Conducting a home visit
As the money for each sponsored child is given directly to the parent or guardian of that child, it is important to ensure that this is used responsibly. Therefore, our team in Ethiopia conduct regular visits to the homes of the familes receiving sponsor money. During the home visit, the team looks at how the money is being spent each month, as well as things like school attendance. Pictures of each home visit are taken and included in the information pack sent out to the child's sponsor.
In addition, parents and guardians are invited to attend information sessions - topics include health, education, child care, family planning. This provides the families with much needed information to help ease the burden of day to day life.
Case study
The Problem
Our team in Ethiopia discovered that Tadela, one of our sponsored children, was not regularly attending school and began looking into why this was happening. They discovered that Tadela's mother was mismanaging the sponsorship money that she was receiving every month, which meant that Tadela was not getting enough food. When children are hungry, not only are they not able to concentrate on learning during lesson time, but often they skip school altogether in order to look for food.
The solution
Our team decided that the best solution was to decrease the amount of money given to Tadela's mother by 50 birr each month. The 50 birr was then paid to a woman to prepare a meal for Tadela each day and take it to the school.
Since this solution has been in place, Tadela has been regularly attending school, and the team has received no more complaints about any absences.
Home visit
