their own safety and wellbeing, we rightly want to know that they are being properly cared for and helped to rebuild their lives.

The work of Action for Children is therefore particularly significant. The charity, formerly known as National Children’s Homes, runs numerous projects designed to help this vulnerable group of children and prepare them for life outside the care system.

It seeks parents to foster and adopt, as well as offering intensive mentoring and employment programmes to help young people as they leave care and enter the adult world, a notoriously difficult and risky time for them.

Children who have used the services of the charity believe that it has, quite simply, turned their lives around. Hugo Rifkind reports on the work of Action for Children in times2 today.

Our second charity, Thrive, champions gardening to help those whose lives have been radically altered by illness or disability. Established to aid rehabilitation of stroke victims, its horticultural therapists now also assist those who have lost their sight, both young and old, people with dementia, those who struggle with mental illness and young people on the brink of dropping out of school.

The charity believes that anyone can garden and gardening changes lives. Jane Wheatley reports on Thrive’s work in Saturday’s Magazine.

Pump Aid, this year’s overseas charity, works to establish supplies of clean water and safe sanitation in Africa. More than 5,000 children die every day as a result of their poor water supply. Billions do not have access to one of life’s basic essentials – a lavatory.

Pump Aid uses local products and, crucially, the community’s labour, to install its award-winning low-cost Elephant Pump, which guarantees a supply of fresh water. The charity was founded by a British student teaching in Africa ten years ago, who was horrified at the death of a colleague because of contaminated water. Its pumps are widespread in Zimbabwe and beginning to appear in Malawi and Mozambique. Matthew Parris travelled to Malawi to see water supplies set up in a host of villages. His moving account of Pump Aid’s work will be in tomorrow’s paper.

This year’s appeal is happening at a time when many of us are feeling insecure about our jobs, or are struggling in the economic downturn. But it also comes at a time when charities need support more than ever. They, too, are feeling the pinch as donors tighten their belts.

Last year we raised more than £600,000 for three charities that have used the money to change the lives of millions of people. This year we ask readers to show the same generosity and give as much as they can afford.

Barclays has offered to match, pound for pound, donations to Action for Children. For every £1 donated, AquAid, the water cooler supplier, will give £2 to Pump Aid.