Child Support

Our main project is the Orphan and Vulnerable Child Support (Child Support) – long-term initiative helping vulnerable children and their families escape extreme poverty.

The main component of the project is Cash Transfer – a monthly sum provided to the destitute caregivers which allows them to purchase food and basics for children and helps pay school fees. It is a vital guaranteed income directly affecting the livelihood security of children and their families.

The Child Support’s goal is to assist children and their families in real terms from different angles at the same time, acknowledging that poverty is multi-dimensional. We not only provide cash transfers, but also monitor children’ health and provide vital livelihood support to carers.

The scheme is also about building relationships between the children and those who commit to support them for a period of time – the child supporters. It is a common journey for vulnerable children to grow up in harsh conditions but this can change with the love and sponsorship provided by our child supporters.

You can read about being a Child Supporter here

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Livelihood Support Project

In November 2015 we launched our program buying small livestock (goats and hens) for vulnerable children and their families. The immediate aim of this service was to promote families’ ability to become self-sustainable, by helping them to build up and control their own assets.

The donation of livestock has considerably increased the assets of the families. Impoverished caregivers received great quality Galla goats and agricultural expertise to care for them during the year.

The transfer also provided them with the locally-coined “walking bank”, a significant asset, a goat that can be sold and exchanged if an opportunity arises or in case of crisis.

Livelihood Support Project was designed to be the ‘beginning stage’ of working with vulnerable children and their families, to become a part of a more holistic support, which now is provided as the Child Support.