We have always, or at least for the last 200 years, befriended every form of religion.
I have some experience of incredibly successful befriending schemes, from which the person being befriended and the befriender can gain equally.
A probation order is made if the court decides that the offender needs to be advised, assisted and befriended.
The conditions required to be satisfied are that, "it appears to the authority that the person concerned is in need of advice and being befriended".
A young man whom he had befriended stole some of his goods.
I hope he will not persuade you as successfully as he has befriended me.
Those vulnerable people will be befriended and advised, often in a physically isolated place where they can talk and discuss problems openly.
The cost therefore to the taxpayer is only £500 per child befriended.