How We Work
The key component in ChildFund's work is the grouping of parents and community leaders into official committees who take responsibility for the children's development. This committee makes the decisions on behalf of the children. ChildFund finances this official group directly.
Once sponsorship funds arrive at the ground level, ChildFund has a strong system of accountability to make sure that the money is used for the benefit of the child. These controls include on-site reviews, budget evaluation, and comprehensive auditing of our program implementation at the project and country level.
Every sponsored child is monitored for their health, nutrition and developmental status. Micro-enterprise development programmes involving income-generating activities are often available to parents to help them earn a living to benefit their children.
Every sponsorship dollar touches more than just one child's life because monthly contributions are pooled to support programs that help children throughout the community. Assistance to an individual child can be in the form of a community-based service because often it is the very infrastructure of the community that is lacking. This may include building a school, employing a teacher, drilling a well for fresh water, building a health clinic or supporting malaria prevention programmes.
In each community where ChildFund works, our local project staff meet with participating families collecting health and education data on each child in the family. This information is then reviewed for progress in areas such as immunisations, malnutrition, and management of major killer diseases in developing countries, access to safe water, adult literacy, and enrolment in school.
The information is also reviewed by the parents, the project advisory committee, and the national office. Decisions are then made to determine the specific services your sponsorship donations will provide. The most critical needs are termed 'red flags' and are given priority attention.
In all cases, ChildFund monitors to ensure that your sponsorship dollars are making positive improvements in these critical areas and are truly making a positive difference in your sponsored child's life.
